Officials at a Japanese zoo were worried when a giant tortoise escaped from the premises and went missing for two weeks. To encourage local residents to assist in searching for the missing tortoise, zoo officials put up a cash reward.
Soon enough, a man and his teenage son discovered the female Aldabra giant tortoise named Aboo. Where you might ask? Aboo was hiding about 140 meters away from her getaway point in some bushes. According to zoo worker Yoshimi Yamane, Aboo was in great condition with zero injuries.
“I feel relieved. From now on, we’ll make sure to take perfect care of our animals,” Yamane told Japan Times.
Aboo had been allowed to roam freely in an unenclosed area earlier this month and hadn’t tried to escape since arriving at the zoo in 2004. Since a tortoise moves at, ahem, a glacial pace, zoo officials suspected she’d been kidnapped. Thanks to the man and his son, who remain anonymous, Aboo is home and safe. According to officials, she is “one of the popular animals at the zoo.”
