Mother Jones: I think I found one!" I say, pointing at a small, round hole in the sand at the base of a cactus.
"Nope. That's a little too small."
I'm crouching in the middle of California's Mojave Desert, about 150 miles northeast of Los Angeles. I'm here with Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, and two Sierra Club volunteers, and we're looking for tortoise burrows. The warm December sun brings out the desert colors: green creosote bushes, fading red wildflowers, golden...