This past month, several strange reports came in regarding sightings of a tortoise tromping about the Marsh. Thanks to the keen eyes of our visitors, we were able to track her down! After some digging, we discovered that we had found Molly the pet African Spurred Tortoise. Molly had been missing for 2 weeks and had somehow managed to travel 20km+ from home!
Canada has no native tortoise species, and while Molly may have passed for a snapping turtle from a distance, she was very out of her element in a wetland ecosystem. African Spurred Tortoises are terrestrial animals native to hot, arid climates like the Saharan Dessert.
After receiving lots of snacks from the Centre staff, Molly was reunited with her family safe and sound, if a little tired. Thank you to everyone that got her there, and thank you to Molly, our honorary Marsh ambassador, for teaching us a little bit about what to expect (and what not to expect) at Oak Hammock Marsh!
Aug. 13 (UPI) — A 15-year-old African spurred tortoise who escaped from her owner’s Manitoba home was found two weeks later at a nature preserve more than 12 miles from home.
The Oak Hammock Marsh nature preserve in Manitoba said on social media that officials received multiple reports of tortoise sightings on the property, which struck them as strange, as tortoises are not native to Canada.
“We thought maybe people were mistaking a snapping turtle because we do get those,” Gillian Malchuk, a nature interpreter at Oak Hammock Marsh, told CTV News. “So snapping turtles, painted turtles, any number of things that we were maybe thinking it could be. Maybe just a big rock in some circumstances.”
Malchuk said preserve employees changed their minds when one visitor managed to snap a photo of what was clearly an African spurred tortoise, a species native to the Sahara Desert.
“We all knew that she wasn’t where she was supposed to be and it was probably not the easiest time for her out there. So I think the initial reaction was surprise and maybe a little disbelief, but then a big effort to go out and find her,” Malchuck said.
Staff searched the grounds for two days before the tortoise turned up in the parking lot.
Malchuk took the tortoise to her home until staff were able to identify the animal’s owner.
The tortoise, named Molly, had been missing for two weeks from a home about 12.4 miles away from Oak Hammock Marsh.
Malchuk said it isn’t impossible that Molly walked the entire way.
“I wouldn’t put it past her. I did get to spend some time with Molly and she’s a pretty strong spirit and quite the Houdini in my yard,” she said.
Malchuck posited another theory that she believes to be more likely.
“I think probably some good Samaritan thought she belonged in the wetland, saw her on a highway somewhere, picked her up and brought her over here, thinking [they] were doing good, just without realizing this wasn’t really her habitat,” she said.