THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Testudines    Testudinidae  

Bolson Tortoise
Gopherus flavomarginatus Legler, 1959

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Newly listed taxon. The extant range is confined to the Bolson de Mapimi basin of Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango, Mexico. However, before the presence of humans, it ranged as far north as New Mexico, USA, and south as Aguascalientes, Mexico (Affenberg and Franz, 1978, Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (214): 1–2; Morafka, 1982, North American tortoises: Conservation and ecology. Wildlife Research Report 12. United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C.). The Bolson Tortoise underwent a severe and rapid human-induced extirpation from most of its range late in the Pleistocene (Morafka, 1988, Annals of Carnegie Museum 57: 47–72). In 1979, the Bolson Tortoise was listed as endangered under the United States Endangered Species Act (USFWS, 2006, Federal Register 44: 23062–23064). Sixteen adult tortoises from the Mapimi Biosphere Reserve (Mexico) were translocated to an enclosed captive-breeding program on the Appleton Research Ranch in Elgin, Arizona, between 1971 and 1976 (Appleton, 1978, Proceedings of the Desert Tortoise Council Symposium. Desert Tortoise Council, Las Vegas, Nevada). In September 2006, 37 tortoises were moved from the Appleton Research Ranch to three locations in New Mexico (Zylstra, 2006, Sonoran Herpetologist 20: 50–54).
Page 57: The reference "Morafka, 1982, North American tortoises: Conservation and ecology. Wildlife Research Report 12. United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C." should be "Morafka. Pages 71-94 in Bury, R. Bruce (Editor). North American tortoises: Conservation and ecology. Wildlife Research Report 12. United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C.". — (4/1/2025)

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.04.14.18.30.29)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.07 MB

Province/State Distribution:

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1959 Legler, John M. A new tortoise, genus Gopherus, from north-central Mexico. University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History 11(5):335-343
1961 Legler, John M. and Robert G. Webb. Remarks on a collection of Bolson tortoises, Gopherus flavomarginatus. Herpetologica 17(1):26-37
1974 Bramble, Dennis M. Occurrence and significance of the Os transiliens in gopher tortoises. Copeia 1974:102-109
1978 Appleton, Ariel B. Bolson Tortoises (Gopherus flavomarginatus Legler) at the Research Ranch. . Pages in Pages 164-174 in Proceedings of the Desert Tortoise Council Symposium. Desert Tortoise Council, Las Vegas, Nevada. pp.
1978 Auffenberg, Walter and Franz, Richard. Gopherus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (211):1-2
1978 Auffenberg, Walter and Franz, Richard Gopherus flavomarginatus Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (214):1-2
1978 United States Fish and Wildlife Service, (USFWS). Listing of the Bolson Tortoise as an Endangered Species. Federal Register 44(75):23062-23064
1982 Morafka, David J. The status and distribution of the Bolson Tortoise (Gopherus bolsoni). Pages 71-94 in Bury, R. Bruce (Editor). North American tortoises: Conservation and ecology. Wildlife Research Report 12. United States Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C.. pp.
1982 Bramble, Dennis M. Scaptochelys: Generic revision and evolution of gopher tortoises. Copeia 1982(4):852-867
1988 Morafka, David J. and Clarence J. McCoy The ecogeography of the Mexican Bolson Tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus): Derivation of its endangered status and recommendations for its conservation. Introduction. Annals of Carnegie Museum 57(1):1-3
1988 Lieberman, Susan S. and David J. Morafka. The ecogeography of the Mexican Bolson Tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus): Derivation of its endangered status and recommendations for its conservation. Part II. Ecological distribution of the Bolson Tortoise. Annals of Carnegie Museum 57(1):31-46
1988 Morafka, David J. The ecogeography of the Mexican Bolson Tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus): Derivation of its endangered status and recommendations for its conservation. Part III. Historical biogeography of the Bolson Tortoise. Annals of Carnegie Museum 57(1):47-72
1988 Bury, R. Bruce, David J. Morafka, and Clarence J. McCoy. The ecogeography of the Mexican Bolson Tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus): Derivation of its endangered status and recommendations for its conservation. Part I. Distribution abundance and status of the Bolson Tortoise. Annals of Carnegie Museum 57(1):5-30
2007 Zylstra, Erin. The Bolson Tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus): King of the (re-) wild frontier. Sonoran Herpetologist 20(5):50-54
2009 Truett, Joe and Mike Phillips. Beyond historic baselines: Restoring Bolson Tortoises to Pleistocene range. Biological Restoration 27(2):144-151
2012 Urena-Aranda, C. A. and A. Espinosa de los Monteros. The genetic crisis of the Mexican Bolson Tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus: Testudinidae). Amphibia-Reptilia 33:45-53
2014 Edwards, Taylor, Elizabeth Canty Cox, Vanessa Buzzard, Christiane Wiese, L. Scott Hillard, and Robert W. Murphy. Genetic assessments and parentage analysis of captive Bolson Tortoises (Gopherus flavomarginatus) inform their ‘‘rewilding’’ in New Mexico PLoS One 9(7):1-12

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 19 May 2025 18:55 CT