Tortoise gone walkabout .. any similar stories?

Sevan

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Jun 28, 2014
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1
Hello fellow tortoise enthusiasts ,

I have joined this forum as my brother's family in Devon own a 6 year old tortoise named Sebastian, and recently had a very worrying few days .

Somehow their tortoise managed to escape from their garden and went missing for 6 days . My brother's family were understandably so very upset, and put dozens of posters all around the village and neighbouring areas, put flyers through scores of letter boxes and did everything they could to get the message out to anyone who might have found him . They live on quite a busy main road into Exeter, and were horrified by the idea of Sebastian getting run over, and were constantly on the lookout for any trace of an unfortunate accident .
I must add that the owners had taken perimeter security of their garden seriously with walling and fencing all around, and it is still unknown how Sebastian had managed to escape .

Eventually, after 6 days, and after leafleting farther afield, they received a phone call from an elderly couple who lived in a village 1.2 miles from their house to say they had found Sebastian a couple of days earlier . You can imagine the sense of joy and relief they all felt to get their dear pet tortoise home. Somehow, Sebastian had escaped from the garden and wandered 1.2 miles down this busy arterial road, and the couple had found him in the middle of the road !
It is quite remarkable that he didn't get run over in 4 days , and that he had managed to travel so far .

Do any other forum members have any stories of similar escape and repatriation stories?
Do any other forum members have tips on how to identify your pet tortoise in case he should escape? My brother is even considering attaching a form of tiny GPS tracking device to they can find him should he ever escape again . They have acres of open field and farmland around their house, so searching on foot would be a very difficult task .

I look forward to replies from anyone with similar stories .
I wonder what is the furthest distance a tortoise has gone walkabout from home ?!!
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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Hello Sevan welcome to the TFO from AZ , USA . I'd love to tell you the story about my wife and a baby leopard tort but got to get ready for work ! Maybe later to night at work ? Have a great tort day!


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Yvonne G

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He Sevan, and welcome to the Forum!

Here in the States we have little adhesive address labels that we put for our return address on mail. Do you have something like that in the UK? If so, you can clean a spot on the tortoise's carapace right above the tail, dry it well, and stick the label on the tortoise. Be careful to not get it into the new growth area. You can even use a bit of clear nail varnish over the label to help it stay on longer. This is not a permanent identification, but its pretty easy to replace when it needs to be replaced.

Did they ever figure out how the tortoise escaped?


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Lira

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Apr 21, 2014
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Brazil
Hey @Sevan,
So glad that Sebastian's story had a happy ending!

His family should be able to get him micro-chipped at the vet.
I believe that UK has mini microchips for safe use in tortoises. I guess they could get expert advice about that before deciding if it is right for Sebastian. When micro-chipped pets are found, a vet or the pound scans the microchip and the pet's address and phone number is right there, so that he or she can be reunited with their owner.

Amazing that he traveled so far!! I wonder where he thought he was off to?
Good Luck and 'Hello' to Sebastian from Brasil. :)
 

Lira

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Apr 21, 2014
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Oh, and one more tip @Sevan. for those areas around their property, if they have a dog maybe it could help in the unfortunate case of Sebastian wandering off again. I was visiting with my tort. Lira when she was a baby, when someone (under the common misapprehension that tortoises are slow, LOL), took their eye off her and she disappeared. I was frantic for a couple of minutes, but then their dog sniffed her out and that was how we found her. She had slipped under their security grade and wandered out onto the landing!
 
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