Tortoises fitted with tracking devices

An animal lover has shelled out for radio tracker devices to help her keep tabs on her tribe of 60 runaway tortoises.

Jane Williams got tired of hunting her garden for each of her reptile escapees before she came up with a hi-tech solution.

The 48-year-old now uses a handheld scanner to hunt down her troop of tortoises which each have a tiny tracking device pinned to their shells with a removable sticky pad.



Ms Williams said: “I think they are absolutely fantastic. Contrary to popular belief tortoises can actually move quite fast.

“They are real escape artists. They can climb walls, hide in bushes and bury themselves. We find them in all sorts of unusual places. It is amazing how difficult it can be to find them.”

She added: “With this system you can also set up a boundary around your garden and if the tortoise manages to escape it automatically sets off an alarm.”