Elon the musk turtle rehomed after record 1,579 days

Christian Fuller - BBC News, South East
·2 min read
Elon the musk turtle inside a tank. There is a bit of wood to the left and above the turtle, who is standing on the bottom of the tank of water.
Elon the musk turtle has been rehomed by an RSPCA centre in Brighton after 1,579 days [RSPCA]

Elon the musk turtle has been rehomed by the RSPCA after a record 1,579 days.

Staff at the charity's Brighton Reptile Rescue centre first began to care for the turtle after it was abandoned during lockdown in September 2020.

Despite being a "personable chap", the centre said it took four years to find Elon a new home – the RSCPA's longest ever search for a new owner for a reptile.

Fred Bark, head of reptiles at the centre, said: "We're so pleased that we have been able to find Elon a home as it seems he has been with us forever."

The musk turtle – also known as the stinkpot turtle – is native to the eastern United States and south-eastern Canada, and has the nickname stinkpot turtle because it can release a foul musky odour from scent glands on the edge of its shell to deter predators.

Mr Bark said musk turtles could live for up to 60 years.

"It's a long-term commitment for anyone taking on a reptile like this," he said.

"We had plenty of interest in Elon from the six to 10 age group. But we needed adopters who had an enclosure with some space, an area of land as well as water as musk turtles have all the care needs of a reptile and a fish."

'Can often be smelly'

Elon was fully grown when he was abandoned.

"We don't know much about him before then," Mr Bark added.

"Elon was quite a personable chap really and he was easy to handle when musk turtles can often be smelly and quite bitey."

The centre has also rehomed a group of nine tarantulas found in rubbish sacks left outside Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare in Lewes before Christmas, but remains on the hunt for homes for a number of royal pythons.

The RSPCA said it had dealt with 846 incidents of animals being abandoned across England and Wales between 18 and 31 December, the highest number for this period since 2018.

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