However, Jon Stark, an officer with the regional Waterways Conservation office, wasn’t so sure that the callers were correct.
“After I received the call, I went over to see what kind of turtle it really was because, if it was as big as they said it was, that’s a giant snapping turtle,” he wrote in a public Facebook post.
“Once there, I found the massive turtle that everyone feared and captured the beast! Turned out it was just someone’s pet African Tortoise,” Stark continued.
Stark took a picture of the animal and posted the image onto the Facebook page of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. In the photo, the tortoise’s yellow-tinted head and arms extend from its brown and black shell. The animal seems slightly larger than two basketballs as it fills Stark’s hands.
“This big old turtle just wanted to go for a walk and be free,” Stark wrote. “Still not sure where he got loose from, but now he has a new home and a large area to roam.”
Stark didn’t specify where the animal was released.
African tortoises aren’t found in North America. The animals can weigh up to 200 pounds and live to be 150 years old. Because they are highly adaptive to extreme temperatures and can live off a diet of fresh grasses and water, people sometimes take them in as pets.
However, the animals require a great deal of space, indoors and outdoors. They prefer a hot and humid environment and like to burrow into the ground to stay cool during hot summer months, and can be territorial.
Granted, this isn’t the first time a wild animal has escaped into a neighborhood and surprised residents.
Earlier this month, police in Bonner Springs, Kansas had to capture an Arabian camel that escaped from a Christmas nativity scene at the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame.
In late November, a bear broke into a Colorado woman’s home. Video captured the animal eating hundreds of dollars worth of meat from her fridge.
Around the same time, a sea lion swam up a river near Lincoln City, Oregon, and began wandering around a local neighborhood. Authorities eventually lured it back into the water using fish as bait.
