Move over Punxsutawney Phil, Nevada has a different way of telling when spring has sprung here in the desert: Mojave Max!
Mojave Max is a tortoise living at Spring Preserve in Las Vegas, and he also serves as a mascot for the preserve's desert tortoise conservation program.
According to their Senior Zoologist Katrina Smith, Mojave Max is more than a superstition.
"A rodent seeing his shadow is meaningless, but for a desert tortoise it's actually biological," Katrina explained. "The temperatures have to reach a certain threshold in his burrow for him to start to be active. It means the weather's warming up, there's flowers starting to bloom, there's more active wildlife in general, so when he pops out it's officially spring."
Currently, Mojave Max is in his Springs Preserve burrow brumating, a reptile's version of hibernating.
The last two years, he's emerged towards the end of March.
He's become such a local celebrity that elementary students around the valley have been guessing when it'll happen for over 25 years in the Mojave Max Emergence Contest.
"The kid who gets closest to it win a field trip for their whole class to the Springs Preserve," shared Katrina. "They get to meet the real life Mojave Max, they get a pizza party, they get a whole bunch of prizes."
Katrina hopes that Mojave Max teaches us about the importance of respecting and protecting our desert.
For more information on Mojave Max and the Mojave Max Emergence Contest, visit their website here!