27th Annual Meeting and Symposium of the
Desert Tortoise Council, March 22-24, 2002
Abstracts

A Combined Research and Education Project with Hatchling Desert Tortoises

F. Harvey Pough
Department of Life Sciences, Arizona State University West, PO Box 37100, Phoenix, AZ 85069-7100

The Desert Tortoise Project combined research and community-based education in a collaborative project sponsored by Arizona State University West, The Phoenix Zoo, and the Peoria Unified School District. The basis of the project was a study of the effect of diet on the growth rate of desert tortoises. Hatchling tortoises were assigned to one of two diet groups - the standard zoo salad diet or a pelleted diet (Ziegler Brothers Medium Fiber Tortoise Diet #5365021800). Body mass and linear dimensions were measured regularly during the growing season for five years. Tortoises fed the pelleted diet grew significantly faster than those fed salad.

Two educational programs were linked to the study: Working with teenage volunteers at the Zoo, a group of ASU West undergraduates developed, tested, revised, and implemented a presentation format for zoo visitors that dramatically increased the amount of information conveyed about the biology of desert tortoises and the diet study. A second group of undergraduates worked with middle school students who weighed and measured the tortoises in the study and analyzed the effect of diet on growth using mathematical methods appropriate to their grade levels.