Fred the tortoise was found in a landfill site 20-miles away from home after being

accidentally thrown out with the rubbish Photo: KENT NEWS & PICTURES

 

Fred, the 30-year-old family pet, was recovering after he sneaked into a bin liner looking for somewhere to hibernate.

His owner Jane Deslandes picked up the rubbish sack and left it out for binmen - sending Fred on a 20-mile journey in the back of a dust cart from the family home in Margate to the landfill site at Canterbury, Kent.

Mrs Deslandes, a mother-of-six, 55, said: "It was absolutely horrendous when we realised what had happened - I knew what had happened straight away because we put the bags out in the garden before collection day.

"And it's the time of year when he's looking for nice warm places to hibernate.

"But we panicked because we didn't know where the rubbish goes so we had to phone the council to find out."

Mrs Deslandes was then given special permission by her local council to trawl through waste at the landfill site - 20 miles away.

She was issued with a high-visibility jacket by workers and embarked on a painstaking three hour search - to no avail.

She said: "We were devastated - we tried for ages but just couldn't find him.

"Eventually we had to give up and go home - I cried all the way back."

But landfill site bosses, desperate to help Mrs Deslandes, who works as a carer, continued the hunt for the tiny creature.

Finally they found him underneath a stack of smelly household waste - just minutes before the day's rubbish was due to be BURIED.

Fred - who lives on a strict diet of lettuce leaves, tomatoes and vegetables - is now munching away on his favourite food in his back garden following his discovery on Wednesday last week.

Jane added: "We were overjoyed - words can't describe how happy we were.

"We arranged straight away to go and pick him up.

"He was a bit dishevelled looking and had a couple of chips on his shell.

"But otherwise he was okay.

"We took him to the vet and they gave him a vitamin injection - they said it was a miracle."

Tortoises traditionally begin hibernating in October but it is thought Fred sought shelter early because of this year's miserable English summer.

Sand lizard hatchlings are appearing

The Sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) is our rarest native lizard, and has disappeared from many of the Surrey heathlands due to unsuitable habitat management.

To help the species recover, the HCT co-ordinate a captive breeding programme, releasing hatchlings back into the wild at sites where habitat management has made the heath suitable, and will continue to be managed sympathetically.

These releases continue, annually, over a three year period. After this there should be sufficient mature animals to contine to breed naturally, with more maturing each year.

Last weekend, wild-born hatchlings were found at one of these release sites, confirming the success of this conservation approach. The hatchlings dig themselves out of sandy burrows at the end of August, after hatching from their leathery eggs. They are around two inches (2.5cm) from head to tail...and so cute!

World's Smallest Snake Discovered

The world's smallest species of snake, as thin as a spaghetti noodle and small enough to rest comfortably on a U.S. quarter, has been identified on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

The species, with adults averaging just under four inches in length, was discovered by Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State. They list the discovery in the journal Zootaxa.

Hedges found the new snake -- a type of threadsnake -- in a tiny forest fragment on the eastern side of Barbados. He believes the species is rare because most of its potential habitat has been replaced by buildings and farms. "Habitat destruction is a major threat to biodiversity throughout the world," he said. "The Caribbean is particularly vulnerable because it contains an unusually high percentage of endangered species and, because these animals live on islands, they have nowhere to go when they lose their habitat."