Tortoise

T'other Half just found this chappie on our front Patio ...






We have no experience with these critters so have put him in the Sand Garden.

We don't know how he got in here as we have stone walls or concrete walls, unless he got under the double front gates.

What should we do?

 

Is it a tortoise or a turtle/terrapin type thing.
I think they get a bit drowsy in lower temperatures, I wonder if your cold spell has confused him.

 

I think they bite, dont they.

 

On Portuguese Wildlife I was told it is a ,Mauremys leprosa.

I know one person and one restaurant that has a pond. It has disappeared from the sand garden!

 

The Iberian pond turtle, so its native, probably best left to its own devices then?

 

It is a Terrapin rather than a Tortoise. Wouldn't normally hibernate but temps will affect it as it does other reptiles.
Some terrapins will adapt to different conditions. Remember the craze when people in the UK bought the Red Eared terrapins during the Ninja Turtle fad - many were just dumped in streams and ponds when their owners realised they had to actually look after them !! They managed to increase and breed to an extent that they were often considered a pest. Rather like the Ring neck parakeets.
If your little visitor has disappeared, either it's found a way out ( as it found a way in ) or has hidden itself.
I hope you manage to track it down and find the owner. Be very interested in any updates.

 

What people didn't appreciate when they bought their cute little 50p sized terrapins was that they could grow to the size of a dinner plate.

 

When I was a lad somebody bought a young friend a terrapin, it started in a tank indoors, was later moved to the fishpond and having eaten everything there it was released into a large flooded pit at the back of the gas works. Never seen again as far as I know, whole site has been redeveloped long since.

 

The one person I thought could take it on a farm with geese, donkeys, bees, etc said she doesn't think it would be safe with her cats and dogs. Have not seen it this morning.

 

I saw one on the grass in the park one summer, there was always a local myth that there were some in the lake, but I never saw any until then, or since.

 

Must admit I've not noticed any reports on the Red eared for a long time.

 

They have ears?

 

These live in a quarry pond in Whitley Bay been there for years and get through our NE winters.

 

Very similar to the one I saw, it was digging at the time.