Alpo
Sonoran Desert Tortoise Ambassador
Male
2000 / Adult
Dog attack
About Alpo
Alpo, a Sonoran tortoise, was attacked by a dog and left in a box out front of Liberty by the previous owner on October 17, 2000. A dog had attacked the tortoise and the owner could not afford the vet bill to fix the 3-inch hole in its shell that exposed its lung. Eventually, scar tissue formed over the hole. Alpo has gone into hibernation normally each year. In 2014, a bladder stone was detected during his examination which eventually was removed in 2017.
Description
The Sonoran Desert Tortoise is one of two native species of desert tortoise in Arizona. The other species is the Mojave. Not to be confused with turtles, these tortoises are larger-bodied animals. They have short, broad, and club-shaped legs to help them move over desert terrain as compared to turtles that swim in water. They are able to withstand desert heat and periods of drought.
Habitat
The Sonoran Desert Tortoise is found only in the Sonoran Desert.
Range
The Sonoran Desert Tortoise is found in central and western parts of Arizona and northwestern Mexico, south and east of the Colorado River. This Desert Tortoise is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, due to habitat loss.
Life Span
Tortoises can live 50 – 100 years.
Prey / Food
Tortoises are mostly herbivorous, but occasionally eat invertebrates and carrion.
Babies / Nests
Tortoises lay 3 – 12 soft-shelled eggs in a clutch. The eggs hatch somewhere between 70 – 120 days depending on the ambient temperature. Hatchlings break out of the shell using an egg tooth. Desert tortoises do not reach full maturity until 15 – 20 years. Breeding begins after the onset of the monsoon season, when eggs are laid near or inside a burrow.
Native American Folklore
To most tribes, Tortoise represents healing, wisdom, spirituality, health, safety, longevity, protection, and fertility.
Tortoise holds a prominent place in Native rituals and ceremonies. Its shell is often used to create rattles and musical instruments, especially in ceremonies related to healing and connection with the spirit world. The sound of the Tortoise rattle is believed to invoke the earth’s energy and facilitate communication with ancestors.
Tortoise shells are also sometimes used as containers for sacred objects, further emphasizing their importance in spiritual practices. Tortoise in these ceremonies underscores its role as a bridge between physical and spiritual realms.
To Navajo people, the hard shell of Tortoise is an important symbol of perseverance and protection. The shell of Tortoise is used to provide protection in ceremony. His shell is also used as a vessel to prepare and administer medicines in certain ceremonies.
In the Navajo stick game, the rock at the center of a circle of pebbles represents Tortoise’s back, the center of the universe and the earth in which we all live.
Tortoise has 13 patterned squares in the center of its shell; some tribes use the shell as a calendar. The thirteen squares represent the thirteen full moons of the year. The surrounding twenty-eight squares of the shell represent the twenty days of each lunar month.
Lakota mothers make a leather amulet shaped like a Keya (Lakota for turtle) for their newborn babies. They place their child’s umbilical cord within and sew them closed for protection. The amulet keeps the child grounded and connected to its mother and Grand Mother Earth.
The creation story of Turtle Island is shared by many Tribes and places the emphasis on Turtle as the symbol of life and earth.
In Ojibwe oral tradition the story of Turtle Island begins with a huge flood that cleansed the world, so life could begin anew. Some animals like Loon, Muskrat and Turtle survived the flood. Nanabush, a supernatural being who could create life, also survived the flood. Nanabush asked the animals to dive deep into the flood waters and collect soil that could be used to recreate the world. One by one the animals tried and one by one they failed. Finally, Muskrat dove deep underwater for a very long time and when he surfaced, he held up a paw full of wet soil. The underwater journey took Muskrat’s life, but he did not die in vain as Nanabush took the soil and placed it on Turtle’s back, creating a new world as we know it today with trees, mountains and rivers. This new earth became known as Turtle Island, the center of creation.
© 2025 Liberty Wildlife - Privacy Policy