Way back in 1982, the Almeidas family in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil had a pet tortoise named Manuela. She had been the favorite companion to Lenita de Almeida, who was an eight-year-old child at the time.
Everyone had been fine – that is until one day while the family had been having renovations done on their home, the tortoise suddenly disappeared. The contractors had accidentally left the gate open in the yard, and naturally everyone assumed Manuela had quietly escaped detection.
At first the family searched and searched and asked everyone in the neighborhood if they had seen the red-footed tortoise. Sadly, there had not been even one sighting of the little girl’s pet, and everyone soon assumed Manuela had met up with some bad luck and had died while lost.
So now let’s fast forward 30 years ahead. It’s now 2013, and Leonel de Almeida, – Lenita’s dad had recently passed away. It was decided at that time, since her father had been a bit of a hoarder, to clean out the home of old television sets, broken appliances and spare parts – all kept, just in case at the time, Leonel wanted to repair something.
Then came time to clean out the attic, and not in 30 years had anyone been up there or so everyone thought, but now it was time. And as they dug their way through old clutter and debris, the family was certainly not prepared for what they were about to find in an old cardboard box.
I put the garbage bag on the floor, and the neighbor just told me, ‘Are you going to throw the turtle away too?’ We were shocked! My mom arrived crying because she didn’t believe it. They found Manuela!
Leandro de Almeida – Leonel’s son
Everyone was jubilant, but wondered how did a tortoise survive for 30 years when no one was around to feed her? Tortoises can live up to three years without eating. Red footed tortoises are omnivorous, and it is thought Manuela had been eating and surviving by eating termite larvae. How Manuela was able to have sunlight and water remain a mystery, and some people have speculated that Leonel de Almeidas had known the tortoise was up in the attic all the time and had been caring for her during his lifetime.
And now more than 10 years later, Manuela has been identified as a male and is known by Manuel – he is currently being cared for by younger members of the family, and there is never any shortage of love for this special pet.
Perhaps in the end, no one really cares how Manuel survived – he survived and is well and seemingly very happy. Most red footed tortoises can live up to 50 years, however they can live longer.
The oldest known living land animal is a Seychelles giant tortoise named Jonathan and it is believed he hatched in 1832.
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