Wildlife Mortalities Associated with Artificial Water Sources

The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) has a wide distribution, but is of considerable concern to conservationists. One area of particular interest has been the effect of human activities on tortoise populations. We investigated possible detrimental impacts of wildlife guzzlers to the desert tortoise and other nontarget organisms. We identified faunal remains recovered from 13 of those artificial water sources located in the Sonoran Desert of southeastern California to determine whether those man-made features presented threats to the desert tortoise or other native wildlife. We recovered 8 dead vertebrates floating on the surface of 2 water sources and 165 skeletal fragments from 5 water sources; 7 water sources contained no vertebrate remains. Skeletal material represented a minimum of 30 individuals, but we did not recover remains of desert tortoises. Artificial water sources of the design we studied do not present a serious drowning hazard to desert tortoises or other species of wildlife.