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A Sulcata tortoise enjoys a salad, which probably took hours in real time. With time-lapse fast forward photography and a dramatic soundtrack, he’s an unstoppable eating machine. -via Geekosystem
There’s nothing a tortoise likes better than a fresh tomato -just ask any tomato gardener! Kevin is no exception, but he desperately needs a teeny little pair of tortoiseshell glasses. He has terrible depth perception. The poor thing does get a bit or two eventually. -via Buzzfeed
Jesef, in a motorized wheelchair, is chased by a desert tortoise named Cruiser. As exciting as this is, I can’t help but think it needs more Yakety Sax. -via Buzzfeed
Being a tortoise, he couldn’t make a quick getaway, so the barbecue was eventually recovered by its rightful owners. -via Arbroath
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Gamera, a 12-year-old African spur-thighed tortoise, recently underwent an amputation of his front left leg after suffering a life-threatening “severe thermal injury and tissue damage from an unknown source.” The team at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine hooked Gamera up with an office-chair caster (attached with epoxy) and a feeding tube to help him recover. The tortoise has gained about three pounds in three months and can get around just fine on most surfaces with his new limb. (Insert “that’s how he rolls” joke here.) Link
via Gizmodo
The roof of the reptile house caught on fire at the Poestlingberg Zoo in Linz, Austria. One species that couldn’t make a quick getaway from the billowing smoke were the four huge tortoises.
Quick-thinking firemen and zoo staff adapted oxygen masks designed for humans to save the lives of the 140lb African-spurred tortoises.
“We expect them to make a full recovery,” vet Isabella Eberle told CEN. “The masks were designed for human use but we managed to make them fit.”
Comments Off You can no longer say you’ve never seen a tortoise dance. -via reddit
Two days after Maddie Tibble and her family moved to a new house, their family pet, a tortoise named Lottie, escaped. Two years later, they found the runaway tortoise … one and a half mile away from home!
Doubtless a hare could have made the journey across the fields and down nearby Blackshots Lane in a matter of minutes. But Lottie took her time and spent 22 months to emerge into the open and be spotted by a animal-friendly passer-by.
Vet Lizzie Rigby, 36, checked Lottie over and gave her a clean bill of health. She said: ‘We looked her over and then checked for a microchip with a scanner and she had one. ‘We then contacted the chip company to get the owner’s detailed and found she had been missing for two years. We were amazed, considering she was in such good nick.’
Miss Rigby added: ‘Tortoises are quite slow, she didn’t get very far, who knows where she has been? ‘She must have found somewhere to curl up and hibernate for the winter. We were very surprised because the last winter was so cold but she survived.’
If you do the math, you’ll come up with 0.00009 mph: Link
Scientists have successfully reintroduced giant tortoises to a Galápagos island where the species once teetered on extinction, raising conservation hopes for the rest of the archipelago.A survey of Española, the southernmost island, confirmed last week that a pioneering effort to repatriate giant tortoise hatchlings has produced a thriving, reproducing population of more than 1,500 specimens. The project aims to turn the clock back to before human beings all but wiped out a species that helped to inspire Charles Darwin’s theories on evolution and natural selection. “It’s a great end to a sad story,” said Johannah Barry, president of Galápagos Conservancy, a Virginia-based organisation which partly funded the study.
There were hopes that Pinta Island could be similarly repopulated but Lonesome George, the only surviving Pinta Tortoise, has so far failed to produce offspring. Scientists are now introducing the Pinta’s close relation, the Espanola tortoise to that island.
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I don’t know what’s really going on in this picture, but “turtle wax” was my first reaction. Link -via Buzzfeed
A fire broke out in Becky Smith’s home when a heat lamp turned over on her tortoise cage, setting the wood chip litter ablaze. The bedrooms were engulfed, and two tortoises died. A third tortoise named Shelli was thought to be dead as well, as his cage was melted.
He was so hot he ‘phfizzed’ when firefighters put him in water – and then poked his head out.
‘The firemen said he was steaming when they put him in the bucket of water and he was so hot they couldn’t pick him up,’ said Ms Smith, 27.
‘It’s a miracle he is OK – especially when you see the state of the cage.’
Vets kept him in overnight and Shelli is now nibbling cucumber again.
It may have taken the best part of a century but scientists are hoping that Lonesome George, the last remaining example of the Galapagos Pinta Tortoise (featured previously at Neatorama) will finally become a father later this year. Eggs have been discovered in his enclosure and rushed to an incubator for special attention.
This follows a false start last year when over a dozen eggs were laid but all sadly turned out to be infertile. However, that in itself was a breakthrough – before that George hadn’t seemed in any great hurry to do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel at all.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.
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Tonka the tortoise was found in San Mateo County in California after it had been attacked by a dog that had bitten off one of her legs. Rescuers were afraid she would never be able to move normally until one of them had the idea to attach wheels from a Tonka truck to her. Now she really gets around!
Local resident John O’Dea, 35, has now adopted Tonka and said she loved nothing better than roaming in the vegetable patch and going for ‘walks’.
Surfer John said: ‘She is doing really well and loves roaming around the vegetable garden on her shiny new wheels.
‘She has a particular fondness for tomatoes.
‘I take her for ‘walks’ regularly around my neighbourhood, I think she likes the speed but I do get a few funny looks.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by ccmushroom.
