"In some areas tortoises with showing damage from dogs is high, about 80% of the tortoises seen at the Lucerne Valley study plot this past year had been attacked by dogs." Source

If you travel through a rural area of our beautiful deserts, you may notice something.  Not many people take a walk, or go for a hike without carrying a large stick.

There is a reason for this-and that reason is (more often than not) the threat of feral dog packs.

I've lived in a remote area of the Western Mojave desert for more than a decade.  I am also an experienced humane trapper and veterinary technician with a lot of field experience.  I spend a lot of time in unpopulated desert areas. In the time I have lived here, I have seen more than my share of feral dog packs.  Feral dogs can be incredibly dangerous.  They resort to (or are born into) predatory pack behavior, but do not have the fear of humans that truly wild canids (such as coyotes) normally possess.

Feral dogs pose many problems in managing desert ecosystems, and are a major threat to desert tortoises, humans, companion animals and livestock.

So, why am I writing this?

When news started circulating about the translocation-and subsequent injuries and deaths of desert tortoises after the Fort Irwin tortoise translocation I was (and still am) deeply saddened. Desert tortoises are gentle creatures who have inhabited this desert for thousands of years.  Immediate fingers were pointed at coyotes as being the predator killing these tortoises. To date I have not seen concrete proof of this widely circulating "fact." 

As far as I am  concerned, the real problem was with removing tortoises from their own habitat and dumping them into an area that is basically an alien "wasteland" compared to the habitat they called home.  Regardless of the animal predator responsible, the responsibility for this disastrous translocation lays on the shoulders of any and all parties who pushed to make it happen.  Greed is an ugly thing, and the tortoises are the ones paying for it.

But, I digress, back to the feral dog issue....

While coyotes are capable of killing an adult tortoise, they are normally far more interested in small mammals (rats, mice, squirrels, rabbits, etc.) and insects.  On occasion they will eat a juvenile tortoise, but adult tortoises are a lot of work for a coyote to kill.  If adult tortoises were on a coyote's preferred food list, desert tortoises would have become extinct long ago.

Dogs on the other hand, are common adult tortoise predators.. Even companion dogs attack and maim and often kill large tortoises, as many a tortoise keeper has found out.

For Fort Irwin officials to state that the risk of attacks on translocated tortoises by predators could not be predicted is nonsense! Packs of feral dogs, and attacks on desert tortoises by feral dogs have been documented on numerous occasions. Those involved in tortoise research are well aware of the risks.  Army spokesmen have been quick to blame a "rogue pack of coyotes." Where is the proof?

I have yet to see any references to feral dogs being a possibility in the deaths of these tortoises, yet the growing problem of feral dogs is common knowledge among desert residents.  The areas including (but not limited to)  Barstow, Calico, Fort Irwin, Edwards Air Force Base, Juniper Flats, Johnson Valley, Lucerne Valley, the Apple Valley Marianas,  Antelope Valley, Hesperia mesa, along the Mojave River, Helendale, Landers, Twentynine Palms, Thousand Palms, and Indio are ALL areas where feral dog packs are known to roam. 

I have personal knowledge of companion animals and several horses, goats and sheep that have been injured or killed by feral dog packs. Two of my own dogs found their way to me after being attacked by feral dogs. Many people have been threatened by packs (sometimes larger than 20 dogs!), while on foot as well as on horseback.  A number of individuals had no choice but to resort to lethal force in order to protect themselves, and/or their companion animals and livestock.

Perhaps mitigation of ALL predatory issues related to desert tortoises prior to "translocation"  would have been an intelligent choice-especially to the tortoises who suffered (and will continue to suffer) needless, painful deaths and devastating injuries?  This is simple common sense and a WELL KNOWN risk factor, but was completely ignored! 

Fort Irwin's failure to mitigate every threat possible to the tortoises  was deplorable-at best.

There is now much news about using "professionals" to exterminate coyotes in the translocation release areas. Killing coyotes is not a feasible solution. Tracking and trapping feral dogs is a good start.  Assessing coyote populations would also make sense.

Scientific evidence shows us some interesting facts about coyotes.

1.  When coyote populations decrease due to extermination or removal, remaining coyotes make up for the decrease by more than doubling (and sometimes even tripling) the numbers of pups per litter.

2.  Killing coyotes-one of the primary predators of rats, mice, squirrels, rabbits and other rodents in our deserts would certainly cause a terrible imbalance. Rodent populations would certainly explode without the coyote doing its job.

It is my hope that those truly interested in the conservation of desert tortoises and their habitats reconsider their positions regarding the killing-or removal of coyotes from their home ranges.  I co-exist daily with coyotes here, and have never had a problem-yet my problems with feral dogs are too numerous to count.  If coyotes are indeed responsible for any of the tortoise deaths, perhaps not moving the tortoises when prey was not abundant would have been an intelligent choice?

Of course, this problem wouldn't be a problem at all-had the Fort Irwin tortoises been left alone in the first place.

Fort Irwin is very happy with their land grab, and translocated desert tortoises will continue to suffer. 

Don't escalate the problem further by random extermination of coyotes, or additional tortoise translocations. The Department of Defense seems to think that NOTHING is more important than getting what it wants-at any cost.  Whether via deplorable translocations (and now possible  extermination of a population of another native species) this must cease!

-hey, they got that oh-so-important land that was home to wild tortoises for thousands of years. Blaming coyotes now for what you have caused is nothing more than "damage control."

Congratulations Fort Irwin, mission accomplished.

Annie Lancaster-Western Mojave Desert resident

Please see the following links regarding feral dogs in the Mojave and Colorado deserts-Thank you.