Molly the chunky African tortoise mysteriously turns up at Manitoba marsh, 20 km from home

It's impossible to know what was on Molly's mind when the rotund specimen was found plodding along at a turtle's pace at the edges of a vast wetland on the Canadian prairie.

What's clear is that Molly — an African spurred tortoise whose species originally hails from the Sahara desert — had no business being at Oak Hammock Marsh in Manitoba's Interlake.

"I think [we] were definitely just baffled that something of her size was just hanging out at the marsh," said Gillian Malchuk, a nature interpreter at Oak Hammock.

Malchuk and her coworkers rescued the 36-kilogram creature late last month after fielding quizzical reports of tortoise sightings for days before.

They presumed people were mistaken. Surely it was just a common-though-still-impressive snapping turtle, native to Manitoba.

But then someone logged a sighting on iNaturalist , a free app that enables nature nerds to contribute to citizen science by uploading photos and location information of flora and fauna.

That set Malchuk and her peers off on a tortoise hunt that didn't last long.

"A visitor came through to the front desk and said, 'Hey, tortoise in the parking lot,' so we bolted out and both of us were sort of waist-deep in the reeds looking around, trying to see where we might find her," Malchuk said.

"And then someone driving past in their car pointed out their window to behind us and we both spun around and there was this massive tortoise. So definitely, definitely hard to miss."

Oak Hammock staff fed her cucumbers and flower petals, took her on guided tours of the marsh interpretive centre offices and babied her all around until it was time for the scaly lady to head home.

Malchuk and others found a missing tortoise post from Molly's family on social media and found her rightful owners.

"As soon as she opened the gate into my yard, she just went, 'Oh, Molly,' and she was so excited to see her," said Malchuk.

Staff learned the family had Molly for about 15 years and raised her from the time she was a baby.

The theory is she snuck out from a gap in the family's backyard fence amid renovations.