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.
