just a random video i made when it was raining…all of the stuff that was close to me at the time i taped.
{Several yellow head scales and a horizontal bar behind its eye. | The carapace (shell top) is black with a small, distinct yellow area around the areola on each scute (shell scale). | Adult males reach a length of up to up to 13 and a half inches (304 mm) in length, while the maximum size of females is 11 and a quarter inches (289 mm) in length. | Mature specimens have distinctive incurving of sides, giving them a well-defined waist. | The plastron (shell bottom) is a relatively bland yellow-brown; there may be some reddish tint and vague dark marks along areas of more recent growth. | The plastron is extremely concave in adult males. | Consequently, the male is much lighter than the female. | The female has a very flat plastron and short, stubby tail. | There is quite a bit of variation in coloring, with the legs and head often having patches of orange, yellow or red. | The skin is black with bright yellow marks on the head and lower jaw. | Many of the scales on the limbs and tail are bright scarlet. | Specimens from west of the Andes have a grayish or brownish carapace. | Light limb scales are yellowish or slightly orange, but not scarlet. | The plastron ranges from predominantly yellow to black. | Note: There is considerable variation in color over the range of the red-foot tortoise, so no one description will accurately describe every specimen. | There is some disagreement as to which habitat is the preferred type for red-footed tortoises. | Some feel that red-foots prefer grasslands and dry forest areas, and that rain-forest habitat is most likely marginal. | Others suggest that humid forest is the preferred habitat. | Regardless, they are found in drier forest areas, grasslands, and the savanna, or rainforest belts adjoining more open habitats. | The red-footed tortoise shares some of its range with the yellow-footed tortoise. | In ranges that are shared in Surinam, the red-footed tortoise has moved out of the forests into grasslands (that are a result of slash and burn agriculture) while the yellow-footed tortoise has remained in the forest. | The Red-footed tortoise is found in extreme southern Central America, and central and northern South America including the countries of Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and on several Caribbean islands. | These turtles make a sound like a baby cooing with a raspy voice. | Tortoises also identify each other using body language. | The male tortoise makes head movements toward other males, but the females do not make these head movements. | Male tortoises also swing their heads back and forth in a continuous rhythm as a mating ritual. | Mating occurs all year round for the Yellow Footed Tortoise. | There is no parental care of the young and the baby tortoises will fend for themselves, starting by eating calcium rich vegetables. | This South American tortoise eats many kinds of foliage. | They are too slow to capture any fast animals. | In the wild, their diet consist of grasses, fallen fruit, camion, plants, bones, mushrooms, excrement, and slow moving animals such as snails, worms, and others they are able to capture. | In captivity, they are fed oranges, apples, bananas, hard-boiled eggs, kale, endive, collard greens, spinach, carrots, and alfalfa pellets. | Each Yellow Footed Tortoise in the wild reaches the age of maturity at about 8-10 years. | The fecundity of a female generally depends on the size, the bigger they are, the more eggs they can produce. | On average, a female will create approximately 6-16 eggs per year, although some female individuals may not reproduce each year. | The eggs have brittle shells and are elongated to spherical, approximately 3-6 cm in diameter. | The egg size will increase with the body size of the turtle. | The young are self-sufficient from birth. | The Yellow Footed Tortoise can live for approximately 50-60 years. | Geochelone denticulata is an endangered species. | The major populations are located in South America, and they are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, also known as CITES (Appendix II). | Even though red-footed tortoise are medium-sized, they still need a large area or enclosure to roam in. | Three square yards (270 square centimeters) per tortoise is recommended. | Red-foots seem to do best when housed outside in areas where the relative humidity is moderate to high, and nighttime temperatures do not drop below 50 degrees F (10 degrees C). | If housed outside, the tortoises must be provided with shaded shelter areas. | Red-foots prefer to spend the majority of their time underneath bushes or tall grass (make sure the vegetation is non-toxic). | The tortoises must be provided with a shallow pool of clean water they can soak in and drink from, as red footed tortoises are not aquatic, they do not require a deep pool of water for captive purposes. | If a breeding group of five animals is housed indoors, their enclosure must be at least 15 square yards (13 and a half square meters). | Indoor enclosures can be constructed from a variety of materials, but the bottom material should always be water resistant. | Concrete floors are not recommended because they tend to be very cold and have been reported to cause prolapse of in male red-foots. | The sides of the enclosure should be at least three feet (90 centimeters) tall or taller to prevent the tortoises from crawling out. | For substrate, a mixture of peat moss and playground sand works well. | For juveniles while kept in smaller enclosures, newspaper may be a safer substrate (less likely to consume, and easier to clean). | The tortoises should be provided with hiding and humidity areas. | An easy way to accomplish this is to bury a tall plastic trash container horizontally in the substrate so that a tortoise could fit inside. | Moisten the substrate inside the hiding area to increase the humidity. | The cool end of the enclosure should be 70-75 degrees F (21 to 24 degrees C) and the heated end should be 85-88 degrees F (29 to 31 degrees C). | Make sure to provide several heated areas so the tortoises do not have to compete for basking sites. | The nighttime temperature can drop to 55-60 degrees F (13 to 16 degrees C), but have some supplemental heating available at 80 degrees F ( 27 degrees C). | Full Spectrum lighting that emits UVB should be suspended over the enclosure to promote the synthesis of vitamin D3 ,which is necessary for calcium absorption. | It is best however, to allow the tortoises access to unfiltered, natural sunlight, weather permitting. | Many breeders house their tortoises outside during the spring and summer, and bring the animals indoors during inclement weather and the fall and winter months. | Red-footed tortoises do not hibernate and cannot tolerate extended periods of cold temperatures. | A large, shallow water pan should be available at all times. | Breeding is synchronized with the onset of the rainy season, (from July to September) where a general increase in activity is noted. | Males identify each other eliciting a characteristic head movement, a series of jerks away from and back to mid-position. | Another male will make the same head movements. | If he gets no head movement in response, it is the first indication that the other tortoise is a female. | Scientific experimentation and observation has also indicated that the head coloration has to be correct. | He will then sniff the cloacal region of the other tortoise. | Copulation usually follows, though sometimes there is a period of biting at the legs. | During courtship and copulation the male makes clucking sounds that sound very much like a chicken. | There is a set pattern in pitches of the clucking sounds. | Rival males will battle, attempting to overturn each other, however neither the males or females will defend a territory. | They are considered nomadic in their movements. | It is interesting to note than in almost every tortoise species where male combat occurs, the males are always larger than the females. | This is in comparison to aquatic species, where the males are usually smaller than the females and do not engage in male to male combat. | It is thought that species with male combat evolved larger males because larger males have a better chance of winning a bout and mating with a female, thus passing on their larger size to their offspring. | Species with smaller males evolved because smaller males are more mobile and can mate with a large number of females, thus passing on their genes. | The female will lay a clutch of 5 to 15 eggs from July to September in excavations or deposited in leaf litter. | She might lay several clutches during the nesting season. | The eggs have brittle shells and incubation is generally from 105 to 202 days (mean 150), depending on the temperature. | Hatchlings are round, flat, 1 and a half inches in diameter. | Unlike the yellow-footed tortoises, they do not have tooth like projections on their shells. | Red-footed tortoises, and many other tortoise species, are slow to mature and do not reach sexual maturity for several years. | This, coupled with a relatively low clutch size, makes the red-footed tortoise susceptible to over hunting. | With over hunting, more sexually mature animals are removed from the population than can be replaced by maturing juveniles, consequently, the overall population begins to decline. | Conservation efforts include the establishment and protection of wildlife reserves and national parks, where red-footed tortoises and other animals are protected from hunting. | The Red-footed tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria) (known in Brazil as Jabuti) is a tortoise native to South America and popular as a pet. | It draws its name from the red or orange scales visible on its limbs, as well as its head and tail. | This species is protected under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). |
Red-footed tortoises are found in South America and southern central America from northern Argentina to southern Panama, they are also found on some islands of the Caribbean. | They live in a variety of habitats including grasslands but they are thought to prefer humid forested areas. |
Being primarily a forest dweller, they have evolved a high domed narrow width carapace to facilitate getting between narrow openings of trees and vegetation in the rain forest. |
The Red-footed tortoise can live for around 50 years and an adult will normally reach between 10 and 16 inches in carapace length, with males generally being slightly larger than females. | Color on the head can range from yellow to orange. | There is a smaller phenotype commonly called the Cherry head which, true to the name, has bright red markings on the head. | This phenotype, that doesnt not bear subspecies classification at this time, ranges in size as an adult from 10-12 . |
The redfoot has a larger cousin, the yellow foot tortoise (Geochelone denticulata). |
Some tortoises such as the Sulcata tortoise (Geochelone sulcata) are notoriously hard to sex. | Fortunately sexing is easy with the redfoot. | Males have a concave plastron and a much longer, pointed tail with the vent (cloaca) extending from the rear of the shell. | Females have a flat plastron and a quite stubby tail with the vent (cloaca) within the edge of the shell. | Males approach a desired female with a sideways swinging and jerking of the head. | Pritchard (1979) reported the male also makes a clucking sound at that time. | Separation of pairs or F/M from larger groups and reintroduction later, seems to facilitate sexual interest in the male Geochelone carbonaria (Schnirel, 2007). | It would not be natural to have the two sexes in close proximity in the wild. | The reintroduction of a female to a male (it would be better suited to keep the male in familiar surroundings with the female reintroduced), would be more natural to what would occur in the wild when a chance encounter with the opposite sex occurred. | The aspect of something new seems to better trigger a sexual response in the male. | Pritchard is correct with the sideways swing. | It is bilateral in motion. |
Red footed tortoises face many perils in the wild. | In addition to the slash and burning of rainforests, they eaten wherever they are found. | Interestingly enough, tortoises are considered fish by the Catholic church and during holy week, red-foots are consumed in huge numbers. | Red-foots are collected in large numbers and shipped to many different South American cities to be sold as a delicacy. | The fact that red-foots can tolerate long periods of time without food and water, an otherwise evolutionary advantage, makes this species both easy and profitable to transport. | – Petra Spiess – 1997. |
Once acclamated, and given the right environment, Red foots are one of the better tortoise species to maintain in captivity. | An area of warmth and high humidity such as South Florida would be an excellent climate for red foots and they can thrive outdoors for most of the year. | Living in a dry climate, such as Arizona, One would be better off keeping a Sulcata tortoise (Geochelone sulcata – underlined) or a leopard tortoise (Geochelone Paradalis ssp – underlined). | Colder, Northern Climates have their challenges as well. | As with any animal, one should put a great deal of research and deliberation in before obtaining a red-foot as a pet. | One should be sure that there is a doctor of veterinary medicine with experience with exotic animals including tortoises (preferably red-foots) in the area before obtaining one. | In addition, many states prohibit exotic species and one needs to be aware of local laws before getting a red-foot of their own. |
Red-footed tortoises need a daytime temperature of between 80° and 90°F. | Their nighttime temperature should not drop below 70°F. | They need a humidity of between 50 and 60 percent. | They should have areas in their enclosures that are more humid and areas that allow them to dry out so that they can self regulate according to their humidity needs. | Cypress Bark may be a good substrate as long as it can be kept clean and allows the tortoise to dry out. | These tortoises have been kept in screened or jalousie windowed porches with astrotuff covered floors. | a very large enclosure is necessary or a frequent taking out to roam must be conducted. | If red-foots are kept too moist they can develop dermititis and fungal infections. | Newspaper may be a better substrate if these requirements cannot be met. | They should also have a shallow water dish that allows them to soak because it is very easy for them to become dehydrated and they can absorb water transdermally. | Like many other reptiles they need some sort of a hiding place in their enclosures in order to feel safe. | Red-foots also need broad spectrum UV light in order to maintain proper bone density. | A broad spectrum UV bulb is needed in their enclosures and they should also be taken outside regularly in appropriate weather since no bulb is a perfect substitute for sunlight. | There maybe some debate to the above, Less frequency in exposure to sunlight may be acceptable being that they are a rainforest species. | Red-foot and Yellow-foot tortoises do not bask to the same extent as arid-habitat species, and therefore obtain much of their D3 needs in nature from the animal component of their diet. | – Highfield 2002. |
Inactivity and poor feeding habits are the most common signs that red footed tortoises are sick, but they may be very ill by the time they exhibit these signs. |
Red Foot tortoises in particular seem very sensitive to environmental change. | When first acquiring a red foot, expect a possible long period of fasting. | Just when one thinks something is terribly wrong, the redfoot will suddenly start eating again once she/he feels comfortable with the surrounding (SFCRC – 2003). | This fasting aspect is more prominent and longer in duration in WC (wild caught) individuals than with long term captives or CB (Captive bred) individuals. |
Red Foots eat most vegetable and fruits, especially dark green leafy vegetables. | Occasionally in the wild they have been known to eat carrion. | It was once thought that feeding pet Red Foots moistened dog or cat food once a week or so would take care of their nutritional needs. | However, it is now known that this practice leads to malnutrition, stunted growth, improper shell growth, and can ultimately kill the animal. | Dog and cat foods contain far too much protein for these tortoises to process which is why it is also important not to feed these tortoises meat. | Red-foots should also be fed daily or every other day. | Redfoots have been known to practice coprophagy, If one allows a redfoot to exercise in a backyard and a dog is living there, the redfoot will go straight for the dog pile. |
An ideal red-footed tortoise diet will consist of roughly 80% fibrous vegetables, and 20% fruits and succulent vegetables. | It is important that red-foots are provided with diets high in fiber because their digestive tracts need to allow fibrous vegetables to ferment in order to digest food properly. | In addition, red foots need a wide variety of vitamins and minerals in specific ratios to each other in order to live long and healthy lives. | It can be very difficult to feed these tortoises correctly and information is hard to come by and often contradictory. |
After reaching maturation red-foots can sometimes have health problems related to overfeeding and may need to be fed only every other day. | Red-foots shell growth provide a rough index of overall nutrition. | Excessive pyramiding or improper shell shape could indicate a sign of malnutrition. | However, good shell growth alone does not necessarily mean that red-foots are being fed properly. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||}