A FAMILY made a shocking discovery in their attic after their beloved pet tortoise vanished for 30 years.
Manuela disappeared from the family home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1982 and despite a lengthy search was never seen again.
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The family thought he had gone missing after builders left the front door open while carrying out during electrical work on the house.
But three decades later, after their father Leonel died, the family went to the family home to sort out his belongings and made a startling discovery in the loft.
Leonel’s son, Leandro, found missing Manuela alive inside a box containing an old record player.
Incredibly, the animal had managed to find a way to survive more than 30 years locked inside a storage box.
He told Brazil’s Globo G1 in 2013: “I put the box on the pavement for the rubbish men to collect, and a neighbour said, ‘you’re not throwing out the turtle as well are you?’
“I looked and saw her. At that moment, I turned white, I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
His daughter Lenita, who had been given the tortoise as a childhood pet, said: “Everything my father thought he could fix, he picked up and brought home.
“If he found an old television he thought he might be able to use a part of it to fix another one in the future, so he just kept accumulating things. We never dared go inside that room.
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“We’re all thrilled to have Manuela back.
“But no-one can understand how she managed to survive for 30 years in there, it’s just unbelievable.”
It’s thought he managed to survive by eating termites in the wooden floors and other small insects.
Ten years later, it turns out Manuela is still alive, but he is now called Manuel – as it turned out during a routine check-up this year that the plucky tortoise is actually a boy, the Daily Star reports.
A tortoise can live up to 255 years old – and can survive for about three years without food and water.
And Rio de Janeiro vet Jeferson Pires said Manuela’s red-footed species of tortoise can go for even longer periods without eating.
He said: “They are particularly resilient and can survive for two to three years without food. In the wild they eat fruit, leaves, dead animals, even faeces.”
The world’s oldest tortoise, at 180 years old, is called Jonathan – a Seychelles giant tortoise, currently living on the South Atlantic Island of St Helena.
He first arrived on the island as a gift to Sir William Grey-Wilson in 1882, who would later become the Governor of the island.
His vet Joe Hollins said in March: “To be honest, I suspect he’s older, but we can never know.”
It comes after giant tortoise — thought to have been extinct for a century — has been found again.
The Chelonoidis phantasticus was rediscovered on one of the Galápagos Islands last year — famed for inspiring Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
A female was identified on Fernandina two years ago and US experts have confirmed the discovery with genetic tests.
The Yale University team matched its DNA to that of a specimen recorded in 1906.
And in March, Dirk the giant Galapagos tortoise fathered the first one to be born in Britain — at the age of 70.
The randy old-timer — named after well-endowed porn star Dirk Diggler from movie Boogie Nights — successfully mated with girlfriend Charlie, 49 years his junior.
Crocodiles of the World zoo, in Brize Norton, Oxon, said: “The successful mating took place in November, but we aren’t sure exactly when as Dirk tries it on so often.
“But keepers put the eggs in incubation and the babies hatched 113 and 118 days after they were laid.
“The four adults have been at it all the time since they came to us in 2018.”
Dirk first arrived in Britain after being caught on the Galapagos Islands, in the Pacific, in 1962.
The species can grow up to 6ft long and can mate all year round — with males known for often making loud grunting noises.
