The Exeter Aldabra Giant Tortoises

 

   Aldabra Giant Tortoises made the local, national and international news in early January 2024, for all the wrong reasons. 7 Tortoises, of varying sizes, and ages, were found in the woods of Ashclyst Forest, on the Kellerton Estate, near Exeter, in Devon, 8th-12th January, having perished from cold. And two more bodies have since been discovered, in the following month, by investigators, along with reports of an earlier one being found locally in 2021.

 

   There has been much speculation about how they got there and who they belonged to. We will probably never know the exact tragic circumstances of what happened. However, it is clear from their levels of decay that they were not all dumped in 2021, and have just been discovered. But it is likely, from their nearby location, that they were all abandoned by the same person/ people.

 

   We would like to make clear that the following comments are the personal opinions, of experienced fellow Aldabra keepers, and not the results of the police enquiry.

 

   We would like to reassure anyone who is interested, or concerned, that despite some of the news feeds featuring a picture of our Big guy Samson, it is not him who is one of the victims. 

   Please be assured that Samson and the rest of his friends are all alive and well, safely snuggled under their heat lamps, at home.

 

 

   Many theories, at the time, involved these tortoises being victims of smuggling, entering into this country illegally from abroad, however, this is highly unlikely. If they had all been similar size and ages, then that possibility would have been stronger. The fact that they were not, points more realistically to them being from someone’s private collection, and already living here in the UK, after being legally acquired over years.

   No disrespect to smugglers but they are lazy (just like most people), they will want maximum profit for least amount of risk. If the tortoises were all smaller yearlings then they would be easier to move, also easier to be discreet about transporting them. Varying sizes would involve varying boxes to put them in, they are not going to stack prettily amongst other camouflage merchandise they are moving. The larger animals, they pictured in the news articles, are heavy, needing at least two people to put serious effort into moving them. As a rule, the general public are nosey, so, if someone unloading a boat or truck, suddenly struggles to move a certain box it is going to be noticed and attention is not what smugglers want. That same animal would not just sit quietly in a cardboard box, it would not hold them for a start. You would need a wooden crate, which would likely mean forklifts or cranes to unload it, which also limits where you could unload them.

   Besides being heavy the larger animals are strong, if they started to fidget in their box, even slightly, they would make a noise, potentially at the wrong time, increasing the risk of them being discovered. If they were entering the country through a port that used sniffer dogs, then their risks of discovery would be higher, dogs, even just family pets, are very good at sniffing out tortoises.

   It would not make sense for a smuggler to keep the animal in poor conditions and risk their death during transportation. Nor would it be wise to try drugging them, tortoises are not a good animal to anaesthetise, they are high risk and would need to be constantly monitored, which is hardly discreet activity when you are trying to avoid drawing attention to your actions.

   The people involved, with illegal movement, themselves, are taking a great risk, smugglers don’t get paid for a dead animal, by the buyer, even if the penalty for being caught with one, alive or dead, would be about the same.

   There is no real need to smuggle Aldabra tortoises, they can be bought and sold legally in this country, and legally imported into this country, from the breeding parks in the Seychelles, if you so desire. They are listed as being vulnerable but they are not an endangered species yet, so they are not subject to that kudos status sought by exotic animal collectors.

   Frankly it does not make financial, transport, or risk, sense to try to smuggle a mixed sized group, they are making things so much harder for themselves.

   Adult Aldabra are never allowed to be imported to this country from the Seychelles, by the general public. Although they are legally available to purchase, by anyone, in the USA, larger, fully grown animals are rarely imported into this country, from the USA, due to the cost of getting them here. Even smugglers would still be subject to high transportation costs for an animal that could weigh up to 250kg.

 

 

 

Picture of the Aldabra Giant Tortoise found in the same area in 2021

 

 

   Another thought proffered, was that they had escaped from their keeper. This is a possible theory but again, extremely unlikely. The immediate thought would be why was someone not looking for them?

    If it happened to us - there would be local news and internet coverage letting the public know, and asking for assistance at finding a beloved pet. This would be especially prominent given the cold weather at the time. It is also highly unlikely that so many would escape together, they are animals that like their heat lamps, it is not logical that they would all suddenly decide to troop off into the cold, leaving a warm building behind. Before all heading in exactly the same direction, at approximately the same time and then all proceed to die within a small radius of each other. If they had escaped they would have been more widely scattered, they would not have played ‘follow the leader’, that is not something they would do.

 

 

 

Picture from Devon and Cornwall Police / APEX

 

 

   A third theory is that they were stolen from a private collection, in this country, by thieves, to be sold on the black market and they died because the people who stole them did not know how to look after them. Again that is a possible, and maybe a more likely, scenario but from the body language of the tortoises- they were happy and relaxed shortly before they died. If they had been stolen, manhandled and transported across the country, in less than ideal conditions, then the tortoises would have had a pulled in and defensive posture, which they did not. After dying a tortoise will retain its position it was in when it died i.e. if it was huddled into its shell at the time, it will stay in that position. The head and legs will not relax out of the body cavity once rigour mortis has passed. The Exeter tortoises had arms and legs extended, indicating they were happy and contented with their environment.

   Again, if someone had stolen them why was no one looking for them? If so many had been taken, then, as an owner, it was not something that you could accidentally overlook. No one in this country has so many Aldabra that they would not quickly notice that there were nine of them missing.

   These are unique animals and the police would certainly have been involved in an attempt to recover them, if they had been stolen. Again, online and newspaper coverage would have been an intense story, in an effort to locate them.

   Animals of the large size could have been stolen to order but again, a buyer would not pay for a dead animal, so whoever would have stolen them would have been prepared, it would not have been a spur of the moment robbery.

   An Aldabra is not something that some shifty character is going to try to sell you, down the pub, for fifty quid. They would not be stolen unless the thieves already had a buyer in place. They would also not be something that you could hide away, like a stolen Van Gough painting, until the heat died down, and then move them on, they would be too expensive and difficult to keep, for a non tortoise enthusiast.

   If they had ben stolen to order then the transfer between legal and illegal new owner would have been swift, and it would be highly unlikely that all of the tortoises would have died together, within a few short hours, inside a warm vehicle and thus required the dumping of their bodies in the woods. You would need a decent sized van to take the combined weight and size of the group, which would have been more memorable at the disposal site, if they were all moved there in one go.

   Surely even a criminal of limited intelligence would realise that there is nothing in the UK countryside that could scavenge away any evidence. Realistically, even a group of lions would have struggled to have disposed of those shells. Surprisingly, as no attempt was made to bury them, it would indicate that someone wanted them to be found.

 

 

 

Picture from Devon Live/ RSPCA

 

 

   There has also been speculation that the tortoises were victims of neglect. From the pictures we saw, that is also unlikely the case. Experts said that they had growth deformity, implying that they had not been looked after properly and been deliberately ill-treated. Shell pyramiding is something that all captive tortoises get, to a certain degree, some of ours have it. Whilst keepers strive to minimise this, by improving animal husbandry, it is not something we can eliminate altogether. The presence of shell pyramiding does not indicate deliberate cruelty and malicious neglect by an owner. So, if your tortoise has it, do not feel panicked that the police are going to swoop in and charge you for animal mistreatment. However, your pet could benefit from altering your tortoises diet.

   Aldabra tortoises, in the wild, on the Aldabra Atoll, have all of the exact requirements that they need to achieve a smooth shell of a wild bred animal. Their bodies have evolved over many, many hundreds of thousands of years to survive on the meagre vegetation available to them, in the wild.

   However, here in the UK, the environment is very different. Even if you just feed them grass, it is still more nutritious than they would naturally get in the wild. Our seasons are also different from the Seychelles, all we can do is try our best to emulate their home conditions and improve husbandry techniques, as more becomes known about keeping them in captivity.

   99% of UK Aldabra keepers have given serious thought about the setup and facilities they can offer their exotic pet, before getting one. Taking on an Aldabra tortoise is not something that you do on a whim. The simple fact is that if you cant afford to buy one, then you cant afford to keep one. It is an expensive past time and not something you decide to do because it would look good in an Instagram photo. They are a commitment that demands dedication and space, you can’t keep them in a bed sit environment.

   Besides the initial outlay of purchase, you have housing for them, which you will need to keep extending, or replacing and upgrading as they grow. You have to be very conscious that veterinary treatment for one of these tortoises will run into hundreds, if not thousands of pounds, even for a simple health issue. There is also the risk that the animal might die as a result, so doing all that you can to keep the tortoise healthy is an important issue for a keeper.

   These are tropical animals and they do not hibernate in winter. It costs SERIOUS amounts of money to keep them healthy and warm over the colder seasons, it is not something that you can scrape on. Here, the tortoise house is a lot warmer than the human house over winter. If we are feeling cold you put on an extra jumper, if the tortoises are feeling cold you crank up the heating another degree. The very high expense of winter heating is definitely a primary concern for someone thinking of getting an Aldabra.

 

 

 

   UK Aldabra keepers care deeply about their animals, and we have no doubt that whoever owned the Exeter tortoises was no different, and they clearly put time and effort into looking after them. They would not just abandon them in the woods, during winter, because they got bored of them and could not be bothered to look after them any more.

   It is most likely that these were legally imported animals, bought at varying times over the past ten to fifteen years or so. and grown on, as part of a group. The similar growth patterns indicate that they were kept together, over time, in the same long term conditions.

   As fellow Aldabra keepers, we would like to offer our sympathies for their loss. It must have been a terrible shock to have discovered them.

   The pictures published in the newspapers and online did not show any obvious injuries, that would cause death. From their muscle tone, the animals did not look dehydrated or malnourished and neglected. Their posture of having heads and arms out was a relaxed, content pose not the pulled into the shell attitude of a tortoise that was ill for some reason.

   It would also be highly unlikely that all 9 tortoises, died so swiftly, at the same time from an illness, without any visible symptoms. If there had been a long term illness involved then there would have been Veterinary records of an Aldabra keeper in the area and the police would have contacted the owner as a matter of routine.

 

 

 

 

   Therefore the most likely cause of death was down to some terrible environmental accident, involving their living quarters, such as there being an unexpected power cut during a period of very cold weather and their heating going off unexpectedly, causing them to perish. It was reported that the temperature was below freezing at the time of their discovery and the pictures showed that there were traces of snow on some of the carcasses. The fact that there was little decomposition would indicate that they had probably not been dead all that long, despite the cold temperature delaying decay.

   There is also the possibility that the owners were struggling to afford the heating but the posture of the animals looks content and not of something feeling cold, so this is a another unlikely suggestion.

   Another speculative, and possibly outlandish, thought is maybe the original owner died and combined with a power cut the tortoises died from a lack of immediate care. Maybe, whoever had to sort out the estate panicked, and dumped them, little realising that they would be starting a manhunt, as the British population took the death of these majestic creatures to heart and clamoured for justice.

 

 

 

Picture from Devon Live / RSPCA

 

 

   The main concern for us is that although the Aldabra tortoise does not hibernate, these tortoises able to determine if it is worth them getting up and going outside that day. If the weather is not suitable they may decide to stay in and bask under their heat lamps. Doing this for several days is known as entering Brumation. In this state they will not want to move or eat, they will shut down unnecessary functions and exist on minimal levels of body functions, until the weather alters and they feel its suitable for them to start moving around again. An increase in exposure to UV light can help to bring them out of this stasis.

   Brumation is a trance like state where they will be very slow to respond to stimulation such as stroking, tickling, or prodding. They will also often have head and limbs positioned at unnatural looking angles, which can be alarming, and quite frankly sometimes you wonder if they are dead!

   It is not something that they will do every year and some tortoises never do it. Aldabras have a very minimal heartbeat when naturally at rest and in Brumation it would probably drop even further, as the animal saved energy. Unfortunately, if the Exeter tortoises entered Brumation, for the first time, combined with an unexpected power cut, the owner of these tortoise may have thought he had suffered the devastating loss of all of his collection. The sad fact is that it is possible that some of them may have still been alive, and savable, when they were dumped in that woodland.

 

 

 

Why would you dump them in a National Trust Woodland?

   That is a very good question and only the owner will know the answer. Personally, it seems they had a massive ‘brain fart’, from the trauma of their discovery, and did not know what they were doing. They dumped them there hoping that someone else would solve the problem of what to do, for them.

   It must have been a deliberate attempt to abandon them there, again it would need more than one person to move some of these animals and probably more than one journey, depending on the type of transport they had available. If you drive around with dead tortoises stacked up, visibly, in your rear window, someone is going to notice and investigate.

   The fact that it probably took more than one trip, to dispose of them all, makes it unlikely that they person came from too far out of the area. They had to know the woodland and know that there was convenient access and that there was a low chance of them being discovered in the act. Even the most distressed of owners is not going to drive around for hundreds of miles looking for a convenient place to dump them and then make no effort to conceal them.

 

 

 

The legal options for disposal of an Aldabra tortoise ( or any other tortoise) in the UK are:

• Burial- subject to the landowners permission.
• Cremation by a pet cremation service.
• Donation to a Taxidermist, who is interested in working with this species.
• Cleaning the shell out yourself ( by various methods, some more gruesome than others. See the dead tortoises section of the website for details) and keep it for display purposes.

 

***Important To Note, If You Are Planning To Sell Your Tortoise Shell:

Please be aware if your tortoises species was on the CITES list, and needed an A10 to sell it, when it was alive, it will still need one to sell it now it is dead. The stringent rules cover parts of a tortoise being sold as well as a whole tortoise, either live or dead. Look on the APHA/ CITES website for confirmation about what you would need to do in this scenario.

 

 

 

   The latest published update, from the police, is that - A man, in his 50’s, from the Exeter area, voluntarily attended a police interview, in early February, in relation to suspected offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. However, their enquiries are still ongoing and no Postmortem has been carried out on the tortoises, so far.

 

 

 

Outcome of the investigation:

   A 56 year old man, from Exeter, appeared in Exeter Magistrates court on May 30^th 2024, facing two charges in relation to the Aldabra Giant Tortoises that died at the end of last year, and whose seven bodies were found dumped in Ashclyst Forest, part of the National Trust’s Killerton Estate, in North East Devon, in early January. Three more carcasses were later found, during police enquiries, in the same area.

 

   He was charged under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

 

   One charge states: “Between Dec 23 and 29 2023 at Exeter in the county of Devon did not take such steps as were reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the needs of an animal for which you were responsible, namely ten Aldabra tortoises, were met to the extent required by good practice in that due to not checking on the daily welfare and heating system relating to their care which failed and led to the animals’ death. Contrary to section 9 and 32(2) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006.”

 

   The other charge states: “Between Dec 29 2023 and Jan 2 2024 at Exeter in the county of Devon threw down, dropped or otherwise deposited litter, namely ten deceased Aldabra tortoises and left it in East Devon, a place to which section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 applied. Contrary to section 87(1) and (5) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.”

 

   This is a story that resonated across the world and in response to the national appeal for information, at the time. Police were informed, of his ownership of a number of Aldabras, by someone who had visited his property and seen them.

 

   Apparently the owner was an animal enthusiast, who had more than 50 tortoises at his home. According to Devon and Cornwall police, he surrendered the 13 adult and 40 baby tortoises and they have now been rehomed. The gentleman had owned the Aldabras for 15 years, since they were youngsters and imported into the UK.

 

   During the Christmas period in December 2023, the man had chosen to leave them alone for numerous days whilst away for the festivities. He returned to find them dead, having died from an excessive temperature drop, during the cold spell, when the heating lamp in their house had failed. He then panicked and tried to hide the bodies in the woods, making numerous trips to dispose of them.

 

   Postmortem examinations found the tortoises had died from metabolic bone disease linked to poor husbandry, as well as a lack of acute heating during one of the coldest periods of the year.

 

   The defendant admitted failing to meet the needs of the 10 Aldabras by not checking on their welfare or heating system. He also pleaded guilty to leaving the tortoises in areas of East Devon, dumping the remains in woodland, including on a National Trust estate, in places where the Environmental Protection Act 1990 applied. As a result the man received a community order of 50 hours unpaid work and was banned from owning or looking after tortoises for 10 years. He must also pay costs of £85 and a £114 surcharge.

 

   Stuart Smith, the district judge, who passed the sentence, told him: “These 10 tortoises were exotic reptiles which were not native to this country or this climate. They were unique and required very specific knowledge and care. They were entirely dependent and reliant on you to meet their needs.

“You described them as your pride and joy but for six days you prioritised your festive celebrations over their care and completely ignored your responsibility to them, not checking on them for that time. You failed to notice the heating lamp had failed and these magnificent creatures have all died from the cold conditions.”

   He continued:

“Members of the public will be shocked and distressed to hear about the sad deaths of these 10 very impressive animals.

You have previously rescued tortoises and nurtured them. I consider this was an isolated incident.”

 

 

   This case highlights the point that we make in our advice of things to think about before you get a Giant tortoise. It is important to realise that it is not just going to be your pet, you will need a support network to help you look after them, be that family, friends, or neighbours and employees.

 

   An exotic animal of this type is a big commitment and you need to do your research, they are time consuming. You will need to decide how much of a priority you are going to make these defenceless animals, before you take one on, and if you can meet their needs.

 

   If, like this gentleman, you are the sort of person who prioritises going out and having a good time for six days, without considering your responsibilities, then an exotic animal like an Aldabra tortoise, that you cannot take with you, is not the right pet for you. Maybe you should consider sponsoring one in a zoo where you could go and visit it when you do have the time, without the responsibility of daily care.

 

    Everyone wants to enjoy their lives, and not miss out on things or deny their family members wants and needs. However, you need to understand that the tortoise is also a demanding family member, who is unable to sustain themselves for long periods, without your provision and supervision. It is important that your human family members need to be able to accept that as well, or it will spark resentment, which could rip apart your family. If your family is unable to support this requirement, there are businesses out there who specialise in attending to the animals when owners are away, at work, or in hospital etc.

 

   Everyone makes ill informed choices during their lives, no one or their actions are perfect. In this case he took a gamble and it backfired spectacularly, to the cost of the lives of 10 majestic, gentle creatures and he has to live with that. He then compounded his poor choices by abandoning the carcases in the woods where there was a high chance of them being discovered. Clearly his subconscious was looking for punishment for his actions because he made no real effort to bury or hide them.

 

   As the judge mentioned, the defendant had described them as his pride and joy. The ill conceived decision not to ask anyone to check on them during the time he was away, is going to be a decision which haunts him for the rest of his life. It will be a far greater punishment than the community service, keeping ban and monetary charges that the law imposed on him.

 

   People on the internet have been outraged by the sentence, some feeling that it was not severe enough. However, the police and law are probably very restricted on what charges they could apply, to satisfy the outrage of the general public. We have to note that this was not a deliberate case of murder. There was no malicious intent when he left them alone, just a very bad decision. If the heating had not failed and the weather had not turned so cold, at the same time, then they would probably have been fine. He could not know that the heating would fail, it has happened to all exotic keepers at some stage. It has certainly happened to us, but the big difference is that we had someone there to discover it and promptly do something about it.

 

   His biggest crime was not asking for help, from someone, to check on their welfare whilst he was gone. This was a deliberate, conscious and planned, decision that he made, it was not as a result of something unexpectedly occurring and he was unable to get to them. There is no excuse for them to be abandoned in this manor and he also put the lives of his 53 other tortoises in danger too, as no doubt no one checked on them either. Although, the articles in the newspapers do not give their species, so they could have been safely tucked away in planned hibernation at the time.

 

   From the pictures of the bodies, in the newspapers, several of the Aldabra tortoises were showing signs that they were in Brumation- which is a type of winter lethargy for those animals who do not go into full burrow down hibernation. They will lie basking under heat lamps with arms and legs extended, ignoring the outside world.

 

   This means that they were not going to wander outside and need to be wrangled back to bed, like in summer. The person checking would just make sure they were warm enough, all the right way up and put extra food out for them, if necessary, they may not even have needed to poo pick as the tortoises systems go into torpor during Brumation. Any other problems and they could contact the owner, no doubt he would have returned if he had known there was a problem of any sort. Future Christmases are going to be very bitter sweet events for him, as it will trigger memories of what he did and could impact his mental health, and family life, as a result.

 

   The fact that the Aldabras were in this torpor may have eased their passing, they would just have continued to drift deeper into sleep and not woken up. A tortoise that was cold and unhappy would have pulled all arms and legs back into its shell to try to preserve its core heat.

 

   Unfortunately they would not have all died at the same time, it would have taken some of them longer to succumb to the cold. It is such a shame because they were 10 avoidable and needless deaths.

 

   As fellow Aldabra owners we sympathise with the shock of his loss but we have to agree that community service of 50 hours is not really that much, it only breaks down to 5 hours per tortoise, which isnt a lot for the life of a 15 year old animal. Especially when you consider, probably, about an hour a day will be taken up with breaks and the legal formalities of what will be involved.

 

   The charge of littering was no doubt easier to apply because there were clear signs, at Ashclyst Forest, where he abandoned them, that fly tippers would be prosecuted, and what he did was a form of fly tipping. However, in this case he was very lucky, at the meagre amount he had to pay because he would probably have got a far greater fine for fly-tipping a fridge, in the same place, rather than 10 dead giant tortoises.

 

If you are having difficulties looking after your Aldabra Tortoise, for whatever reason, please reach out to other Aldabra keepers, such as ourselves, or other animal charities for help and advice. Please don’t let your animal suffer, unnecessary discomfort. A situation can often be made better by early intervention. It does not always mean that you have to make the difficult decision to give up your beloved animal. There are people out there who are willing and able to help you, no matter what your issue is.