Gila Kid
04-21-2004, 11:05 PM
Sorry for the length but I wanted to tell this story for you all, so here goes. I was down south today, below the Gila, and I had time to get in a few hours of herping. I went to my old standbys and saw the usual suspects zebra and whip tails, spinys, and a little atrox. Then I decided to go down an old funky mining road that I've been down a couple of times. There's lots of equipment and shafts to look around, but it's definetly not the safest place to herp. Anyway I wasn't seeing much down low so I took off up hill, and this is when I saw them. Two very large desert torts on a slightly level spot about half way up the hill. The gravelly spot was about 10' in diameter with a small palo verde on the down slope side. As I appraoched something didn't look right. From afar one had scutes missing on the back of its shell and it didnt't look like a healed scar. As I got closer I realized that both their leathery hides had collapsed around their bones and shriveled up. The two males had evidently locked up in a death match and both had sucumbed to the exhaustion of the match. I'd guess it was some time last spring but I'll leave that to the experts(Brandi). They had dug up the ground a bit and then moved the action to the shade of the palo verde. They were about six inches apart and facing each other, both of their heads were lying completely extended and somewhat off to the sides. There was no evidence of any scavengers and they were completely intact except for a few scutes that had fell off from the sun(south facing side of one tort). Any way I felt remorse and saddness, but also a sort of calmness that came over me as I sat next to these hundred year old grandpas. I realized that at their age they had past their genes on many times and and had won and lost many battles. It was a somewhat somber experience, but it's nature I guess. Any way I thought I might share my story.