Elusive tortoise still on the run after eight days

The owners of an elusive tortoise that escaped from its enclosure eight days ago have offered a £200 reward for her return.

Shelly the 20-year-old Leopard Tortoise managed to scratch her way to freedom from the garden of the Phillips family in Shillingford Abbot in Devon.

She has since been spotted on several occasions by members of the public but is still on the loose, despite extensive searches including the use of thermal imaging.

Her owner Nick Phillips said the 18kg (40lbs) tortoise could have travelled about 1km (0.62 miles) a day and the £200 reward was "slight encouragement" for public help.

Mr Phillips said: "She was spotted walking flat out, almost running up Weybrook Lane. A lady took a picture from her car and put it on Facebook and my daughter spotted it. We were there within half an hour looking and couldn't see any sign of her.

"Subsequent to that, a friend, an acquaintance of ours, old chap, said, 'oh, your tortoise, I was driving down Weybrook Lane, there was a tortoise in the road, so I stopped and I put it on the verge'."

Mr Phillips added: "Where she's gone now we are not sure."

The family has had nine people looking for the tortoise in verges, undergrowth and local woods, and using thermal imaging to try and spot her.

The family is becoming increasingly concerned about their beloved pet.

"The obvious worst scenario is that somebody has stopped picked her up and driven off but you just don't know," Mr Phillips said.

He told John Acres at Breakfast on BBC Radio Devon Shelly is about the size of a "small car wheel" and is not likely to be getting enough to eat.

"This time of year when they're active she'll have like a whole lettuce, couple of tomatoes, half a cucumber, watermelon and then they get a special tortoise mix as well," he said.

"They would be eating pretty much whatever you put in front of them so I don't know quite how they get on out in the wild."

Anyone who spots Shelly is asked to pick her up and put her in the boot of their car or stay with her and contact the family through their social media posts, or by contacting the local police.

Mr Phillips said the family would be "very happy" to pay the £200 reward to anyone who manages to return Shelly.

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