Tracking down the whereabouts of California desert tortoises released from the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center to the wilds of Nevada earlier this year is hot and dusty work, but someone has to do it. Up and in desert before dawn on 30 August, I accompanied post-doctoral scientist Jen Germano and field tech Anthony Hartman on a labor of love. Radio-tracking tortoises on foot, we found one male snuggled up in a burrow with two females (one with a tag and one without); a clear indication that translocated animals are successfully striking up relationships with the locals.