MAUI NEWS (Wailuku, Hawaii) 13 December 08 Lost tortoise looking for its home
Kihei: An African spurred tortoise was found wandering at a north Kihei beach early this month, and the Maui Invasive Species Committee wants to reunite it with its owner.
The 15-pound tortoise, which can grow to more than 200 pounds, was found by a fisherman on the beach Dec. 3 and was taken to a state Division of Forest and Wildlife facility near Kahului Airport, said Lissa Fox, public relations and education specialist with the committee.
She said the tortoise is about 16 inches long, and 8 inches wide, and it's estimated to be between 5 and 10 years old.
State Department of Land and Natural Resources wildlife technician Stephanie Franklin responded to a report of a disabled seabird in Kihei, but she found the tortoise instead.
"It's an interesting find," said Franklin, who has a master's degree in wildlife ecology with a speciality in herpetology (a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles, such as turtles). "I don't get many opportunities to do herpetology work on Maui."
The African spurred tortoise, or Geochelone sulcata, is the third largest tortoise in the world. With enough to eat, a quarter-sized hatchling can grow quickly. The largest recorded such tortoise was more than 2-feet long and weighed 240 pounds. The tortoise is native to sub-Sahara Africa and is well-adapted to hot, dry climates.
Fox said officials surmise the tortoise was a pet that somehow made its way to the beach.
African spurred tortoises are often kept as pets, but many owners are unprepared for how large the animals get and what the creatures do to a backyard.
"They make good pets, but they can become huge," Franklin said. "They're voracious eaters, and they burrow."
The tortoise is a vegetarian, eating grass, plants and even cactus.
Recommendations on keeping the tortoises as pets include burying a fence 6-feet deep to keep the animals from burrowing underneath. The tortoise spends about 85 percent of its time in burrows, and it quickly turns a yard into an excavated tortoise habitat, according to MISC.
As the average African tortoise lives 80 years, ownership of one is a lifetime commitment.
The tortoise found in Kihei was checked and found to be free of ticks, a health problem for such animals, as ticks can be carriers of heartwater disease, which is fatal to livestock including cattle, goats and sheep. The disease is not known to be in Hawaii.
It is not illegal to keep the African spurred tortoise as a pet in Hawaii, according to MISC, but U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations prohibit importing tortoises into the country or between states unless they are accompanied by a health certificate showing they're free of ticks.
Anyone with information on locating the owner of the tortoise can call MISC at 573-6472.
Lost tortoise looking for its home