Matt - the African Spurred Tortoise

The days are growing shorter and the nights are cooling off – which means Matt has to go to his winter home at Janis’s house.

Matt is a 50 pound African Spurred Tortoise that one of our former Animal Keepers acquired in Las Vegas as a hatchling about 10 years ago.  While working as a Keeper here, Janis brought her two tortoises Matt and her leopard tortoise “Dash” (we actually renamed Dash “Janis”) to live at Reptiles Alive.

Both Janis (the tortoise) and Matt were featured in our live animal shows at schools, libraries and other events.  Matt had a great time at shows – he LOVES the attention and the treats he gets when he is “working.”

Janis (the person) left her position here to work as a Keeper at the National Zoo’s Reptile Discovery Center.  She left both tortoises in our care, but Matt eventually became too heavy to carry to shows.

Now, Matt gets to come and live at the Reptiles Alive Tortoise Camp in the summer and goes home to live at the Janis Tortoise Resort & Spa in the winter.   Even though we no longer take Matt to shows, we still love his company in the summer.  We really don’t miss his enormous messes in the winter though.

See you next summer Matt!

To see some very cool videos of Matt, visit our facebook fan page