Jan. 3—VALDOSTA — After three months on the run, Diego the tortoise is back home.
Diego, a 200-pound African spurred tortoise, was found alive and well Friday three months after he vanished form the home of Kristen and Damond Jenkins in Lake Park.
“He was spotted grazing only half a mile from our home,” Kristen Jenkins said in an email. “Some people driving by saw him and notified the police.”
When the police contacted her, Jenkins was nearby and went to get Diego.
“He is covered in dirt from his adventures but so far seems healthy and like himself,” she said.
There was some concern about whether cold-blooded Diego could handle deep-freeze temperatures in late December but Jenkins said tortoises deal with the cold by digging burrows and hibernating.
Jenkins was hired by Wild Adventures Theme Park in 2016 to work with park animals.
When the park decided to downsize its tortoise collection some years back, Jenkins asked if she could take Diego home, and the park agreed, she said.
Diego had been at the park for more than 13 years, said Adam Floyd, director of sales and marketing for Wild Adventures. The tortoises were relocated in 2020 when the park was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a multi-year construction project, he said.
Diego was given to Jenkins to care for on her farm while the other tortoises were sent to other zoological facilities, Floyd said.
Terry Richards is the senior reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times.
