Wuhan, ground zero for the global COVID-19 pandemic and the most populous city in central China, has – perhaps understandably – become the center for some very odd and sometimes grotesque discoveries.

In a scene that might have been plucked from the pages of an Edgar Allan Poe short story, one student at the city’s main university returned to his dormitory after eight months of enforced exile to find the dried-out corpse of his pet tortoise. The animal’s desiccated carcass broke apart when the student, surnamed Lin, tried to pick it up.

Lin said that he went back to his hometown on Jan. 12 this year for a winter break and that he thought he had prepared enough food and water for the shelled reptile to see out his absence. However, as the coronavirus outbreak swept through the city, Lin said he was unable to get back to the campus in time to feed it.

Tortoises are hardy animals that are adapted to survive long periods without water. The largest species, the Galapagos giant tortoise, can endure up to a year when deprived of all food and water. In the 1700s, sailors stored live tortoises on board as a staple food source.

Lin’s tortoise apparently didn’t share its larger cousins’ fortitude.

However, he said he had been mentally prepared for his pet’s death, and he would keep the remains in remembrance.

Earlier, a student from the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou said he found a full-grown chilli pepper shrub had sprouted in the washroom of his dorm when he returned to the campus.

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