Tortoise Rescue

I saw a small tortoise crossing the road in our neighborhood yesterday afternoon. It was about halfway across and I carefully avoided it and backed up to see what it was.

I've rescued many turtles and tortoises over the years. If I see one on the road while driving the backroads, I'll get out of the car and either put it on the side of the road it was trying to get to, or pick it up and take it home for later release. A couple of times, I've released red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) into a pond near our neighborhood.

I always feel sorry for them because they take so long to cross the road and I know there's a good chance they'll get hit by a car.

This isn't one I'm familiar with. The most common turtles or tortoises in this area are the red-eared slider, which are mainly aquatic, and the box turtle (genus Terrapene) which is mainly terrestrial. This one didn't look like either. It reminds me of some of the ones I've seen in pet stores, the African Spurred tortoise (Geochelone sulcata).

Here's a photo of it in a small animal cage. It's only about 2 inches long and 1 inch tall. I was lucky to see it in the road while driving by at 30 miles per hour.

I'm going to need help identifying it and figuring out what to feed it. For now, we're giving it lettuce and carrots.

If it's an African Spurred then it's not native and is probably an escaped or released pet. In the research I've done so far, it might be a native though, either the Texas (Gopherus berlandieri) or Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii).

If any of you recognize it or know some who might, please let me know.