Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Found a Tortoise!

I was walking to pick up my son from elementary school on Monday afternoon, and guess what was walking in the middle of our asphalt road!  I'm sure he/she belongs to someone, but so far I haven't found them yet. We've tried feeding it lettuce, carrot shavings, cabbage leaves, edible flowers, and cucumber shavings. It seems to prefer the lettuce. I've tried to find out what type of tortoise species, but so far no luck. Is anyone out there a tortoise fan, and can ID this little fella?

4 comments:

Kristy said...

How lucky for both you and the tortoise! I absolutely love them.
It's hard to tell what type of tortoise he is from that one picture. If you take one from the front (of it's face, I suppose) it would be easier to identify. Also, you could go to a site called turtletimes.com, click the forum link at the top of the page, and post there, with pictures, in their identification thread. That would guarantee a quick and accurate response. Also, if you identify it and decide to keep it, you can find all the information for caring for it. Hope this helps!

Kristy

Unknown said...

It's difficult to tell from the photo. Would definitley require top, bottom and head shot. To me it looks like a russian tortoise which is not native so would be a pet. Or it could be a desert tortoise, which is more likely, I am not familiar with that species.

Contact these guys, as they are in your area, for an id.
www.tortoise.org they have an id page http://www.tortoise.org/admin/help.html

Good luck

Amelia Ames said...

It's probably a box turtle of some sort. They like to swim. You might want to let it swim around in a puddle. Where you are located will have a lot to do with what kind of tortoise it is. Have you tried googling your state and tortoise to see what's found in your area? It is probably a wild turtle.

Anne said...

maybe a desert tortise?
http://www.desertusa.com/june96/du_tort.html