Tortoise is a better weather forecaster than groundhog

Jennifer Knight

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004 | 9:12 a.m.

While that famous groundhog was busy on Monday doing his thing in Pennsylvania, kids in Clark County were pinning their hopes on a little-known tortoise named Mojave Max.

In a well-attended ceremony on Monday, Punxsutawney Phil predicted that winter will last another six weeks -- but it turns out Las Vegas' slower-to-show tortoise can more accurately predict when spring has sprung here in the Southwest, according to biologists.

Just when Mojave Max will emerge from hibernation to mark the first day of spring is the subject of a countywide contest and more than 10,000 kids in kindergarten through 12th grade are expected to log onto Max's website before March to predict when the exact moment will happen.

"I have all of my students participating in the program this year," said Jody Murphy, who teaches third grade at Whitney Elementary School. "Last year I was the only teacher doing it at my school and this year we have nine teachers participating."

One of Murphy's students won the Mojave Max Emergence Contest last year by guessing the exact date and time he emerged from his habitat at Red Rock Canyon. The classroom won a free trip to Wet & Wild as well as a visit to see Max, and Murphy won a new computer.

But the contest is more than a way to win cool prizes, said Christina Gibson, a management analyst for Clark County Desert Desert Conservation Program.

"Kids get to study the desert climate, the temperature and the animals that live here and then they log onto the database and enter the date that they think Mojave Max will emerge," Gibson said.

The reason the 60- to 80-year-old tortoise is so good at telling the start of spring has to do with internal mechanisms, said Ron Marlow, a University of Nevada, Reno biology professor who specializes in desert tortoises.

"The desert tortoise tells us when the air temperature is generally above 75 degrees during the day for extended periods of time," Marlow said. "They can tell you when spring has begun because their body heat is dependent on weather being a certain temperature."

In short, Marlow said, if the tortoise had to compete against the groundhog, the tortoise would win, he said.

"The mythology about groundhogs, that they'll come out in winter and predict what will happen in the spring, is just a myth."

For more information about the Mojave Max Emergence Contest, visit www.mojavemax.com.