The giant tortoise that went missing from a zoo in Okayama Prefecture has been found in the bushes, 140 meters from where she escaped.
The tortoise, Aboo, was found by a man and his teenage son, whose names are being kept in private, on Wednesday at around 2:00 p.m. in the bushes near where she made her escape, according to the Japan Times. They were rewarded with 500,000 yen and a lifetime pass to the zoo to visit the female Aldabra giant tortoise whenever they want.
“I feel relieved. From now on, we’ll make sure to take perfect care of our animals,” zoo employee, Yoshini Yamane, said further adding that Aboo was in perfect condition and had not suffered any injury when she was found.
Aboo was last spotted in Shibukawa Animal Park in Tamano, Okayama Prefecture on the morning of August 1, 2017. However, on that same day, surveillance footage showed the Aldabra tortoise leaving the area, which she had been allowed to roam freely and has never tried to escape since her arrival in the zoo in 2004.
It is still unclear how Aboo escaped the facility. Zoo official Tatsuaki Murase, at the time of the tortoise’s disappearance, suspected that she could be kidnapped considering that she moves at a very slow pace.
Image via Wikimedia Commons / Childzy (CC BY-SA 3.0)
