NV Energy’s tortoise Wattson comes out for the spring

NV Energy’s tortoise mascot Wattson emerged last week from his burrow ahead of famed Las Vegas tortoise mascot Mojave Max.

Wattson is one of several tortoise mascots across the state of Nevada who serve as shelled ambassadors for various organizations. Desert tortoises spend several months of the year brumating (hibernating for reptiles) and come out some time between March and May when the weather is warm enough for them to be outdoors.

Wattson emerged from his burrow in his fully enclosed habitat at NV Energy headquarters in Las Vegas on Wednesday at 8:37 a.m. Wattson typically emerges in March, according to his caregiver Paul Aguirre, making this appearance unusually late.

Aguirre said in an interview last month that Wattson seems to decide when he wants to come out based on how much direct sunlight he gets in his enclosure on the bottom floor of the four-story headquarters building, but “there’s no way of really knowing” when he will come out.

Mojave Max, mascot of the Clark County Desert Conservation Program and center of an emergence contest for local schoolchildren, emerged from his burrow Tuesday afternoon.

Max had been spotted moving closer to the entrance of his burrow to “get a better sense of the weather,” earlier in the afternoon Tuesday and left it for the first time this year at 3:09 p.m., according to his Instagram.

Max nearly beat his latest emergence ever set last year when he emerged on April 24, 2023 at 3:40 p.m.

The winner of the contest has not been announced.

An earlier version of this story said Mojave Max had not emerged yet. Max emerged hours after this story was posted.

Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.