After about seven hours on the loose, a rare Burmese Mountain Tortoise that went missing at the Mill Mountain Zoo this morning was found about 20 yards from its pen.

Sean Greene, the zoo's director, said he wasn't sure if a visitor had removed the tortoise or if it had escaped. "We're going to make some modifications so that neither can happen," he said.

Greene said the reptile was recovered in an area of bamboo and vegetation that staff had checked earlier in the day.

The enclosure that holds the zoo's two tortoises currently has a wall about three feet high.

-- Pete Dybdahl