A giant tortoise escaped a petting zoo in Arizona last month and traveled several miles, apparently in quest of a female friend, before he was spotted just in time. The sulcata tortoise named Stitch was trying to cross Interstate 10 between Tucson and Phoenix on July 30 when a driver called to report him. Sgt. Steven Sekrecki with the Arizona Department of Public Safety had previously responded to reports of horses, cows, and birds on the interstate, but a tortoise was entirely new. "However, in my 16-year career, I don't dismiss anything anymore," Sekrecki tells the Washington Post.
When Sekrecki came upon the tortoise, he immediately noticed the name, Stitch, painted on its shell. Stitch, he knew, was a 14-year-old resident at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, which Sekrecki had visited several times with his family. Staff at the animal park, some 3 miles away, confirmed Stitch had escaped a few hours earlier, per the New York Times. Monsoon winds had damaged parts of the tortoise enclosure, allowing the reptiles to access a restricted area. Stitch, meanwhile, "found the one small hole, and he was the only one small enough to fit through it," ranch owner Danna Cogburn tells FOX 10 Phoenix.
The ranch's website notes sulcata tortoises, native to the Sahara Desert and Sahel region, "are surprisingly agile and can move quickly when motivated—especially for food!" Still, Cogburn tells the Post she was "surprised [Stitch] had gone as far as he did." She praises the "Good Samaritan" who "did the right thing and rescued him." Deputies "came out and found one of our employees and handed Stitch over the fence to him," Cogburn says. "Everyone got a chuckle out of it." Stitch was likely "on the hunt for a girl," as it's breeding season for the tortoises and Stitch lives with only males, she adds, per the Times. (More Arizona stories.)
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