Here is the first in a four part series of short videos about the Techno-tortoise™, Hardshell’s 3D printed tortoise model. Tortoises are under assault from ever increasing numbers of ravens. The young reptiles are essentially defenseless for their first 5-7 years. For all that time they must somehow avoid being spotted (and eaten) by the… Continue reading »
Kelley Moody of Palm Springs CBS affiliate KESQ interviewed Dr. Bill Boarman, our science director, and Tim Shields. Kelley did a really nice job of telling the story of the Techno-tortoise™ and the warm reception it is getting from a couple of important tortoise predators: the common raven and the coyote. Our friends at… Continue reading »
The brilliant, kind, talented and beautiful animal lover Tatjana Dzambazova led her October 2015 Be3Dimensional presentation with Hardshell’s collaboration on our (revolutionary-to-biologists) Techno-Tort™. I just found out she lead her B3D presentation with us, and I’m especially honored. The conference at which she presented was the first ever B3D conference! Her presentation is titled, “Rip Fix Burn |… Continue reading »
A natural concern for people new to the idea of tortoises sharing the desert with Hardshell’s rovers is for the reaction of the tortoises to these foreign entities. Many people have asked, “Won’t the tortoises be afraid?” I have spent hundreds of days following tortoises around, recording their behavior at close quarters. It is pretty… Continue reading »
A Tale of Sex and Combat Some stories just don’t fit into a 350-500 word blog post format. Nature can’t be shoehorned into soundbites. I will be posting these stories periodically, and providing a link here for those of you who want to take a deeper look into the lives of tortoises, my history with… Continue reading »
This is a famous photo among people who work with desert tortoises. It says much, not only about the character of desert tortoises but about their relationship with modern humanity. I never met this tortoise but I wish I had. Let’s take this picture apart and learn what we can. The tortoise is a female:… Continue reading »
Hardshell Labs’ volunteers Andrea Barrica, Jasper Friedrichs, Thomas Kluyver, Laila Selk and others participated in last Saturday’s OpenExplorer Design Day at TechShop San Francisco. Hardshell’s goal for the day was to walk through the door of a new design hack to create a roving ‘Guardian Angel’ which can shadow wild Desert tortoises to protect them… Continue reading »
She was calm, appraising me with ancient eyes. In the midst of a field day I decided to treat myself to a little tortoise time. Every so often I turn off the mammalian mania that powers me through my work in the Mojave. I get off the treadmill of doings and hang out with someone… Continue reading »