Big tortoises CAN back up, but they don't usually. They just bulldoze their way through or over something that is in their way.
So I was saying good-bye to a young couple who had just come over to drop off a pair of 3-toe box turtles and we were at the fence to the Aldabran pen. I was showing them BO, who was right in front of us, but I said I guess SO is in the shed. But the guy says, no there's another one over there at the stump. I had to run into the house to get my camera. This is too good to miss. He's got the 4x4 dislodged from its mooring and the 2x4 has pulled away. The pickets at the 4x4 are no longer attached. I had to grab his carapace behind his head and manhandle him back away from the stump. Once he was down, it was business as usual and he went on his merry way looking for food.
Thank goodness this happened when I was home and able to fix the fence. There's no way I would be able to get that giant into my P/U truck if he had made it down to the street.
So I was saying good-bye to a young couple who had just come over to drop off a pair of 3-toe box turtles and we were at the fence to the Aldabran pen. I was showing them BO, who was right in front of us, but I said I guess SO is in the shed. But the guy says, no there's another one over there at the stump. I had to run into the house to get my camera. This is too good to miss. He's got the 4x4 dislodged from its mooring and the 2x4 has pulled away. The pickets at the 4x4 are no longer attached. I had to grab his carapace behind his head and manhandle him back away from the stump. Once he was down, it was business as usual and he went on his merry way looking for food.
Thank goodness this happened when I was home and able to fix the fence. There's no way I would be able to get that giant into my P/U truck if he had made it down to the street.