Native to northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) once roamed all over the vast Mojave and Sonoran deserts, marking the landscape with their distinctive dark brown and greenish-tan shells. Unfortunately for the species’ long-term survival, human beings have been destroying their habitat in a number of ways, from paving new roads and operating military bases to constructing utility plants and grazing livestock. The animals are also vulnerable to a range of deadly diseases such as upper respiratory illnesses and the shell disease cutaneous dyskeratosis, which softens their shells. Finally, as climate change worsens heat waves and intensified wildfires, desert tortoises suffer disproportionately. “They are a keystone species, meaning if they were to be removed from the ecosystem, we would see a cascade of ecological effects — an unbalancing.” Now the California Fish and Game Commission is officially recognizing what scientists and conservation experts have long asserted: The desert tortoise is an endangered species. The desert tortoise had previously been classified as “threatened” by the California Endangered Species Act in 1989, as …