There seem to be 5 distinctive types of red-foot tortoises (Chelonoidis carbonaria), each type having variations within each group.
PANAMANIAN (Northeastern)
- Location: Panama and west of the Andes in Venezuela
- mostly light plastron, some dark patterning in the middle of the plastron.
- Shell background is more coffee/grey, almost no red coloration on limbs.
- Location: Panama and west of the Andes in Venezuela
- mostly light plastron, some dark patterning in the middle of the plastron.
- Shell background is more coffee/grey, almost no red coloration on limbs.
BRAZILIAN (Eastern)- This region seems to be home to 2 variants- the 'red' and the 'yellow'. Red are the popular cherry heads.The beautiful unique color pattern of a cherry head red foot tortoise makes them easily distinguished from all other types of tortoises. The head and legs are a vivid bright red or a red and orange color blend. The shell has a pattern mixture of solid bright orange or golden orange with dividing lines of dark brown or a light tan colour.
Reds tend to have very dark necks with bright red or orange colors on it. They tend to show shell mottling more often than others, and seem to have a slightly bulbous red-tip nose (the Rudolph Sign). They rarely show the male wasp-waist, but usually have a distinct hooked scale below the front elbows- almost a 'spur'. The Yellows of this region look like 'reds' in size, etc. but have shell and limb coloration more like the Guyanans.
Reds tend to have very dark necks with bright red or orange colors on it. They tend to show shell mottling more often than others, and seem to have a slightly bulbous red-tip nose (the Rudolph Sign). They rarely show the male wasp-waist, but usually have a distinct hooked scale below the front elbows- almost a 'spur'. The Yellows of this region look like 'reds' in size, etc. but have shell and limb coloration more like the Guyanans.
COLOMBIAN (Northern)- Colombia, south of Venezuela. This was not a group that has been discussed widely as a separate group before.
Introduction
The groups are:
- COLOMBIAN (Northern)- Colombia, south of Venezuela. This was not a group that has been discussed widely as a separate group before. They seem to look a lot like the next group.
- GUYANAN (Northwestern)- The 'Guyanan Climatic Zone' of mid-Venezuela to French Guiana and bits of northern Brazil
- BRAZILIAN (Eastern)- The 'Cherry-heads' and there yellow-headed but otherwise identical kin from the central-to southern part of Eastern Brazil
- GRAN CHACO (Southern)- Paraguay and Bolivia
The names used here are unofficial. The names used in parenthesis are from Vargas-Rameriz, who did the DNA study this is based on. I prefer to not use his terms since we tend to break the groups into two 'supergroups'- the Northern and the Southern, roughly divided by the Amazon River drainage basin.
Characteristics of the Groups
First, we can usually divide the Northerns from the Southerns by the plastron:
Northern- mostly light plastron, some dark patterning in the middle of the plastron.
Southern- mostly dark plastron, some mottling or light patterns in the middle of the scutes
There are other differences that are less visible.
- Adult male Southerns tend to not show the 'wasp waist' of the Northerns. There are also more subtle shell shape differences between both sexes of both groups.
- Southern climates tend to run cooler, and hotter/dryer depending on the season. Cacti are a main food source.
- Southerns seem to be more territorial, and males are more aggressive.
- There seem to be differences between growth rates, reproductive cycles, etc. but these are not as well documented.
Characteristics of the groups:
- Guyanan (E. Venezuela to French Guiana): the 'typical' Red-foot. 30-35cm adult length, black carapace background, constricted waist on adult male, yellow/orange/red colors on limbs.
- Panamanian (Panama, W. Venezuela): Shell background is more coffee/grey, almost no red coloration on limbs.
- Colombian (Colombia): Nearly identical to Panamanian.
- Brazilian (East Brazil): This region seems to be home to 2 variants- the 'red' and the 'yellow'.
- Gran Chaco (Paraguay and Bolivia): Big- 35-45cm- tortoises, similar to the 'yellow' Brazilians with less colorful shells and skin.
Regardless of what many breeders might say, ALL of the so called cherryhead RFs originate from the state of Bahia, Brazil and possibly Minas Gerais, Brazil.
There are no Bolivian or Paraguayan cherryheads. The myth of such animals is based on misinformation given out by the major importer of these tortoises back in the early 80s.
The redfoots found in both Bolivia and Paraguay are a completely different animal even though some of them might have reddish heads. They can be separated from the eastern Brazil RFs in a number of ways but size is the most obvious. Some of the Bolivia/Paraguay tortoises can grow to be gigantic in size and 17 to 20 inch adults are not at all rare. In fact, my friend Jim Buskirk measured one adult male in Paraguay that was over 24 inches.
The name cherryhead in itself is very misleading. If you have seen very big groups of imported cherryheads the first thing you notice is that their heads can be red, orange, yellowish, coral and even pink. Most are some shade of orange with or without a pinkish tinge to the nasal area. Only really exceptional individuals have the bright red head and eyes that everyone expects them to have based on the stupid name cherryhead. BTW, that name was a marketing ploy used to boost sales of them back when pricelists were only printed on paper and there was no Internet with color photos.
In addition, while many of these RFs have extremely pretty color, most of them do not have much of it. So even if you have a cherryhead with bright red color, it may only have a few red scales on each leg and its head may be mostly grey with that bright red limited to the major head scutes. Of course, the best of these RFs are stunning with lots of color on both the legs and head. But again, these are the exceptions.
The plastron of these RFs is quite distinct from the more northern populations. As hatchlings they have all of the scute seams outlined in dark brown (see photo). As adults most have dark plastrons with varying amounts of ivory or dirty yellow mottling. Some have mostly light plastrons with scattered dark marbling.
But this is always different from the pale yellow with or without the central hourglass marking that northern RFs have.
As regards size it is true that most of the originally imported cherryheads were rather small but appeared to be adult.
This was especially true of males which often showed sexual dimorphism when only about 6 inches total length.
BUT, after a number of years most of these so called 'dwarfs' (another misleading name) grew to be decent sized redfoots. I had a male years ago that grew to be nearly 14 inches. I have a female now who is nearly 13 inches and she just began laying eggs last year... at 10 years of age.
It is true though that these Rfs are smaller than say the above mentioned Bolivian and Paraguayan tortoises. Also, the average Suriname RF is larger too. But the Colombian RFs that I had in the 70s and 80s were about the same size, if not smaller."
The groups are:
- COLOMBIAN (Northern)- Colombia, south of Venezuela. This was not a group that has been discussed widely as a separate group before. They seem to look a lot like the next group.
- GUYANAN (Northwestern)- The 'Guyanan Climatic Zone' of mid-Venezuela to French Guiana and bits of northern Brazil
- BRAZILIAN (Eastern)- The 'Cherry-heads' and there yellow-headed but otherwise identical kin from the central-to southern part of Eastern Brazil
- GRAN CHACO (Southern)- Paraguay and Bolivia
The names used here are unofficial. The names used in parenthesis are from Vargas-Rameriz, who did the DNA study this is based on. I prefer to not use his terms since we tend to break the groups into two 'supergroups'- the Northern and the Southern, roughly divided by the Amazon River drainage basin.
Characteristics of the Groups
First, we can usually divide the Northerns from the Southerns by the plastron:
Northern- mostly light plastron, some dark patterning in the middle of the plastron.
Southern- mostly dark plastron, some mottling or light patterns in the middle of the scutes
There are other differences that are less visible.
- Adult male Southerns tend to not show the 'wasp waist' of the Northerns. There are also more subtle shell shape differences between both sexes of both groups.
- Southern climates tend to run cooler, and hotter/dryer depending on the season. Cacti are a main food source.
- Southerns seem to be more territorial, and males are more aggressive.
- There seem to be differences between growth rates, reproductive cycles, etc. but these are not as well documented.
Characteristics of the groups:
- Guyanan (E. Venezuela to French Guiana): the 'typical' Red-foot. 30-35cm adult length, black carapace background, constricted waist on adult male, yellow/orange/red colors on limbs.
- Panamanian (Panama, W. Venezuela): Shell background is more coffee/grey, almost no red coloration on limbs.
- Colombian (Colombia): Nearly identical to Panamanian.
- Brazilian (East Brazil): This region seems to be home to 2 variants- the 'red' and the 'yellow'.
- Gran Chaco (Paraguay and Bolivia): Big- 35-45cm- tortoises, similar to the 'yellow' Brazilians with less colorful shells and skin.
Regardless of what many breeders might say, ALL of the so called cherryhead RFs originate from the state of Bahia, Brazil and possibly Minas Gerais, Brazil.
There are no Bolivian or Paraguayan cherryheads. The myth of such animals is based on misinformation given out by the major importer of these tortoises back in the early 80s.
The redfoots found in both Bolivia and Paraguay are a completely different animal even though some of them might have reddish heads. They can be separated from the eastern Brazil RFs in a number of ways but size is the most obvious. Some of the Bolivia/Paraguay tortoises can grow to be gigantic in size and 17 to 20 inch adults are not at all rare. In fact, my friend Jim Buskirk measured one adult male in Paraguay that was over 24 inches.
The name cherryhead in itself is very misleading. If you have seen very big groups of imported cherryheads the first thing you notice is that their heads can be red, orange, yellowish, coral and even pink. Most are some shade of orange with or without a pinkish tinge to the nasal area. Only really exceptional individuals have the bright red head and eyes that everyone expects them to have based on the stupid name cherryhead. BTW, that name was a marketing ploy used to boost sales of them back when pricelists were only printed on paper and there was no Internet with color photos.
In addition, while many of these RFs have extremely pretty color, most of them do not have much of it. So even if you have a cherryhead with bright red color, it may only have a few red scales on each leg and its head may be mostly grey with that bright red limited to the major head scutes. Of course, the best of these RFs are stunning with lots of color on both the legs and head. But again, these are the exceptions.
The plastron of these RFs is quite distinct from the more northern populations. As hatchlings they have all of the scute seams outlined in dark brown (see photo). As adults most have dark plastrons with varying amounts of ivory or dirty yellow mottling. Some have mostly light plastrons with scattered dark marbling.
But this is always different from the pale yellow with or without the central hourglass marking that northern RFs have.
As regards size it is true that most of the originally imported cherryheads were rather small but appeared to be adult.
This was especially true of males which often showed sexual dimorphism when only about 6 inches total length.
BUT, after a number of years most of these so called 'dwarfs' (another misleading name) grew to be decent sized redfoots. I had a male years ago that grew to be nearly 14 inches. I have a female now who is nearly 13 inches and she just began laying eggs last year... at 10 years of age.
It is true though that these Rfs are smaller than say the above mentioned Bolivian and Paraguayan tortoises. Also, the average Suriname RF is larger too. But the Colombian RFs that I had in the 70s and 80s were about the same size, if not smaller."