Missing Tortoise Returned To Kansas Home

A 50-pound tortoise that disappeared from outside its northeast Kansas has been found and returned home.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf says the brown African spurred tortoise was found Friday. The animal was unharmed but stuck on a ledge in a ravine behind its owners’ home outside Junction City. Wolf says the tortoise wasn’t injured but was a little hungry.

The family pet was reported missing on Aug. 5. Authorities investigated the case as a possible theft. But they also say the pen’s gate may have been left open by accident or that the tortoise was frightened by stormy weather and burrowed underground.

Associated Press information from: The Junction City Daily Union