Posted on 03/02/2005 5:58:09 AM PST by Theodore R.
It's not easy being green Many questions arise about a giant tortoise found in Cheyenne: Is it OK, and exactly how did it get here?
By Michelle Dynes rep2@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - Terri Smith said she was walking her dog behind Sapp Bros. Big C Truck Stop on the Interstate 80 Service Road when she made her discovery Sunday morning.
At first she thought it was a big rock or a pile of dirt that her dog, Bud, was sniffing. After a closer look, though, she realized it was a giant tortoise. She said the tortoise seemed like it was trying to burrow into the dirt alongside a wire fence. She said between the animal's size and the fact that it was the last day in February, she knew something wasn't right.
"I don't know if someone dropped him off or if he got lost," she said. "I couldn't just leave him there."
She said she has walked her dog along that same route a couple of times every day but had never encountered anything unusual before. After calling the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, her suspicions were confirmed: The animal was not a Wyoming native. Terri said she was told it was likely a desert tortoise, which usually is found in the Mojave and Colorado/Sonoran deserts of California, southern Nevada, Arizona, southwestern Utah and Mexico.
"I don't know where it came from or why it's here," she said.
While the animal hasn't moved, she said it could be because it's hibernating. She said the animal is probably not dead, because rigor mortis has not set in. A Game and Fish official also informed her that the animals are tough and can take a lot of strain.
"This is not the habitat for that kind of creature," she said.
Terri's husband, Ken, added the tortoise did open its eyes for a while Sunday night.
"They're green," Terri said.
Ken said he went out to the scene and brought the tortoise back to their mobile home on the hood of a friend's car. He said he estimated the tortoise weighed 60 to 70 pounds.
Terri said she was told by someone at Game and Fish to count the rings on the shell to determine the age. She guesses the animal is 130 to 133 years old.
"I have never seen one that big in my life," she added.
The couple joked that Turtle had found a turtle.
"My father nicknamed me Turtle as a young girl," Terri said, "because I move like a turtle."
She said someone from Game and Fish is coming to Cheyenne on Wednesday to examine her find and tell her what to do next. Ken said the tortoise belongs back out in its natural environment - wherever that is.
Some fool driving north to ski country put it in the back of his pick-up and dropped it off.
Not a lot of mystery to this story.
Charles Fort ... paging Charles Fort. Please pick up the white courtesy phone.
It was good of her to bring it home. Leaving it there could have meant trouble for the misplaced turtle.
A turtle that big and nobody came to pick it up? The least that the Game people could have done is call the zoo.
Turtle Soup?
The rain does bring strange things, eh?
Why? Three words: Environmental Protection Agency
When the police asked the slug for details,
It responded..."I don't remember much, it all happened so fast!"
Actually, giant tortoises are amazing escape artists. It was probably someone's pet and dug out and walked off. I had one for many years, and it could dig out of the yard, almost under anything. One time, the darned thing dug out under the footing of a concrete block wall. It had to dig down 12" to get under the wall.
I always got it back, though, since I engraved my name, address, and phone number on it's shell. One time, it was gone for over three months before I got a call. The thing was over 20 miles from my house.
I finally found a small zoo that would take it, and it's still there, some 30 years later. How big? It was just a baby, with a shell just 18" across.
Thanks.
I'll file that under the "something new" that I learned today.
I used to have a rabbit like that. I was constantly replacing the neighbour's flowers.
My friend has a pet turtle in his backyard pond. One day he heard a knocking sound at the front door. When he answered the door it was the turtle!
I'm looking for a punch line but there isn't one. The things can really get around!
When I was a kid, we also found a tortoise out in the deserty area of central Calif. It wasn't as big as the one in this thread, but it WAS the biggest turtle I'd ever seen. We kept it in the back yard for about a year, before it dug under the fence and disappeared. It moved VERY slowly, but when it got to the swimming pool and jumped in, it swam with the greatest of ease. Difficult to catch and get out of the pool. I'd forgotten all about that till this thread. Heheheh.
If you're going to make turtle soup, you need to serve it with a fair sized dollop of sherry.
Fill the shell with Margaritas....
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