Releasing pet tortoises in the wild is starting to become a big problem since the increase in the popularity of pet tortoises. This usually happens when people don’t have enough information about tortoises when they buy one. And in some cases, they can’t keep the tortoise anymore and release it in the wild, but this is actually the worst thing that they can do for the tortoise as well as the environment.
Pet tortoises should never be released into the wild! Releasing a non-native tortoise in the wild can be dangerous for the tortoise and disrupt an entire ecosystem.
There are a lot of reasons why you shouldn’t release a pet tortoise in the wild. To make things simpler I will divide the article into two sections, the first one about why this is bad for the tortoise, and the second about why it’s bad for the environment. And at the end, I will tell you what you can do with your tortoise if you can’t keep it anymore.
How It Can Be Dangerous for a Pet Tortoise to Be Released in the Wild
Most pet tortoises have been born in captivity, this means that they never had to worry about food, predators, basking areas, or in some cases other tortoises.
Food
Pet tortoises don’t have to catch or search for their food, in most cases they will find food just “laying” around in the enclosure or terrarium and that’s it. They almost never have to do any effort in order to eat.
Wild tortoises will usually have to look around for a while to find food, and in most cases that food will not be enough, or have all the nutrients and vitamins that a tortoise needs.
So a tortoise that is used to just getting its food without any effort won’t adapt too well to this way of living, and it’s not because they aren’t trying, it’s because they’ve spent a lot of years in captivity where they didn’t get the chance to use their skills so they’ve lost them.
You might be thinking that tortoises aren’t born with those scavenging instincts, so why do wild baby tortoises manage to survive, and why an adult pet tortoise is unable to? Tortoises are actually born with certain instincts like most animals are, including humans. But if those instincts aren’t used from the start they will slowly start to go away. And also baby tortoises require less food. For example, a baby tortoise can last an entire week with just a salad leaf, but the same amount of food will only be enough for a day for an adult tortoise. So basically a baby tortoise has more time at its disposal to learn everything that it needs to survive than a released pet tortoise.
Predators
A pet tortoise doesn’t have to worry about predators at all. Most pet tortoises will occasionally get scared of humans that they’ve never met before or other pets like dogs or cats. You can tell that they are scared because they will hide in their enclosure and they will retract into their shells. But people and other pets aren’t really predators, all of them could hurt the tortoise if they wanted but usually, that’s not the case so we can’t consider them real predators.
Pet tortoises still maintain the instinct to defend themselves, you can sometimes see this when a tortoise will try to bite the person that is handling it, or when they hide in their shells.
But a pet tortoise doesn’t have to defend against snakes, raccoons, crows, eagles, alligators, etc. Most of the threats that they are defending against are actually harmless.
A wild tortoise will have to always be on alert because a predator can come at any moment and attack them, and those predators won’t leave them alone just because the tortoise tried to bite them. When a predator attacks they do this because they want to eat the tortoise, so a tortoise has to at least injure the predator so it will back off or hide in the shell and endure the attack until the predator gives up on the tortoise. None of those options are pleasant, but there are no other ways to get out of a situation like this.
Wild tortoises also know how to properly hide so that predators don’t find them. Tortoises can get good at hiding only if they spend a lot of time in the wilderness hiding from predators and testing different spots.
A tortoise that never had to deal with a proper predator has almost no chance to survive an attack. And since they don’t know the area and they don’t have any experience in hiding from predators, hiding also isn’t the best option.
If you want to know more about tortoise predators you should read this article: What are the Predators of Tortoises?
Basking
Tortoises need to bask to maintain good health. In captivity, tortoises have a basking area that is equipped with a UV light and a heat lamp, which make sure that the tortoise will get the exact amount of heat their need and a lot of UV light. All that a tortoise needs to do in order to get all the required heat and UV is to walk or swim a very short distance and they have the perfect spot. This is not very challenging for them.
On the other hand, wild tortoises don’t have it that easy. Good basking spots are not that easy to find in the wild, a tortoise has to search for a while to find a spot that is somewhat good. Most wild tortoises will never find a spot that is as good as the one that pet tortoises have at their disposal. Another problem with the basking spots in the wild is that they are usually overcrowded and tortoises will occasionally fight in order to get a place. When there are no viable basking spots in the area a lot of tortoises will stack to ensure that they get the required heat and UV light.
There is one advantage that basking spots in the wild have over a man-made basking area, and that is the UV light. Even if the UV light bulbs offer enough UV light to ensure that the tortoise is healthy, nothing beats the UV light that the sun offers.
Even if a tortoise can survive longer without basking than it could survive without food, it’s still essential for its health. And for a pet tortoise that didn’t have to do anything difficult to find a basking spot, having to search for one that won’t be as good as the one they had while in captivity will be very hard. And as a result, their health will start to slowly deteriorate.
In this section, I mentioned tortoise stacking, if you don’t know what that is, or you want to know why tortoises do it you should check out this article: Why do Tortoises Stack?
And if you want to know how to properly heat a basking area check out this article: Guide for Lighting and Heating a Tortoise Tank and Basking Area
Other Tortoises
A lot of pet tortoises don’t have to interact with other tortoises at all, and this can be a problem when they are released into the wild.
Tortoises aren’t social animals by any means, most of them interact with each other just to reproduce and to fight over food, basking spots, and reproduction partners. But they still interact and as they interact more and more over time they will get better at this and they will know how to intimidate the opponent so they don’t have to fight and how to attract another tortoise to mate. Those social skills are very important for a tortoise even if they use them very rarely.
An adult pet tortoise will have very little chance to attract another tortoise when they want to mate, and they will have no experience in fighting other tortoises.
If a pet tortoise shared the enclosure or terrarium with another tortoise, they will be a little better at socializing with other tortoises than a tortoise that grew up alone, but they will still not be as good at it as a wild tortoise would be.
How a Pet Tortoise Can Disrupt the Ecosystem
If a pet tortoise is lucky enough to survive in the wild it can cause a lot of harm to the ecosystem. They can do this in a multitude of ways, here are some examples:
Bacteria and Diseases
Pet tortoises can carry bacteria that are harmless to them but which is dangerous to other species. If the tortoise manages to spread that bacteria to just a couple of animals, then the whole area can get infected with it and the disease will start affecting the animals.
Disrupting the Food Chain
A tortoise will eat a lot of small bugs and insects that they will find in the wild. If they eat enough of those small insects they might end up disrupting the food chain because some species will start to go hungry and will start to look for something else to eat which they would normally stay away from because it’s too dangerous. There are a lot of ways this can go bad and I am sure that you can also imagine a lot of those ways right now.
Overpopulation
If multiple tortoises are released in the wild and they manage to survive long enough to reproduce then this means that the baby tortoises will also be able to survive. So basically there is a new species living in that ecosystem, and this can lead to overpopulation, which can lead to fights for food between species, and many other bad things.
Destroying the balance
Every ecosystem has its balance, some animals eat other animals, and this way they keep their population under control. Some animals eat only plants while others eat only meat. Some species collaborate with each other to ensure that they survive.
Every ecosystem has its balance that was formed after thousands of years during which there were a lot of species, but only a few select remained. Taking out one of them can destroy the entire balance of the ecosystem. And adding a new one can be just as dangerous, if not even more. In general, tortoises are able to adapt to a huge variety of conditions, but to do so they will have to eat the food that was usually eaten by other animals and take up space that other animals used. Those things can hurt other animal species and lead to their extinction in that zone.
So releasing a pet tortoise in the wild is not only bad for the tortoise, but also for the ecosystem.
Releasing a Tortoise That Has Shortly Lived in Captivity
If you find an injured tortoise in the wild and you keep it in captivity for a couple of months until it’s healed then you can release it back into the wild. Since they’ve spent most of their lives in the wild and they had to spend a couple of months in captivity to heal, it won’t be any problem for them to resume their normal life in the wild.
Just be careful if you want to take care of an injured wild tortoise, they won’t adapt to captivity that well, even if it’s for a short period of time.
Just remember to go with them to the vet before taking care of them and releasing them into the wild.
What “The Wild” Actually Means
Throughout the entire article I’ve mentioned the wild, let’s talk a little about what the wild actually means.
The wild means a place where tortoises naturally leave, where they can find enough food, water, heat, light, and protection.
There have been many sightings of tortoises in cities and neighborhoods, those tortoises are usually pet tortoises that have been released in a place near the city or neighborhood, a forest for example where they were unable to find enough water or food so they started wandering around to find a better place and they ended up in a city.
A city could also be considered a wild place, but not the kind of wild place where a tortoise would naturally live, or where they could survive.
How to Properly Get Rid of a Pet Tortoise
After some time tortoises can become a burden for some people who don’t have the time or money to take care of them. Regardless of the reason you should never release your tortoise in the wild, there are more humane and better ways to deal with things.
Return Them to the Place You Bought Them
Contact the place from which you bought your tortoise and ask them about the return policy, some places will take the tortoise back after a short period of time, or at least they will tell you about a place where you can take your tortoise.
Sell your tortoise
Place an ad online and sell your tortoise to somebody who is willing to take care of it. It’s a good idea to also sell the equipment or at least some of it to that person. This way they will have everything they need to take care of the tortoise and the tortoise will have the proper conditions.
Talk to a Zoo
Some zoos will gladly accept donations. And there will be experts that know how to properly take care of your tortoise, so you don’t have to worry about its well-being. Plus you could always go and visit.
Ask a Vet
Another option is to ask a vet, some of them know of certain places that will be willing to take care of a tortoise. Or at least they will give you some tips on where to search.
Organizations
There are organizations out there that are taking care of tortoises, but their main focus is the tortoises in the wild and not pet tortoises. They will help you if you have problems with your pet tortoise but they aren’t a place where you can give your tortoise. If they were to accept all tortoises they wouldn’t be able to do anything else. I know that in some special cases they will help you to get rid of your tortoise, but in general, that is not what they do, so I don’t think that an organization that helps tortoises is the place to go if you want to give your tortoise away.
Final Thoughts
So pet tortoises aren’t usually able to survive in the wild, and if they manage to survive they can do more harm than good for the ecosystem.
If you want to get rid of your tortoise you should do it in a proper way and not release it in a random place in the wild.
If you have any questions about how pet tortoises survive in the wild or how to properly get rid of your tortoise let me know in the comments and I will answer them as soon as possible.
And if you are unable to find a place or a person to give your tortoise away leave a comment and me and my colleagues from tortoiseowner.com will do our best to help you find a new home for your tortoise.
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I gave my Russian tortoise to a family that has huge yard..little farm . They’ve had him about a year ( in California) anyway he escaped about a month ago. Will he be able to survive on his own?? If they don’t find him? It’s a country town so there’s plenty of grass ,weeds, plants for him to eat. Thank you
Russian tortoises are generally hardy animals, but their ability to survive in the wild outside of their native habitat depends on various factors. If your Russian tortoise has been living in a well-maintained enclosure and then escapes into a different environment, there are several things to consider:
Climate: Russian tortoises are native to arid regions in Central Asia. If the climate of the area where the tortoise escaped is similar to their natural habitat, they may have a better chance of survival.
Food: Russian tortoises are herbivores and primarily graze on various plants, weeds, and grasses. If there is an abundant supply of suitable vegetation in the area, they may be able to find food.
Predators: Russian tortoises can be vulnerable to predators, such as dogs, birds of prey, and wild animals. Their survival could be threatened if they encounter these animals.
Health: The tortoise’s health, age, and condition also play a role in their ability to adapt to a new environment.
In cases like this, it’s difficult to predict the outcome. Some tortoises have been known to survive in the wild, while others may face challenges. The best course of action is for the family who now has the tortoise to continue searching for it. It may be helpful for them to put out food and water in a designated area to attract the tortoise. Additionally, spreading the word in the local community and contacting local animal shelters and veterinarians could help in locating the tortoise.
It’s also crucial to ensure that any future tortoise enclosures have secure boundaries to prevent further escapes. If the tortoise is found, a vet check-up may be needed to ensure it’s in good health after its time in the wild.