The turtle's rescuers suspect an “artist” merely wanted to prove his worth

Jun 14, 2013 19:51 GMT  ·  By

A few days ago, a group of people camping close to the Wildlife Center of Virginia came across a turtle that looked nothing like others of its kind: its shell was brightly colored and even sported some glitter.

The animal was taken to the Wildlife Center, whose employees concluded that the turtle most likely ended up looking like this because an artist wannabe saw fit to try out their hand at painting by decorating the animal's shell.

"Box turtles have this great natural camouflage that just allows them to blend into their environment."

"And this is really sending a message to the world of, 'hey, look at me,'" rescuer Amanda Nicholson said, as cited by Tree Hugger.

The staff at the Wildlife Center of Virginia managed to clean the reptile shell. They suspect that it used to be somebody’s pet, which is why they are still reluctant about the idea of releasing it into the wild.