PHOENIX — They may not fetch your newspaper or be eager for a walk, but desert tortoises have a lot of quiet charm, according to Arizonans who keep them as pets.
"A tortoise is slow and calm, and it kind of forces you to sit and be calm," said Yvonne Anderson of Phoenix, who has cared for two tortoises for 13 years.
Now is a good time to become a guardian of the protected Sonoran desert tortoise as hundreds await homes. People living in the reptiles' native areas of Phoenix, Tucson, Bullhead City, Kingman, Lake Havasu or Yuma can adopt one through the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Tortoise Adoption Program.
"Most of the tortoises coming in are from people breeding tortoises in their backyard," said Cristina Jones, a turtle biologist with Game and Fish. "A female tortoise can lay up to 12 eggs per year. You can give them to your friends, but you're going to run out of friends pretty fast.
"Breeding is legal, but it's certainly discouraged."
Tortoises are also left behind by people who move out of Arizona because it's illegal to take them out of state.
Wendy Cassidy, a spokeswoman at the Scottsdale-based Phoenix Herpetological Society, said more than 80 tortoises are available for adoption this year, an exceptionally high number that she attributes to people losing their homes and moving into rentals where they can't accommodate a tortoise's specific needs. Last year, the society adopted out about 30.
Rental units can be a problem because the reptiles need an enclosed grassy area with a burrow and cannot be near gravel because it burns their feet in hot weather.
Adoption in general comes with a few challenges.
For one, people should understand they are only the guardians and don't own the creatures, Cassidy said. The state, which has outlawed collecting desert tortoises from the wild since 1989, owns every tortoise.
The other factor is the specific requirements for an enclosure. It's important to separate them from dogs, for example, because canines regard turtles as "chew toys."
"They are still a wild animal, and if you take them out of the wild and have them live in captivity, you have to provide every element that they need to survive in the wild," Cassidy said. "And if you don't, you're compromising how they are designed to live."
Last year, Georgy Naimoli of Apache Junction adopted a tortoise she called Samson.
"It's not a lot of work," she said. "That's the thing that people get daunted by. You have to build a habitat. It's not expensive to do. And once you build it, there's nothing else to do."
Desert tortoises are low-maintenance. A few bunches of leafy green vegetables and some prickly-pear cactus pads each week are all it takes to feed them. Anderson offers her pets weekly treats of strawberry, cherry or cantaloupe. They rarely fall ill, but an annual checkup is recommended because they are prone to an upper-respiratory-tract infection.
Desert tortoises burrow during daytime, especially during the summer's hottest hours, and hibernate in the winter. Hibernation aside, guardians usually see them out for a few hours each day.
But these are "quality hours."
"They are very personable. They definitely recognize that I, or humans generally, are food sources for them. So they'll follow me around," Anderson said.
"As soon as he sees any movement that he associates being me, he'll come out of his burrow, and he'll walk right up to me," Naimoli said. "I can feed him from my hand and he will eat right out of my hand. The longer I stay in the habitat, the longer he will stay out. When I'm not around, he'll go to his burrow."
Even though the tortoises are native to the desert, once held captive, they can't be released there because they won't be able to find food, water and shelter in the wild.
Naimoli, a seasonal ranger at Lost Dutchman State Park, understands the guardian's role.
"His habitat has been encroached by us. And people have taken them out of the wild. We kind of messed up this population. And so, in a way, it's nice to do something back to provide a home for them where they can live as close to their natural surroundings as possible," she said.
Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com