April 5, 2004
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Day of the Tortoise
We have a snail problem. I frequently encounter snails on our driveway late at night or early in the morning. I usually step on them to crush them.
This morning I encountered what, at first glance, appeared to be a very large snail. But snails usually have a big stripe that follows the spiral on their shells. This fellow had a different design. I took a closer look at him as he chugged along. It wasn't a snail at all. It was a tiny tortoise.
There are no tortoise native to San Diego county. This one was either purchased as a pet or hatched from the eggs somebody's pet laid in their yard. It could have come from quite far away, carried, I'm told, by a raven or other large bird.
I called the zoo for information about what to do with this creature. They referred me to the San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society, who gave me the numbers of three members. I called the one in my area code and left a message.
I got a reply in about twenty minutes. The member living closest to me is about two miles away, so I contacted her, first leaving a message on her machine and later, when she returned home from work, making arrangements for Cathy to deliver the animal to her house.
It is illegal to return a tortoise to the wild in California.
You are supposed to get a license to own a tortoise. I imagine this law gets broken frequently, mostly out of ignorance. But tortoises are land animals, unlike turtles, and require special care. They like to burrow but must be protected from flooding. They must even be protected from the damp of night. During the day they need both sun and shade. Small tortoises, like this one, are vulnerable to a number of predators, including small dogs like Rocky.
Taking care of the animal, no matter how pretty he was (and he was pretty, his tan shell having a single thin brown line forming a loop on each segment), would have been too much effort. Just finding his owner might be too much effort. The society is set up to handle such things. It is better to let the creature go as soon as possible, as we did.
Comments (3)
Yes, we had one wander by our house one day. My wife took him in thinking she was doing him a favor. He died, of course. We only found out later the moisture was the culprit. Poor guy. He died of our ignorance.
My brother once owned two tortoises back in England...he meant to ship them out to Malta, but they never made it. One died after a freak increase in temperature during the winter - he awoke from hibernation thinking it was spring, and the winter killed it. The female survived another few years - but the breeding experiment had failed.
As for the snails...put down little saucers of beer - it will eradicate your snail problem. (British beer is better.)
people drag them out of the mojave and kill them with blindness...........................
*sigh*