Colossal Foundation Commits $500,000 to Restore the Bolson Tortoise to the American Southwest

The Colossal Foundation, the 501(c)(3) charitable organization associated with Colossal, the de-extinction company, today announced a $500,000, five-year commitment to the Turner Endangered Species Fund (TESF) to advance the recovery and rewilding of the Bolson tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus), North America’s largest and rarest tortoise species, within its prehistoric range.

Once widespread across the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, the Bolson tortoise went extinct in the U.S. more than 10,000 years ago, surviving only in Mexico’s Bolson de Mapimi UN Biosphere Reserve. As a keystone species, the Bolson tortoise digs burrows that provide habitat for numerous other animals, making it vital to enhancing desert biodiversity.

Unfortunately, habitat loss, climate change, and illegal harvest have pushed the tortoise to Critically Endangered status on the IUCN Red List and Endangered status under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Since 2006, TESF has led the only major conservation effort for the species, growing a population from 23 adults to over 800 individuals through captive breeding and headstarting on Ted Turner’s Armendaris and Ladder ranches. Additionally, since 2021 TESF has released over 150 juvenile tortoises at four sites on Turner ranches in New Mexico, with survival rates exceeding 80%. In 2024, TESF transferred 20 tortoises to the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, spurring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to initiate a formal recovery program.

The Bolson tortoise now stands as the first extirpated megafauna species of the Pleistocene to be repatriated into its prehistoric range in the United States.

“By returning the Bolson tortoise—la Tortuga Grande—to landscapes it last knew in the late Pleistocene, we’re proving that restoration can reach further back than the post-Columbian record,” said Mike Phillips, Executive Director, Turner Endangered Species Fund. “When historical ranges can’t guarantee survival, prehistoric refuges may hold the key. Choosing that path affirms that recovery, not extinction, is still ours to decide—and the Colossal Foundation’s commitment is a powerful choice in the tortoise’s favor.”

The Colossal Foundation will support TESF’s ambitious plan to release at least an additional 100 juvenile tortoises across the Armendaris Ranch, transfer dozens more to the Sevilleta refuge, conduct genetic sequencing, and monitor populations. These efforts aim to establish three or more self-sustaining, free-ranging populations by 2031, setting a precedent for reintroducing imperiled species to prehistoric ranges amid climate-driven challenges that increasingly render historical ranges ineffective targets for restoration purposes.

“Colossal Foundation is redefining conservation by rewilding species back to ancestral ranges to ensure their survival,” said Matt James, Chief Animal Officer at Colossal Biosciences and Executive Director of the Colossal Foundation. “Our partnership with Turner Endangered Species Fund not only accelerates Bolson tortoise recovery, but sets a global blueprint for combatting biodiversity loss.”

This initiative builds on the Colossal Foundation’s Species Reintroduction Fund, a global effort to accelerate rewilding projects by restoring keystone and culturally significant species worldwide. By supporting innovative projects like the Bolson tortoise recovery, the Fund leverages cutting-edge science and deep partnerships to build resilient ecosystems for future generations.

The Colossal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to supporting the use of cutting-edge technologies for conservation efforts globally to help prevent the extinction of keystone species. The organization deploys de-extinction technologies and support to empower partners in the field to reverse the extinction crisis. Learn more at www.ColossalFoundation.org

Since its inception in 1997, the Turner Endangered Species Fund (TESF) has conserved biological diversity by ensuring the persistence of imperiled species and their habitats with an emphasis on private working lands. TESF has led historic reintroduction efforts to restore populations of imperiled plants, birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, and an amphibian.

TESF and its sister organization, the Turner Biodiversity Divisions, stand as the most significant private effort in the world to illustrate the importance of private working lands as beachheads of security for imperiled species.