The first tortoise's name is Freeway:
John Formby saw him trying to cross the M25 motorway in London. At first he thought it was a bit of debris, but as he got closer he saw that it had a head & as he sped by, he noticed that it was moving! As soon as he realized that the tortoise was still alive, he pulled to the side of the road and ran back 400 yards to retrieve it. But he had to wait for a break in traffic. Mr. Formby watched anxiously as three cars sped over the helpless reptile. Luckily, none of the cars hit the tortoise and he passed under the vehicles safely.
After running out to save the stranded animal, John stopped for a lunch of lettuce and tomatoes on the way to the vet. At the veterinarians office they checked him for injury and found that he was microchipped- in America.
They decided to call him Freeway for now because that is the American word for Motorway (I'm American and I don't think I've ever referred to any road by either of those names until this article).
Freeway is a Hermann's tortoise thought to be approx. 10 years old. He is in very good health and well cared for & with the information from the microchip there is a good chance that he will be returned to his family.
The second tortoise's name is Chelonoidis elephantopus.
After being "extinct" for 150 years, it looks like they may be making a come back. When studying the genomes of a closely related species which lives on Isobela Island (the largest of the Galapagos Islands), it was found that there are 84 hybrid offspring between the two species, 30 of those hybrids are less than 15 years old. Given that these tortoises have a 100 year lifespan, it's not a long stretch to think that some of these hybrids parents are still alive. If researchers can find this hidden population, they're optimistic that they can set up a breeding program.
Isobela Island lies about 200 miles (322 kilometers) from Floreana Island, where C. elephantopus was last spotted before disappearing, likely due to hunting by whalers.
Tortuga Sex!
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