Three-legged tortoise fitted with a set of wheels
A three-legged tortoise has been fitted with a set of wheels to help him get around Chester Zoo.
A three-legged tortoise has been fitted with a set of wheels to help him get around.
Hope, a male ploughshare tortoise, was rescued from smugglers in Hong Kong and given a new life in the UK.
He is now able to roll around with three other tortoises at Chester Zoo after zookeepers fitted him with undershell support rollers.
Ploughshare tortoises are an endangered species and there are fewer than 300 of them in the wilds of the animal's native Madagascar. Only 63 exist elsewhere as part of a conservation breeding programme to save the species.
The zoo's Dr. Gerardo Garcia said: "Hope is an incredibly special tortoise, for many reasons. Firstly, ploughshare tortoises are exceptionally rare.
"It's not just the world's most threatened species of tortoise, it's one of the most threatened animals on the planet, full stop.
"In addition Hope has a remarkable life story, having been rescued from smugglers, discovered to have a missing leg and then having a prosthetic mobility support specially fitted to help him get around."
