Mojave Max is awake, but he’s staying inside — for now
Mojave Max, the desert tortoise whose annual spring emergence from his underground burrow at the Springs Preserve marks the beginning of spring in Southern Nevada, is awake, but he’s not ready to leave his burrow just yet.
Springs Preserve Senior Zoologist Katrina Smith and Southern Nevada Water Authority biologist Jean Axel Urbieta Aguilar sneaked a 16-foot fiber-optic camera into Max’s burrow to check in on him on Tuesday and found that he is awake, “but not ready to come out and face the world,” the Springs Preserve wrote in an Instagram post.
The post said that the two tortoise roommates Max hunkered down with for the winter with have already left the burrow for the spring, but Max is staying put.
Max is already set to have his latest emergence in contest history this year. The tortoise has already stayed in his burrow past his previous latest emergence on April 24, 2023.
Smith told the Review-Journal in 2023 that tortoises emerge from burmation (hibernation for reptiles) only when temperatures level out and overnight lows warm up.
Inconsistent weather conditions this year are similar to the ones that kept Max inside his burrow so long in 2023, with high temperatures in April ranging from 59 degrees to 96, and low temperatures ranging from 44 degrees to 74, according to National Weather Service data.
May has also been unseasonably wet and cold in the Las Vegas Valley this year with a record-breaking 1.44 inches of rain recorded for the month, Chris Outler, a lead forecaster at the weather service’s Las Vegas office, told the Review Journal. Three days in May have also broken daily rainfall records.
Once Max decides to emerge this spring, he will undergo a wellness check and greet the winner of the annual Mojave Max Emergence Contest, which elementary school students across Clark County School District have participated in for 25 years.
The winner of the contest receives a field trip to the Springs Preserve for the entire class — and a highly coveted class pizza party.
Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.
