I don’t remember exactly how large these were when I got them. Seems that a carapace length of 2 or 2-and-a-half inches would be about right. Today, after five years with us, they measure in at about 10-and-a-half inches, and they’re still growing.

"They" are a pair of Asian giant wood turtles, Heosemys grandis. And I decided to get them because of fond memories of Henry.

Henry was the largest (straight measure carapace length of 16-and-a-half inches) and bulkiest Asian giant wood turtle I had ever seen. He was also the most arboreally inclined. And before I realized his arboreal inclinations, he escaped the large outside turtle pen twice.

At first I thought he had merely climbed the fence. Many "wood" turtles of several species are adept at this. I thwarted this possibility by nailing a several inch overhang all along the top of the fencing. But then Henry disappeared again. Some apartment-dwelling neighbors found Henry several days later nestled on the second floor in a corner of the stairwell. Thankfully he was returned. Whether he climbed or was carried was never actually determined. But we think he climbed.

Why do we think that? Simply because several months later, Henry disappeared again. We tried and tried to find him, but failed. Then one day he reappeared in the yard. Hmmmm, I thought, someone had found him and brought him home. A couple of days later Henry disappeared again. And we were just about to discontinue the search when a shaking in the center of a clump of Areca palms in the turtle yard drew my attention. And when I finally looked up, there sat Henry. He had found a half dozen trunks growing closely enough to enable him to wedge his shell between them and inch his way upward. There he sat, looking as if he belonged, about 15 feet above the surface of the mounded palm cluster. And over the years, until one of the palms died and it was no longer possible for him to climb, Henry would periodically return to his tree house.

The giant wood turtles I have now don’t seem to have any arboreal tendencies at all. But neither do we have clumped Areca palms growing in the pen nor are the turtles yet fully adult. Time, I guess, will tell.

More photos under the jump...