One fateful day in 1982 Rio de Janeiro, the Almeida family was grieved due to the disappearance of their red footed tortoise as she had gone missing with the renovations the family house was undergoing at the time.
As the construction crew used to leave the gate open most of the time, the family came to the conclusion that the animal had gone through the open gate, to the forest near their house.
Although what happened to their pet remained a mystery to the family for 30 years, they finally received an unexpected surprise. The children started cleaning their family house after their father, Leonel passed away.
As the father had an odd habit of collecting various electronic equipment and objects, it had taken hold of an entire room and the second floor of their house.
While cleaning the house, the family decided that what their father had found were mostly nonsense, they moved them to the heap of trash.
While Leandro Almeida, Leonel’s son was making his way to the garbage container, a friendly neighbor came to him and asked him whether they were going to throw away the tortoise hiding with an old record player. In an interview, Leandro goes on to say, “At that moment I turned white and could not believe my ears.”
It was a miracle that the tortoise that was lost 30 years ago, had managed to survive, and the Almeida family was extremely overjoyed regarding this surprise with the return of their beloved Manuela.
In an interview, Jefferson Pires, professor and veterinarian explains the exceptional adaptation skill of these beauties, and he goes on to say that Manuela the tortoise survived by eating termites which were abundant in the old furniture.
Although Manuela was able to live in the attic for 30 years, she would probably have been overjoyed to be reunited with the Almeidas’, and the vitality of the tortoise is simply amazing and it is most definitely difficult to remain unimpressed.
