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Meet Barstow's tortoise lady
Joyce Warren has kept, raised almost 200
BARSTOW • It’s not unusual to find pink flamingos, gnomes and other ornaments on the square of grass most people have in front of their house. But visitors on their way to the Warren’s doorbell may glimpse Baby or Cinco, two California desert tortoises, lumbering about her front yard.
Joyce and Waldo Warren watch over 14-year-old and 15-year-old Baby and Cinco, which typically keep to the enclosed grassy area at the front of their Hawthorn Drive house. Joyce also keeps 3-year-old Malibu and 4-year-old Toto, two smaller tortoises, in a box in her living room.
She and Waldo, who moved to Barstow 18 years ago, have four tortoises now, but over the 16 years they’ve lived in their home, Joyce has taken care of almost 200, she says.
“I’m proud to tell people that I love these little tortoises,” she said. “(But) this last year I looked at my yard and space and decided we can’t keep all of these tortoises.”
Over the years she has taken her tortoises to Joshua Tree Tortoise Rescue and another rescue center in Tehachapi. Some of them, about 40, she said, were offspring of tortoises she found on local roadways. Joyce has also had baby tortoises left in a box on her doorstep.
Some tortoises, like Baby (who’s a boy), Cinco (a girl), Toto and Malibu, Joyce decided to hang onto. She even had a tortoise named Methuselah who, she estimated, was more than 100 years old. Methuselah and his mate, Sarah, were among the tortoises taken to Tehachapi.
“I never thought I’d be attached, but I miss my old Methuselah,” she said. “He’d come when I’d call him. (And) he dug a hole under a rock and lived there.”
Warren’s tortoises have found good homes, but according to David Lamfrom, local field representative for the National Parks Conservation Association, because they are an endangered species, tortoises shouldn’t be removed from the wild. If people come across a tortoise in the middle of the road, they should be helped across the street, he said.
According to Lamfrom, who’s heard of Joshua Tree Tortoise Rescue, said taking captive tortoises to a rescue center is a good way of finding a better home for them. Because captive tortoises often carry an upper respiratory disease that can be passed to their wild counterparts, people should never release them into the wild. People can also view wild tortoises at the Mojave National Preserve, he said.
“The Mojave National Preserve is a great place for wild tortoises especially during the spring wildflower bloom,” he said.
Warren, who’s a member of the High Desert branch of the California Turtle and Tortoise Club, is also wary of people who say they’d like to have them as a pet.
“Most everyone says I would love to have one for my kid,” she said. “I say it’s not a play thing.”
Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com
