Injured turtle gets a second chance on four wheels

What’s Happening

Real talk: The post Injured turtle gets a second chance on four wheels appeared first on Popular Science.

Image: Courtesy of Nielson Donato Get the Popular Science daily 💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Installing wheels on a tortoise might seem like a cruel joke—but a veterinary practice in the Philippines just did so to help out an Aldabra giant tortoise ( Aldabrachelys gigantea ) with troubled hind legs. (plot twist fr)

As the name suggests, Aldabra giant tortoises are among the largest land tortoises.

The Details

Also referred to as the Aldabra tortoise or giant tortoise, this reptile can weigh up to 550 pounds and can live over 150 years. Interestingly, Charles Darwin, among others, worked to protect the species.

The tortoise in question lived at a private zoo, but its legs weren’t working properly. The zoo referred the case to Nielsen Donato, chief surgeon at Vets in Practice , a vet practice with seven locations in metro Manila.

Why This Matters

Donato and his team did X-rays on their large patient, but didn’t detect dislocations or fractures. Wheeled tortoise “Mostly we think it could be weakness of the hind legs, could be neurological in origin,” Donato tells Popular Science . “Probably there were other companions, which sometimes when they try to hump on each other or mount on each other, this can cause trauma to the hind legs, and it took a while for it to recover.

This could have implications for future research in this area.

Key Takeaways

• ” The mounting can represent either playful or mating behavior.
• A socials video features the tortoise looking rather bewildered as Donato installs its bright orange wheels on its underside.

The Bottom Line

A socials video features the tortoise looking rather bewildered as Donato installs its bright orange wheels on its underside. Initially, it looked like it was too tall, but we wanted to put less pressure on the legs, and this would also allow it to have a better range of motion when its trying to walk,” Donato explains.

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