Red Rock

Back in mid-December, my sister, Sally, and I,  rolled out to Red Rock from Bakersfield...it was very critter quiet, heard Cricket, and that was all!...I took some scenic pics, but the Desert I find vey hard to photograph, and the day's pics have been in the sometime box...I eventually get around to things!...there were probably a lot of critter indicators, like tracks and scat and burrows and such, but I'm not too good with those...anyway, here's a link to folk very good with those, and a study made of Red Rock and Desert Tortoises...family has always had a Desert Tortoise or two, one was very small that I found in Joshua Tree when I was a kid (Tortoises pee when picked up--this in fifties, long before restrictions) and another found beside Brookhurst Street coming out of a Beanfield, this in sixties...the small Tortoise never grew, and perished, probably through my neglect, not lack of food, but just attention I didn't have time for, having grown a bit my own self!...the Brookhurst Tortoies disappeared from sister's backyard just awhile back, burrowed into another yard maybe, but this Tortoise mated with my sister's female, and they had two or three offspring, which I'm impressed with how fast they've grown!...anyway, Fish and Game has a quarterly magazine, and looks to be in the process of putting all back issues, and current, on the web, somewhat like the old Yosemite Nature Notes, both a fine resource!



https://www.dfg.ca.gov/publications/journal/contents.html#2008

Status of the desert tortoise in Red Rock Canyon State Park. Kristin H. Berry, Kevin Keith, and Tracy Bailey

STATUS OF THE DESERT TORTOISE IN

RED ROCK CANYON STATE PARK

 

KRISTIN H. BERRY AND KEVIN KEITH

U.S. Geological Survey

Western Ecological Research Center

Box Springs Field Station

22835 Calle San Juan de Los Lagos

Moreno Valley, CA 92553

E-mail: kristin_berry@usgs.gov

TRACY BAILEY

619 Pinon Court

Ridgecrest, CA 93555 

quote

Our objectives included: (1) providing an historical background of land uses

for interpreting tortoise population data, (2) creating baseline data for long-term

monitoring of status and recent trends in a low density desert tortoise population, (3)

comparing survey methods in areas with low density of tortoises, (4) identifying

significant correlations between tortoise counts and anthropogenic impacts; and (5)

proposing management options for enhancing protection and recovery of the desert

tortoise. For the Park, an important objective was to maximize the amount of data and

information on distribution and demographic attributes within a limited budget. 
unquote

yes...limited budgets are frustrating!!!

quote

Common ravens, Corvus corax, predators on juvenile tortoises, increased 10-fold

in the Mojave Desert in the 24-year period between 1968 and 1992 and may still be

increasing in numbers (Boarman and Berry 1995). Ravens are attracted to highways,

roadside rests, campgrounds, trash, and visitors—all of which are present in the Park

(Boarman and Coe 2002, Kristan et al. 2004). They have the potential to reduce juvenile

recruitment and contribute to population declines and local extinctions (Kristan and

Boarman 2003).
 unquote


From what I could gather, Ravens were not always  in Yosemite, and their current numbers there are likely making trouble for Critters like in the Desert.  At all the Rest Stops on the roll to Texas and Back, from Bakersfield, there were always Ravens, or Crows.