jUMPSu1t
Member
Hello! My friend called me today to say she’d found a tortoise crossing the road in her highly-developed, gated community. For the moment, she’s keeping the guy in a large cardboard box with water and paper towels as a substrate (she has no reptiles herself, so we’re doing our best). He’s about 12 inches long and dark brown all over, and though we use male pronouns, we don’t actually know his sex; we’ve pinned him as a desert tortoise, but that’s up for debate as well. He doesn’t seem to be presenting any health issues, and he’s currently standing under his own power in the box, though he does look quite confused. My friend couldn’t find a burrow around the neighborhood, so we’re presuming if he’s wild, he’s travelled quite a ways from wherever he originally lived. We plan to find his original owner if he has one, so we posted about him on their local Facebook group, but what do we do if nobody steps forward to claim the tortoise? We can’t just let him live in a box, so should we go to a vet? The department of wildlife (or whatever it’s called)? Let the guy go in the nearest wooded area?
Let me know your thoughts. I’ve attached an image of the dude.
Let me know your thoughts. I’ve attached an image of the dude.