After 8 months of lockdown in Wuhan, a student come back to his dormitory and was shocked to find his pet, tortoise dried up as a skeleton on the balcony. The story was shared via the Chinese platform of TikTok, Douyin under the username “Tricking1998”.
The university student, Lin Bu Xiu, left his dormitory in central China’s Hubei Province to visit his hometown of Taiyuan, northern Shanxi Province, for a winter vacation on January 12. He, at first, assumed that he will be back in a month and left a month worth of food for his tortoise. However, due to COVID-19, the city was a lockdown and he could not go back.
The Macrochelys temminckii or also known as alligator snapping turtle most likely died of starvation or thirst. The third-year student at Wuhan University of Science and Technology also shared that he had purchased the tortoise off the e-commerce website Taobao for 150 CNY (RM 91.36) in 2019. Not only that but he only had it for only 5 months before he left it during the winter break!
The tortoise, classified as “threatened” by the IUCN, can live up to 70 years in captivity. The student then decided to keep the tortoise skeleton as a decoration. He also added that he won’t probably have another pet during the university.
Poor tortoise! Next time if you are going back, please bring your pet with you.
Info via Dailystar