A MASSIVE pet tortoise with a sense of adventure has been found safely after going missing from home overnight.

Tom, an 80lb pet tortoise, escaped from his home in the Crathone area of Hambleton, North Yorkshire, yesterday and an appeal to find him was widely shared on social media.

His frantic owners Keith Schaible and Tina Ogden left no stone unturned in their search for him in the local area - and were up again at 6am this morning in a bid to track him down.

Scores of people contributed and shared an appeal to find him online and later this morning, Tom emerged from a bush at the end of his home's driveway as if nothing had happened.

A relieved Tina said: "We knew as soon as the sun came out, he would - he just popped out of the bush!"

She explained that they had only recently adopted Tom and he was clearly keen to explore his new surroundings - much to the anxiety of his new owners.

Tina said: "He escaped out of the rear garden, we are surrounded by acres and acres of fields and we have been searching every inch of those fields for hours and hours until about 10pm last night.

"He is my partner's absolute baby and he has been worried sick.

"We were out again at 6am this morning and his old owners came to help.

"Luckily he responds to his name and he just popped out of the bush."

Despite Tom turning up so close to home, Tina and Keith had been following his tracks so knew that he had been wandering the nearby fields during his escape.

Tina thanked the community for their response to the missing appeal and said they are now in the process of securing a large enclosure to prevent Tom embarking on further adventures.

Tina said: "There was an absolutely huge response, it is amazing what happens when it's an animal involved, a lot of people are animal lovers and it has been fab."

She added: "Tom is nine-years-old and could live up to 150, so we are hoping that he is going to be quite happy with his new enclosure now instead of exploring the fields.

"It is lucky that he does come to his name, so hopefully it taught him a lesson he didn't quite like."