Tortoises come out of their shells

[Sweetpea]

A Cornish tortoise sanctuary is struggling to cope after hundreds of its residents were coaxed out of hibernation early by the mild winter.

More than 400 tortoises are up and about a month before usual. But many are having to be kept alive with infra-red heat lamps, as they will die if they go back into hibernation during a cold snap.

Staff at the Tortoise Garden in St Austell had not expected to see the animals until next month.

Joy Bloor, the garden’s owner, said: “To hibernate properly they need to be under 6C (43F). Above that and they start waking up and using energy. It’s energy they can’t spare because they don’t have the body weight, so we have to keep them warm with the lamps.

Tortoises come out of their shells - Times Online

Awwwwww! I want one!!!

We saw lots of poor little torties when we were in Tunisia. People were buying them for pence and smuggling them back to the UK, which is illegal. I'm sure that those people have not much idea how to look after them at times like this and the poor things probably die.