This inactivity helps reduce water loss during hot periods, whereas winter brumation facilitates survival during freezing temperatures and low food availability.

[9] The new species name is in honor of the late Professor David Joseph Morafka of California State University, Dominguez Hills, in recognition of his many contributions to the study and conservation of Gopherus.

The acceptance of G. morafkai reduced the range of G. agassizii by about 70%[10] In 2016, based on a large-scale genetic analysis, ecological and morphological data, researchers proposed a split between the Sonoran and Sinaloan populations.

[citation needed] Desert tortoises can live in areas with ground temperatures exceeding 60 °C (140 °F)[15] because of their ability to dig burrows and escape the heat.

They have a strong proclivity in the Mojave Desert for alluvial fans, washes, and canyons where more suitable soils for den construction might be found.

Tortoises show very strong site fidelity, and have well-established home ranges where they know where their food, water, and mineral resources are.

[8] Desert tortoises are sensitive to the soil type, owing to their reliance on burrows for shelter, reduction of water loss, and regulation of body temperature.

[18] Desert tortoises spend most of their lives in burrows, rock shelters, and pallets to regulate body temperature and reduce water loss.

Desert tortoises often lay their eggs in nests dug in sufficiently deep soil at the entrance of burrows or under shrubs.

[8] Shelters are important for controlling body temperature and water regulation, as they allow desert tortoises to slow their rate of heating in summer and provide protection from cold during the winter.

The male may make grunting noises once atop a female, and may move his front legs up and down in a constant motion, as if playing a drum.

[failed verification][19] Months later, the female lays a clutch of four to eight hard-shelled eggs,[20] which have the size and shape of ping-pong balls, usually in June or July.

The common, comparatively short-distance movements presumably represent foraging activity, traveling between burrows, and possibly mate-seeking or other social behaviors.

Grasses form the bulk of its diet, but it also eats herbs, annual wildflowers, and new growth of cacti, as well as their fruit and flowers.

A large urinary bladder can store over 40% of the tortoise's body weight in water, urea, uric acid, and nitrogenous wastes.

[26] Ravens, Gila monsters, kit foxes, badgers, roadrunners, coyotes, and fire ants are all natural predators of the desert tortoise.

According to Arizona Game and Fish Commission Rule R12-4-407 A.1, they may be possessed if the tortoises are obtained from a captive source which is properly documented.

[33] As a result of legislation, solar energy companies have been making plans for huge projects in the desert regions of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah.

[34] While tortoises are made to withstand tough conditions and high temperatures, they are unable to cope with the dangers of human development, such as the use of off-roading vehicles.

These vehicles that come along at high speeds have the potential to crush and kill tortoises, running over their eggs and burrows and significantly impacting their population.

[35][verification needed] Concerns about the impacts of the Ivanpah Solar thermal project led the developers to hire some 100 biologists and spend US$22 million caring for the tortoises on or near the site during construction.

More specifically, the G. agassizii population has been negatively affected by upper respiratory tract disease, cutaneous dyskeratosis, herpes virus, shell necrosis, urolithiasis (bladder stones), and parasites.

Areas infected with CD appear discolored, dry, rough and flakey, with peeling, pitting, and chipping through multiple cornified layers.

[50][52] CD was evident as early as 1979 and was initially identified on the Chuckwalla Bench Area of Critical Environmental Concern in Riverside County, California.

Overlaying home ranges and the social nature of these animals, suggests that disease-free individuals may be vulnerable to spread of disease, and that transmission can occur rapidly.

[54] Thus, wild tortoises that are close to the urban-wildlife interface may be vulnerable to spread of disease as a direct result of human influence.

Projections from this study suggest that about 4400 tortoises could escape from captivity in a given year, and with an 82% exposure rate to URTD, the wild population may be at greater risk than previously thought.

The 2008 USFWS draft recovery plan suggests that populations of tortoises that are uninfected, or only recently infected, should likely be considered research and management priorities.

Both upper respiratory tract disease and cutaneous dyskeratosis have caused precipitous population declines and die-offs across the entire range of this charismatic species.

The combination of scientific research and public education is imperative to curb the spread of disease and aid the tortoise in recovery.