Josh Rathbun was working in Riverside Cemetery in Thermopolis when he spotted and saved a renegade Russian tortoise.
Rathbun was on his lunch break Thursday when he spotted something under one of his employees’ trucks.
“I saw something moving,” he said. “I figured it was just a rabbit or a squirrel or something, but it was too slow. I looked a little harder, and it was a tortoise.”
The last native Wyoming tortoise died millions of years ago, so Rathbun knew he was dealing with a tortoise on the lam. He picked up the tiny tortoise, which was less than six inches long, and gave it a safe space to munch on some lettuce.
“I brought it into the shop and made a makeshift enclosure for it,” he said. “I gave it some food and water. It didn’t really want any water but mowed down on that lettuce pretty good.”
At the same time, Rathbun posted about the missing tortoise on Facebook. He was hoping its owner would realize their tortoise had escaped and would bring it home.
Many people eagerly expressed a desire to adopt the tiny tortoise should the owner fail to claim it. Almost a week later, there’s been no word from the owner.
“I heard someone say a lady lost a tortoise by the cemetery, but I haven’t gotten any messages,” he said. “I’m hoping someone didn’t abandon it, because that’s not cool.”
Life In The Slow Lane
While there are no wild species in Wyoming, tortoises are popular pets in the Cowboy State. Large ones, especially, are sought-after animals that can be a lot of trouble.
Many Wyomingites own sulcata tortoises, the third-largest tortoise species in the world. With enough food and space, a sulcata can reach 250 pounds, 30 inches in length, and live over 100 years.
Based on its size and shape, the tortoise Rathbun found was a Central Asian, or Russian, tortoise. They’re less than a foot long and stay under 3 pounds when fully grown and can live up to 50 years.
That said, even small tortoises have big personalities and tend to shape their world to their liking. That makes tortoises surprisingly adept escape artists.
Thermopolis resident Lindsey Reed told Cowboy State Daily that two of her Russian tortoises have escaped from her yard. One dug a 4-foot tunnel under her fence, and another followed it through.
“They can be quite fast," Reed said in July 2024. "If you have something they want, or if they have a destination in mind, they can move pretty quickly, and it can be easy to lose track of them."
In October 2024, Wapiti resident and reptile breeder Sean Cooper received a call that his male sulcata tortoise, "Sheldon", had been found wandering through the sagebrush over a mile from his home. That was Sheldon’s third escape since Cooper had owned him.
“He's escaped once in Florida and twice here,” Cooper said. “It blows my mind how far he had gone and how much he’d gone through. He crawled uphill through (the sagebrush) and did not stop. It was quite amazing.”
"Sweet Pea" is a sulcata tortoise living in Cody. In July 2024, he escaped his owner's yard and was found several blocks away, munching on someone's front lawn and hissing at anyone who tried to approach.
"He will take care of himself," said Sweet Pea's owner, Sabrina Hanson. "If there's something in my yard that he doesn't like, it will be moved. Lawn furniture ends up out in the yard if they're not where he wants them, and he's dumped over our grill before."
Sometimes, tortoises can become prisoners of their own determined wandering.
In October 2025, a sulcata tortoise in Worland almost died after being caught in a greenhouse fire. The fire started when the tortoise knocked over its own heat lamp.
Fortunately, the Worland Fire Department was able to suppress the fire and save the trapped tortoise. It survived with minor injuries.
Lifelong Commitment
According to Rathbun, the Russian tortoise he found is in good hands. It is now in a foster home that could become its forever home, as it has everything a tortoise needs.
“A lady in town had a tortoise that recently died of old age, so she already had the enclosure,” he said. “She wanted it and was the perfect person to have it.”
With no word from the owner, Rathbun and others are wondering where this tortoise came from. The worst-case scenario is that someone abandoned their tortoise to die.
“I heard that someone had released a tortoise by the Bighorn River, but I don’t think this is the same one,” he said.
Many people underestimate how care-intensive a tortoise can be. Cooper said even the world’s largest tortoise species start out as "golf ball-sized babies” that quickly grow much larger than an uninformed owner might anticipate.
"People don’t realize how much of a responsibility they really are once they start to get huge," he said. "They require a lot of space to roam, and you have to build an escape-proof area with enough space to keep them happy.”
According to the website Exotic Pet Vets, a single Russian tortoise needs a 4-by-4-foot space rich in grasses, spurges, and other plants for grazing.
While many people feed their tortoises lettuce, their primary diet should be alfalfa, hay or other grasses to ensure healthy growth. Fruits and vegetables should be an occasional treat.
Tortoises also need dirt and heat. They’re instinctive burrowers and, because they’re cold-blooded reptiles, require a constant source of heat.
Fortunately, the renegade tortoise found in Riverside Cemetery has found a perfect home in Thermopolis. An experienced owner will know how to deal with its destructive tendencies and oversized personality.
“They’re amazing animals,” Cooper said, “But when they’re determined, they will not stop."
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
