Desert Tortoise and Wind Turbines

A desert tortoise in a landscape dominated by wind turbines at the Mesa field site where U.S. Geological Survey Research Ecologist Jeff Lovich has conducted research since 1995. The “wind farm”, one of many in the San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs, California, has 460 turbines and an associated infrastructure of access roads, substations and transformers. The tortoise is wearing a radio transmitter that was removed at the end of the study.