The amazing adventures of Mork from Ork!

[GeoTerraTestudo]

I had heard that turtles can be good escape artists, but I never expected to see this. These photos are not only amazing, but completely authentic. Check this out:

Here is our male Russian tortoise, Mork, actually climbing the fence all by himself!

I took him down, but a few minutes later I found that he had climbed atop the patio table!

I did not put Mork up to this in any way. On the contrary, I wish he would stop doing this for his own good. I thought I had made the porch tortoise-proof, but apparently that is not the case. Seeing what Mork was up to, I put him back in his pen, which for the time being is the only place I can leave him unsupervised. The female, on the other hand, is much less adventurous (and has been ever since we got them in April). I can trust her to stay on the patio floor, but I'm going to have to come up with a way to keep Mork from doing that again. He is apparently a very good climber (it's amazing how tightly he was clinging when I gently plucked him off), but he could also fall and get seriously injured. Any suggestions on how best to blockade that corner to make it inaccessible?

 

[heyprettyrave]

interesting how he is staying up there: but for his own safety hopefully he will stop doing this!

 

[Zouave]

Oh wow! Thats nuts! He's already got the body helmet just get him a crash pad! LOL

Nanu

 

[coreyc]

Woo that s one crazy Russian you can put a piece of plywood angled in the corner about 6 inches or so high so he cant get started on his climb

 

[Missy]

I would put wood all the way around the bottom.

 

[October]

HOLY MOLEY! Those crazy Russians, eh?

Maybe you could even cut some pieces of cardboard big enough and zip-tie it to the bottom 8 inches or so? Just enough for him not to use his nails to climb.

 

[wrmitchell22]

Little dare devil! I like the card board idea, that seems like it would work great

 

[lynnedit]

I think anything flat and slippery (wood, plastic, cardboard) around the base, zip tied, that is 12" or at least 1.5X the length of your tort (maybe 2x, in his case )
that is crazy.

 

[dmarcus]

Wow he is a little dare devil...

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

WOW, what a climber.

 

[ascott]

I love his little back right leg....stttreeetched out as far as tippy toe possible....fantastic! I would agree with something slippery around the bottom....silly boy

 

[mctlong]

Impressive, even for a Russian.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Thanks, guys. I put an old bookcase side along the bottom, and that seems to be doing the trick. It is not solid, so my female has actually climbed up onto one of the slats as a resting place, but that's okay, since it's only an inch above the floor. The important thing is that Mork no longer views the fence behind it as climbable!