Tortoise found alive after being buried under pile of rubble for 10 months

A missing tortoise has been found alive under a pile of rubble after it vanished 10 months ago.

Paul and Yvette White, from Cambridgeshire, found their five-year-old pet Sydney covered in mud among rubble dug out for a new extension.

The couple spent two weeks looking for their Mediterranean tortoise when it went missing in June 2012, but gave up when even a gun dog could not sniff him out.

Paul told SWNS that he thinks his pet dug himself into the garden 10 months ago when he mistook the cool summer for winter.

He said: "He's normally kept in about a 25 or 26 degree controlled environment and we never let him hibernate.

"So when he got out last June there is every chance he mistook the cool summer for winter and burrowed his way underground."

After finding Sydney, Paul told Fenland Citizen: "I thought he was dead. I was overjoyed."

"We spent ten days looking for him. We cut the grass, carefully, and even used a sniffer dog to try and find him."

The tortoise was taken to a vet to be checked over and was given the all-clear.

Last week, a tortoise that was believed to have been stolen from a museum in America was found by a member of staff who kept the animal hidden to prevent the museum from being embarrassed publicly.

The employee finally admitted hiding the tortoise in a lift in the building after the museum announced to the media that the thief had returned Cashew.

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