"Sparkles," Desert Tortoise, Davis

Still Missing as of August 24, 2013

______________________________________________________________________

Sparkles is a 13 year old desert land tortoise. He is approximately 13'' long x 9" wide x 8" tall when he stands. He weights about 18 pounds. 

He went missing from his home sometime between 4 AM and 8 AM. There was a late night party on Friday night at the home, and, apparently someone left a door open and Sparkles walked out. When his person woke up and left the house at 8 AM, she did not look for Sparkles, which was not uncommon. When she got home later that day, and searched the house for him, he was nowhere around. An immediate search of the home and the surrounding gardens and landscaped areas did not find him. There are no fences in the area, so once he got out, he was free to go anywhere. 

Even though an extensive search was done of the area and flyers were posted everywhere, there were no sightings of Sparkles anywhere. 

We checked the entire area for over an hour, but did not find Sparkles anywhere in the area, but we did find a track leading out of the area. We followed the track for a few more miles, when it was called off by his person due to lack of daylight. 

We came back the next day to where we left off, which was an agricultural area, full of very large farms, mile after mile after mile in every direction. His track went through these field, then came out, and found another field and went into it. Unfortunately, this person was extremely unfriendly and would not allow us to come onto the property. Sparkles person said she would come back and try to talk to her on her own without a tracking dog and people in reflective vests, which obviously was upsetting this person. 

This person had only had Sparkles for a short time. He was adopted from an elderly person who could no longer care for him. After more research and talking to reptile and tortoise groups to inform them he was missing, his person learned that desert tortoises can be extremely mobile and cover large distances. 

She said she would keep looking for him. 

______________________________________________________________________

Day one:


View Sparkles Davis in a larger map


Created by Google My Tracks on Android.

Name: Sparkles Davis
Activity type: -
Description: -
Total distance: 6.86 km (4.3 mi)
Total time: 2:15:44
Moving time: 1:44:22
Average speed: 3.03 km/h (1.9 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 3.94 km/h (2.5 mi/h)
Max speed: 7.59 km/h (4.7 mi/h)
Average pace: 19.78 min/km (31.8 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 15.21 min/km (24.5 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 7.90 min/km (12.7 min/mi)
Max elevation: 13 m (43 ft)
Min elevation: -17 m (-55 ft)
Elevation gain: 150 m (492 ft)
Max grade: 3 %
Min grade: -3 %
Recorded: 4/10/2013 5:18pm

Day Two:

View Sparkles Davis Day 2 in a larger map

Created by Google My Tracks on Android.

Name: Sparkles Davis Day 2
Activity type: -
Description: -
Total distance: 11.14 km (6.9 mi)
Total time: 3:34:53
Moving time: 2:36:10
Average speed: 3.11 km/h (1.9 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 4.28 km/h (2.7 mi/h)
Max speed: 76.49 km/h (47.5 mi/h)
Average pace: 19.30 min/km (31.1 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 14.02 min/km (22.6 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 0.78 min/km (1.3 min/mi)
Max elevation: 21 m (69 ft)
Min elevation: -26 m (-86 ft)
Elevation gain: 182 m (597 ft)
Max grade: 3 %
Min grade: -5 %
Recorded: 4/11/2013 3:07pm