What you think, is this possible; the poor tortoise fed it self with termites. Poor animal lived 3 decades trapped in a box. Family cleans house, finds pet tortoise missing since 1982 : TreeHugger
I would struggle to be convinced of this story. I had a look around and, as expected, there are no follow-ups to it, simply the exact same story repeated in dozens of online newspapers. The photos of the animal (not on the above link, but on other articles) certainly don't look like a tortoise which has been in a box for thirty years. The explanation offered for its survival, i.e. eating termites, is pretty nonsense. There are no other possibilites entertained - e.g. it's a made-up story, it's a different tortoise, etc. If it could be verified then it would be amazing. Otherwise I call hoax.
I think I heard a similar story a few years ago, except that time the tortoise had been wandering around the room. That was a bit more believable. But doesn't this species need more nutrition that termites?
They would need plant fiber for fermentation in the gut. The are not primarly insectivores. They would also need exposure to UV rays. Although termites can provide much of the nutrients (even plant fiber in their guts from tree they eat, also minerals).
Shouldn't they have found a bunch of turds on the storage area if something was living there? Sorry, I'm not buying this story.
I remember Guinness had a world record for slowest pet or animal or something, it was a Tortoise that wandered away from its home and was found in the woods less than a mile from its home something like 30 years later, it was marked with a white streak on its shell so that's how it was identified. This was in England, I think, are there any species of Tortoise that can survive outside in there? And furthermore how did the Tortoise get away from them if it was so slow. Sounds like either another hoax except this one was actually verified. I think. My memory could be betraying me.
A tortoise could live quite successfully in UK woodland, many plants they feed on grow in UK hedgerow and woodland. They also feed on animal faeces given the opportunity. Within UK woodland there is usually a fairly thick layer of slowly decaying foliage (slowly decaying due to the temperate UK temperatures), this creates a useful place for a tortoise to bury itself for hibernation and to cover itself each night, preventing frost exposure during the winter. Providing there are no rats or mustelids within the woodland, the tortoise would have no predators to really worry about either. Our tortoise will be getting put into his hibernation quarters within the next few weeks and thats him packaged away on a shelf in our garage until approximately early April next year. Just now he is eating very little and not moving, a sign hibernation isn't too far away. As for 30 years in a box, that would leave only a dead tortoise I firmly believe.
