Our friends Lola and Lynne have a Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) which they inherited from their neighbour. The species is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is the official state reptile in California and Nevada.

G. agassizii lives for 50 to 80 years. Stallone is in his mid-twenties, healthy and strong. I hung out with him on their back lawn today while he munched on rose petals, his favourite snack.