Wayward turtle gets a lift back to its UC Davis home by police after being spotted downtown

Slow and steady wins the race.

They might be famous for their crawl, but persistence took this Davis turtle far on Wednesday. The reptile made it all the way downtown before being rescued by a police officer and returned to the UC Davis Arboretum.

The red-eared slider turtle was found sauntering alongside pedestrians on C Street, near the Davis Farmers Market — maybe hoping for a stray lettuce leaf or a fresh carrot to fall onto the sidewalk.

A neighbor alerted Davis police Officer J. Davis, on foot patrol in downtown, to the lost animal that was a little too close to the roadway. Davis returned the turtle, now nicknamed Davis Jr., to his home, according to a post by the Davis Police Department that has since been removed.

Although red-eared slider turtles are not native to California — the western pond turtle is California’s only native freshwater turtle — they are common residents of the UC Davis Arboretum.

Police took down their post about the rescue before noon Wednesday due to backlash in the post’s comments section based on California laws against releasing non-native species into the wild, according to spokesman Lt. Dan Beckwith.

“They were trying to do the right thing, but unfortunately, not everyone is a wildlife expert,” Beckwith said.