tortoise

18 Stories

In 'Largest Ever' Effort, 1K Trafficked Animals Head Home

Endangered lemurs, tortoises are being sent back to Madagascar from Thailand in anti-trafficking bust

(Newser) - Nearly 1,000 "highly endangered" animals are heading back home to Madagascar, thanks to what CNN calls the "largest ever" repatriation initiative between the African nation and Thailand. The news outlet reports that an anti-trafficking police raid in May in the Thai province of Chumphon turned up 1,...

In Search of a Girl, Giant Tortoise Goes On the Lam

'Stitch' busted trying to cross Arizona interstate

(Newser) - 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...

Endangered Tortoise Fathers Triplets at Age 90

In a surprise, Houston Zoo now has a family of 5 radiated tortoises

(Newser) - The Houston Zoo has revealed a happy surprise: three baby tortoises that belong to a critically endangered species. As NPR reports, the triplets' arrival is particularly noteworthy because the father is the zoo's oldest resident—90-year-old Mr. Pickles. He has been partnered with 53-year-old Mrs. Pickles since 1996. Radiated...

Giant Tortoise Presumed Extinct for a Century Is Very Much Alive

Fernanda is first fantastic giant tortoise seen in Galapagos since 1906, and only the 2nd ever

(Newser) - A Galapagos giant tortoise species observed only once more than a century ago on a remote volcanic island and thought to have gone extinct as a result of volcanic eruptions has turned up very much alive. A female "fantastic giant tortoise," which the Guardian reports is "significantly...

Beloved Pet Escapes, Very, Very Slowly

Big tortoise found about a mile away after 74 days

(Newser) - A 150-pound tortoise that escaped from a Tennessee home has been returned after 74 days, managing to make it about a mile during his slow and steady journey, per the AP . The African sulcata tortoise named Solomon crawled away from his Ashland City enclosure more than two months ago, his...

Zoo's Tortoise Spends 2 Weeks on the Lam, Gets Nowhere

Abuh was found less than 500 feet from the zoo

(Newser) - The top speed of a giant tortoise on dry land, according to Gizmodo , is about 0.17mph. That turned out to be great news for Japan's Shibukawa Animal Park, which had a 121-pound Aldabra giant tortoise named Abuh escape earlier this month. Channel News Asia reports Abuh is allowed...

Police Investigating NYC Tortoise-Napping

The 95-pound Millennium was stolen from an environmental center

(Newser) - A tortoise-napper is on the loose in New York City. The Wall Street Journal reports a 95-pound tortoise named Millennium was stolen from the Alley Pound Environmental Center in Queens sometime between Sunday evening and Monday afternoon. The educational center isn't sure how the thief or thieves managed to...

We're Spending $50M to Resettle 1K Desert Tortoises

So the Marines can expand Calif. training grounds

(Newser) - The mission: to airlift 1,156 desert tortoises to a place where there's no threat of being flattened by tanks. The Marines are this month moving the reptiles out of a corner of California's Mojave Desert where the Corps will soon begin extensive live-fire training, the Los Angeles ...

$50M Plan to Save Tortoises May Do the Opposite

Critics fear it'll put threatened animals at further risk

(Newser) - Desert tortoises are considered a threatened species across the Southwest, where they're battling drought, climate change, habitat loss, and predators. Now, environmentalists fear a Mojave Desert population will be eradicated entirely by a plan that's apparently meant to save them, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Marine Corps'...

Why Is Tortoise Sick? It Ate a Turtle Pendant

Vet gets a surprise with X-ray

(Newser) - What are the odds? The source of a sick tortoise's discomfort became clear after a south Florida veterinarian took an X-ray: The animal had swallowed a turtle pendant. Dr. Don Harris said the 15-pound male African spurred tortoise named Lola hadn't pooped for a month and began acting...

Giant Galapagos Tortoises Back From 'Brink of Extinction'

'Miraculous' recovery for population that was down to 15 in 1960s

(Newser) - A welcome piece of news for an endangered species: Giant tortoises' population on the Galapagos island of Española is now "very secure," researchers say. "The global population was down to just 15 tortoises by the 1960s. Now there are some 1,000 tortoises breeding on their...

Cops 'Arrest' Huge Tortoise in California

150-pounder back with his (human) family

(Newser) - Police in Los Angeles County have captured a slow-moving escapee. Clark the tortoise makes his home with a family in the city of Alhambra; he apparently managed to run away while the family was at a baseball game, an animal control official tells the Los Angeles Times . He didn't...

Alligator Escapes Zoo With Help of ... Tortoise?

Zoo owner says tortoise may have enabled 12-inch alligator's escape

(Newser) - An owner of a zoo in Michigan's Upper Peninsula says a 12-inch alligator has escaped, possibly with some help from a tortoise. TV stations WWTV-WWUP and WPBN-WTOM and MLive.com report the alligator named Carlos got out of an enclosure over the weekend at the GarLyn Zoo near Naubinway....

Endangered US Tortoises to Be Euthanized

Funding for Las Vegas-area conservation center dries up

(Newser) - For decades, the vulnerable US desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence on a sprawling conservation reserve outside Las Vegas. But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it. Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials...

Tortoises Break Up —After a Century Together

Bibi finally got sick of Poldi

(Newser) - They were together as a couple for more than a century until out of the blue, Bibi and Poldi—two giant Galápagos tortoises who live in an Austrian zoo—broke off their relationship. The split was anything but cordial, reports Der Spiegel . A belligerent Bibi bit off part of...

Rare Galapagos Pinta Tortoise, Lonesome George, Seeks Mate
 Last Tortoise of His 
 Kind Needs a Date 
lonesome george
May 10, 2011 3:20 PM CDT

Last Tortoise of His Kind Needs a Date

Scientists struggle to find mate for 'Lonesome George'

(Newser) - When you’re the only known member of your species, romance is hard to find. Such is the case for Lonesome George, the last Pinta tortoise in the Galapagos. Since George’s discovery in 1971—at a time when his species was believed to be extinct—scientists have searched far...

Tortoise Loverboy, 146, Dies in Paris

'He had a kind of charisma'

(Newser) - All of France is mourning today after 146-year-old giant tortoise lothario Kiki finally kicked the bucket. He succumbed last week to an infection at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. "We are rather upset to have lost Kiki. He had been here for such a long time that we...

Army Seeks New Home for Desert Tortoises

(Newser) - The Army plans to evict more than 1,000 endangered desert tortoises to expand a tank training ground in the Mojave Desert, the Los Angeles Times reports. Conservationists warn that the last effort to shift the tortoises proved disastrous: Many were wiped out by predators, and others traveled up...

18 Stories