Tortoise on wheels finds love at Israeli zoo

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Arava the tortoise may never walk again, but a makeshift wheelchair has given the 10-year-old reptile wings by helping her to find a mate at an Israeli zoo, her keepers said on Tuesday.

"Arava came to us a few months ago," Shmulik Yedvad, a spokesman for the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, told reporters. "She was paralysed in her hind legs, and we had to equip her with a metallic cart with two wheels in order for her to be able to move."

He said the 25-kilo (55 pound) African spurred tortoise has, since arriving at the zoo, rolled into the heart of a male who was apparently shell-shocked by her new wheels.

© 2008 AFP