Mojave Max emerges, signaling arrival of spring in the valley

With dirt on top of his shell symbolic of his long winter slumber, Mojave Max emerged at 2:03 p.m. Tuesday from his burrow at Red Rock Canyon in speedy desert tortoise fashion.

The federally protected, threatened reptile marked spring's arrival in Southern Nevada exactly 19 hours and 20 minutes ahead of last year's pace yet 10 days after the first official day of spring.

Like Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvania groundhog who pops from his burrow each year on Feb. 2 to predict whether there will be an early spring, Mojave Max makes his annual emergence when he thinks warm weather is here to stay.

It wasn't the earliest he has been seen. That was Feb. 14, 2005. Nor was it the latest: April 14, 2008.

But like in the past 11 years of the Mojave Max Emergence Contest, officials from Clark County, the Bureau of Land Management and affiliate groups will select the 12th student winner who guessed the closest date and time for his appearance by studying local weather, temperatures and conditions.

"The entries are being tabulated," said Tuesday's news release from Clark County's Department of Air Quality and Environmental Management. The prizes include a laptop computer, an annual parks pass and a field trip to Mojave Max's habitat for the winning student's class.