Animal on the lam: Turtle still missing from Inwood Hill park

Park rangers are still on the hunt for a turtle that went missing from the Inwood Hill Park Nature Center last week.

The eastern box turtle, gone since Thursday, vanished under "unclear" circumstances, the Nature Center said yesterday, and there have been calls from concerned neighbors about the absent turtle.

“It is unfortunate that this native animal has gone missing and that the public is now deprived of the opportunity to view it at the Nature Center,” Urban Park Ranger Director Sarah Aucoin said Thursday.

Eastern box turtles are not known as biters, and grow to be between 6 inches and a foot long. Unfortunately for the critter, turtles generally don't fare well in the cold weather.

The turtle is just the latest in a line of animals-gone-missing this year. In March, a cobra disappeared from an exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, and was later found inside that same exhibit. In May, a peahen flew the coop from the same zoo and was quickly found.

And in August, a peacock ducked out of the Central Park Zoo to take a stroll along Fifth Avenue, only to return on its own a few days later.

(with DNAinfo)