NEWS - TOBY THE TORTOISE CELBRATES 100 YEARS IN CAPTIVITY

Boulder's Toby the tortoise celebrates 100 years in captivity 

Local desert tortoise has lived with three families since 1911

By Laura Snider, Camera Staff Writer

Posted: 08/05/2011 

Toby the tortoise lumbered across a grassy yard Friday morning in Boulder with surprising speed and agility for a centenarian. (The fresh cob of corn being offered apparently was just too much to resist.)

"He likes to eat local," explained Toby's owner, Karen Churnside, as she finished shucking the corn she bought from Munson Farm. "It's his favorite."

This year, Toby the desert tortoise is celebrating his 100th year in captivity with such decadent treats as corn, apples and, best of all, dandelions. Perhaps it's the quality of the local fare, but Toby is showing no signs of slowing down.

"I think we're in a race, he and I," said Churnside, who suspects Toby may outlive her. "One of my kids will have to cope with this."

Toby was first plucked from his native Southern California desert home in 1911 by a 10-year old girl. The girl, whose name Churnside doesn't know, kept the tortoise for 60 years before she had to give him up when she moved into a nursing home. Neighbors in California adopted Toby and cared for him for another 12 years before they decided to look for new parents for Toby.

That's when Churnside, who had two small children at the time, took over caring for the tortoise.

"He's a good pet," she said. "He's quiet."

Toby comes to Boulder

Twenty-eight years later, Toby still lives with the Churnsides, though he's moved with the family further inland to Colorado (a relatively exotic location for a desert tortoise).

He
Toby, a desert tortoise that has lived in captivity for 100 years, eats a dandelion in Karen Churnside's yard in Boulder on Friday. Churnside is Toby s third "custodian" since 1911. ( MARK LEFFINGWELL )
spends his summer days sleeping in one of his two homes -- a half-hull of a kayak or a straw-bale den near the garden -- or mulling about the yard, usually just for a few hours in the morning, in search of dandelions and grasses.

"He usually gets up in the morning, gets some sun, gets his joints moving, and then tucks himself back in bed," Churnside said.

Though when Toby is feeling friskier, he has occasionally tried to run away, escaping through an open garage door into the big wild world of Boulder. This is why the Churnsides have now attached a pink heart-shaped tag to Toby's shell with his name and a phone number. Just in case.

Toby spends the wintertime -- which, for him, stretches form mid-October to mid-April -- wrapped in newspaper and hibernating in Churnside's closet.

'Definitely a milestone'

Renee Lizotte, of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which runs a desert tortoise adoption program, said that living to 100 is not uncommon for a well-cared-for tortoise.

"It's not rare, but it's a milestone," she said. "It's definitely a milestone."

(Earlier this summer, Toby celebrated that milestone with a gathering of more than 100 admirers.)

These days, it's not legal to take desert tortoises from their native environments. The adoption program in Arizona searches for tortoise "custodians" to take care of hatchlings that were born in captivity and can't survive in the wild. And those tortoises shouldn't be taken from their home states, Lizotte said.

While Toby sounds well cared for, Lizotte said Boulder is generally too cold of a place to keep a tortoise, especially if an owner tries to keep it outside in the winter.

"They are taking special care and special steps to make sure that the tortoise is healthy, and that's fine," Lizotte said. "But it is not appropriate to have a tortoise in Boulder."