Family 'Loses' Tortoise—Finds Her Alive And Well In The House Thirty Years Later

Aug 29, 2020 by apost team

If this year already has felt like a long time, you aren't going to believe what this clever tortoise went through for the last 30 years. The Almedia family lost their tortoise Manuela in 1982, and they thought she was gone for good—but it turns out she was just camping out in the storage closet.

The Almedia family lives in the town of Realengo, which is located in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro. Their house sits on Rua Padre Sabóia de Medeiros, a beautiful street that's home to many other Brazilian families.

The Almedia house is big enough to live in comfortably, and it even has a large storage room for the many things that Leonel, the Almedia patriarch, liked to collect. But although they never thought of their house as small, the Almedias also didn't think that it was big enough to conceal an entire animal for over three decades.

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One day in 1983, construction workers left the Almedias' front door open while they worked on a project. Unfortunately, the Almedias' tortoise, Manuela, just happened to be walking unsupervised through the living room.

Manuela went missing that day, and even though the Almedias conducted a search, they weren't able to find a single trace of her presence. The family always assumed that Manuela walked out the door and disappeared into the great outdoors; they had no reason to think that the little tortoise would decide to stick around.

Leonel Almedia passed away in 2013, and his children were tasked with clearing out his belongings from the family home. As his daughter Lenita put it, Leonel "just kept accumulating things." There was stuff in every corner of the house, including one storage room that no one in the family wanted to tackle.

To speed up the process, the Almedias began grabbing boxes and setting them out by the pavement. One neighbor walked up to see the items that were being thrown away. And then he said a line that made everyone in the family jump: "You're not throwing out the turtle as well, are you?"

Leandro Almedia, Leonel's son, wasn't sure he'd heard the neighbor correctly. He looked down at the box, and there was Manuela, sitting comfortably next to an old record player. "At that moment, I turned white, I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing," Leandro recounts.

So how exactly does a tortoise manage to survive in a closet for 30 years? It's not uncommon for tortoises to get through tough situations with very little access to food or water. Tortoises know how to lower their body temperatures, reducing their need for calories. However, this kind of survival tactic only works for 2-3 years at a time, and it wouldn't account for Manuela's many decades of success.

The truth is that the storage closet probably housed enough bugs to keep Manuela happy and well-fed, a theory speculated by Rio de Janeiro-based veterinarian Jeferson Peres. She might have got her water from condensation on the walls, especially if the closet was next to the bathroom or kitchen. Whatever the secret was, it must have worked, because Manuela the tortoise lived in hiding from 1982 until 2013.

The Almedia family was ecstatic to be reunited with their beloved tortoise. Whether or not she was happy to leave the storage closet is a question that may never be answered. But one thing's for sure: tortoises are survivors, and Manuela deserves to be recognized for her achievement.

How do you think Manuela survived for so long? Tell us your thoughts below. If you know someone who likes tortoises, be sure to post this article where they can see it.