Mojave Max

About Max

Mojave Max is a desert tortoise prognosticator who heralds spring’s arrival in Nevada. Groundhogs, who are famously not very accurate at making bets, avoid Las Vegas due to the heat and amount of money they would lose. Max, however, is right at home in the Nevada desert. Every year, Max enters a burrow to ‘brumate’ (hibernation for reptiles) throughout winter and emerges in the spring. Groundhog Day marks the start of “Mojave Max Watch,” a contest for elementary school students to guess the tortoise’s emergence date. Max’s emergence is “the preeminent indicator of spring-like weather in Southern Nevada and the west coast.” GROUNDHOG-DAY.com interprets Max’s predictions based on if he emerges on March 16 or later, which is 6 weeks after Groundhog Day.