Tortoise, Likely Looking for Love, Goes on Lam in Arizona

Slow and steady may win the race. But it can’t keep you from getting picked up by the cops. 

Stitch the tortoise made a good run, though. The fugitive giant African sulcata got three miles away from his enclosure at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch on June 30. Then, the police caught up with him. He’d gone missing after a storm the night before had wrecked some of the animal cages.

Stitch was found on an interstate highway near Picacho, Arizona. Officers, acting on a 911 call and help from a good samaritan, caught the runagate reptile and member of an endangered species while he was halfway across the highway.  

“The ranch confirmed Stitch was one of their resident tortoises and had recently escaped from his habitat,” the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) said. “Staff from the ranch were very grateful for everyone’s efforts and glad to learn there were no injuries or damage as a result of his escapades.”

For the Arizona DPS, this was a first. They’d handled missing cats, cattle, and ducks before. But they'd never chased down a tortoise, especially not an exotic one that grows to more than two feet in length and weighs as much as 100 pounds. 

So what motivated Stitch the sand-colored snapper to scarper from his protected enclosure? Freedom? Curiosity about the world beyond his pen? The all-you-can-eat buffet at Cafe de Manuel in Casa Grande? 

“I think Stitch must have been out on the hunt for a girl,” Danna Cogburn, Rooster’s owner, told The New York Times. “You know how teenage boys are when it comes to girls.” 

Cogburn noted that it's breeding season. Stitch, as it turns out, has no female peers at the ranch. 

Reflect: Why do you think some animals might try to leave their homes or habitats?

Photo of a tortoise from Unsplash courtesy of Aron Visuals.