Molly’s no sprinter; more of a long-distance athlete, really

They were somewhat shell-shocked.

Nobody at Oak Hammock Marsh expected to find an African spurred tortoise wandering through the wetlands. Least of all one that had travelled more than 20 kilometres from home to get there.

But after being missing for two weeks, Molly, a 15-year-old pet tortoise, was discovered tromping around the marsh.

At first, staff thought there had been a case of mistaken identity after visitors started reporting sightings of the animal.

“For the majority of the staff here, we were like, ‘Well, you know, somebody probably saw a snapping turtle or something like that,’” said Gillian Malchuk, a nature interpreter at Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Wetland Discovery Centre at Oak Hammock Marsh.

But then a visitor sent staff a photo through iNaturalist, an animal and plant identification app.

After seeing the photo and hearing from other visitors who had spotted a tortoise, staff realized they really did have one wandering around the marsh.

They eventually tracked Molly down and took her back to the centre.

She had no obvious injuries, and her shell was intact.

“She was in surprisingly good condition,” Malchuk said.

She was, however, hungry after her 2o-kilometre journey,

And the wetlands were not exactly the right place for her.

Canada has no native tortoise species. African spurred tortoises are terrestrial animals native to hot, arid parts of Africa, making Molly’s unexpected stop at the wetland all the more unusual.

“She’s not really gonna enjoy swimming through deep muck and water,” Malchuk said.

While Molly ate and staff figured out what to do next, Malchuk started searching online pet lost-and-found groups.

There weren’t many missing tortoises to sort through.

“There was only one post, and the pictures in the post looked a heck of a lot like Molly,” Malchuk said.

With the centre closing for the day, Malchuk took Molly home and kept her in her fenced yard while staff got in touch with the owner.

A few photos later, Molly’s identity was confirmed, and her owner arrived to pick her up.

“She was very, very happy to have her home again,” Malchuk said.

The reunion solved one mystery, but not the biggest one: how did Molly end up more than 20 kilometres from home?

Some staff think she may have made the journey herself. Malchuk suspects someone may have found her and taken her to the marsh, thinking they were helping an animal.

“Somebody thought they were, you know, doing a good thing and maybe helping an animal along to where it was supposed to be without realizing she was in the very wrong environment,” Malchuk said.

Malchuk said Oak Hammock Marsh has had other unexpected animal visitors, including black bears, but Molly was a first.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time that anybody’s ever found a pet tortoise or anything of the like that was hanging out here at the marsh,” she said.

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca