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Project Noah Nature School
Geochelone sulcata
Nearly 80 lb. tortoise with tape on the shell for identification. This species is the "largest tortoise of the African mainland."
Walking down a road in residential area.
This tortoise was crossing a road so I pulled over and walked along side it to keep it from entering the road again. Of course I had to take a few photo's with my phone :) Eventually a car stopped and knew the owner. They drove to the house and the owner came for the tortoise. She said he must have dug under their brand new fence.
I'm unsure if genus name changed for this tortoise. Most websites have Geochelone sulcata, but the ARKive has it Centrochelys sulcata and was updated last year. Either way I'm pretty sure it is an African Spurred Tortoise. They get extremely large. I have taken care of one at a wildlife refuge I volunteered at. Unfortunately the owners didn't want it anymore because of its large size.
Emily, I forgot to ask if you know what species this one is. I know it's someone's pet but I'm curious :)
Me too, Emily. My daughter was saying they need to tape their phone number on the shell :)
Too funny! Glad it had a happy ending and glad to see they are using tape instead of paint or nail polish, which is bad for the shell and animal!
Spotted on Aug 24, 2013
Submitted on Aug 25, 2013
