"Desert Tortoises: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow"
Hosted by the Joshua Tree National Park Association
Desert Institute - Old School House Lecture Series
Friday, December 10, 2010
7 p.m. PST
6760 National Park Drive, Twentynine Palms, CA  92277
Tickets are $5 at the door
http://desertinstitute.homestead.com/lectures/osh.html

WERC lead scientist Kristin Berry (kris-TEEN' Berry) will give a guest lecture in December with the Joshua Tree National Park Association, the nonprofit education partner organization of Joshua Tree National Park.

Berry's presentation will feature her observations on desert tortoise populations in California during the last 40 years. Berry did her initial studies on the species in the early 1970's at China Lake, the Fremont Valley, and the Desert Tortoise Natural Area in the Mojave Desert. 

Research topics conducted during those early years included attributes of populations, translocation, behavior, and predation. These studies were expanded to encompass many other topics, including health and disease, at numerous study sites throughout southeastern California. 

Berry will highlight new findings from her research projects on a variety of topics such as social behavior, genetics, and predation, and will conclude with implications for the future of remaining tortoise populations in the Mojave and western Sonoran deserts.  

Kristin Berry holds a doctoral degree in zoology from the University of California, Berkely. She leads WERC's Box Springs Field Station.

Kristin Berry WERC homepage: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/person.aspx?personID=172

WERC California Desert Tortoises project homepage: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/Project.aspx?ProjectID=110


Contact:
Ben Young Landis, blandis@usgs.gov, 916-616-9468