{"id":119,"date":"2024-01-25T12:45:30","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T12:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/?p=119"},"modified":"2024-01-25T15:04:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T15:04:30","slug":"an-english-mystery-what-killed-7-giant-tortoises-found-in-the-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/an-english-mystery-what-killed-7-giant-tortoises-found-in-the-forest\/","title":{"rendered":"An English Mystery: What Killed 7 Giant Tortoises Found in the Forest?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It wasn\u2019t your usual crime scene. And they weren\u2019t your usual victims. But it was a tragedy nonetheless, one that has grabbed the authorities\u2019 attention in a sleepy corner of England.<\/p>\n

The police in Devon and Cornwall are investigating how seven giant tortoises ended up dead this month in Ashclyst Forest, northeast of Exeter, England.<\/p>\n

Two tortoises were found on Jan. 8, and five more on Jan. 12, the police said. The police have asked members of the public to come forward with information if they have it. It\u2019s unclear who found the tortoises, but the police said \u201ca member of the public\u201d reported the dead animals.<\/p>\n

For now there are only more questions \u2014 How did these animals die? Where did they come from? Who are their owners? \u2014 and almost no answers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe would also like to hear from anyone who has recently purchased a giant tortoise in the area or knows of anyone who normally has a large number of tortoises but has fewer now,\u201d Mark Arthurs, a police inspector, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The police said the animals appeared to be Aldabra giant tortoises, which are native to Aldabra Island, part of the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

\"Seven<\/p>\n

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Aldabra tortoises need to live in very warm conditions, preferably temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius, or 86 degrees Fahrenheit, said Dr. James Gibbs, an expert in conservation biology and the president of the nonprofit Gal\u00e1pagos Conservancy \u2014 very different from the near-frozen English forest where the dead tortoises were found.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are so-called coldblooded animals, but they rely on very warm conditions to be functional,\u201d Dr. Gibbs said. In cold temperatures, he added, \u201cthey could survive maybe an hour or two before they become so lethargic that they can\u2019t move.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Temperatures in England during the week the tortoises were found hovered around 2 degrees Celsius, or 35 degrees Fahrenheit. \u201cTo see them frozen in an English woodland is a jarring observation,\u201d Dr. Gibbs said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a very bizarre situation,\u201d he added. \u201cAnimals of this size and this value, just dumped unceremoniously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on the pictures he had seen, Dr. Gibbs said that the tortoises seemed to be 10 to 20 years old, not yet adults. Giant tortoises can live to be 150, even 200 in rare cases.<\/p>\n

The tortoises also appeared to have suffered from malnutrition, he said, because their shells appeared deformed, and they looked like they had spent their lives in captivity. He added that they were \u201cyoung tortoises that had a long life ahead of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n