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 investi gated possible detrimental impacts of wildlife guzzlers to the desert torto ise and other nontarget organisms. We identified faunal remains recovered f rom 13 of those artificial water sources located in the Sonoran Desert of s outheastern California to determine whether those man-made features present ed threats to the desert tortoise or other native wildlife. We recovered 8 dead vertebrates floating on the surface of 2 water sources and 165 skeleta l fragments from 5 water sources; 7 water sources contained no vertebrate r emains. Skeletal material represented a minimum of 30 individuals, but we d id not recover remains of desert tortoises. Artificial water sources of the design we studied do not present a serious drowning hazard to desert torto ises or other species of wildlife.