Found a stray - Chandler

[chuckster]

Looks like a Sonoran to me. 

 

[n2horns]

turtle soup in the half shell

[PRDATR]

Not a Sulcatta.

 

[Sky Island junkie]

African spurred (sulcata). Not native. They get huge! We had one that I swear was pushing 100 pounds! 

[chuckster]

It was on the asphalt between the sidewalks about 100 yards down the street when I  got home from work.  I'd say it weighs ~15lbs.

[Jimmer Negamanee]

11 hours ago, Sky Island junkie said:

African spurred (sulcata). Not native. They get huge! We had one that I swear was pushing 100 pounds! 

I agree.

Google African Spurred Tortoise or Salcata Tortoise or African Spur Thighed Tortoise and you'll see lots of pics and get good information.

As an exotic species, it likely an escaped pet.  They surprisingly good escape artists.  They can bump up against fence gates repeatedly (slowly of course) and disengage the latch and they can tunnel out of enclosures.  Then they're off to the races!  (Again, slowly).

Someone may be looking for it.  Or someone may not be looking for it if they either don't know it's gone or aren't sad to see it go.

They aren't bad pets and can show some personality but they can dig a lot and, as Sky Island Junkie said, they get HUGE. 

If you can't find the owner you could make a pet out of it or maybe call the Phoenix Herpetological  Society to see if they have any suggestions.

https://www.phoenixherp.com/

If your family wants a tortoise but don't want the commitment of a Salcata maybe consider adopting a Sonoran Desert Tortoise through AZGFD.  They are smaller and are a native species and can't be released to bolster wild populations because they can introduce diseases that can rage through wild population.

https://www.azgfd.com/wildlife/nongamemanagement/tortoise/captivecare/

Good luck and let us know how this turns out. 

-Jimmer

 

 

[Roosevelt Mark]

12 hours ago, Sky Island junkie said:

African spurred (sulcata). Not native. They get huge! We had one that I swear was pushing 100 pounds! 

PRDATR says its not. He knows......

[Edge]

It's a male African Spurred, owned several. Proof? Look at the spurs. Males have a typically rounder shell on top, concave on bottom to aid in mounting.

They'll wreck your yard, landscaping, irrigation, foundation..

[Sky Island junkie]

9 hours ago, Roosevelt Mark said:

PRDATR says its not. He knows......

My wife is the tortoise nut. She has several sulcata and native desert. The huge one we had years ago left piles like a horse would drop. We sold our house in northwest Peoria and tried to take her with to our place in so az and she freaked out excreting uric acid ( I think) and I guess that’s bad so we left her with the buyers who were thrilled. Couple years later we found out from them that she got out. Yes like Edge says they are Houdini’s. She didn’t dig out because the wall footers were too deep. Only thing she could have done was continue to test the gates that had self closing springs but found one that didn’t close? Who knows? Anyhow they got her back about 2 weeks after she’d gone missing. Awhile after she started digging deep under different plants, destroying the landscape. Next thing they knew there were little ones showing up. 46 that they found! They sold the little ones to some pet shop for like $1800 if I remember right? Crazy!

[elkaholic]

We found several tortoises out piggy hunting this spring. He was pretty dusty, so I shared some water.

[Cambow]

These critters are so cool...

 

[Edge]

Found two so far this summer.

[CatfishKev]

Never seen one. Did see more box turtles this year then I've seen all years combined in the past.  Even tried letting my little girl have one as a pet but she didn't take care of it so back it went.