Cherry head x

[voodoochild]

Can you cross redfoots and cherry heads? Would this inject more color into standard redfoots?

 

[Tortoise Hub]

This is generally looked down upon. It would most likely make a redfoot more colorful but I think we should try to keep as many torts as we can "pure" and not knowingly breed different subspecies together.

 

[Redstrike]

Can you cross redfoots and cherry heads? Would this inject more color into standard redfoots?

The verdict is still out on whether these populations are all the same species, subspecies, or separate species altogether (I find this extremely unlikely). The definition of species has been debated in biology for sometime now. There is more than one fitting definition (see a post by GeoTerraTestudo) but the biological species concept states that if two populations can interbeed and produce viable offspring, they are the same species. So far I haven't heard of any redfoot populations that can't interbreed. I don't personally know if their offspring are viable, perhaps others that have mixed different localities can chime in and say whether those offspring could be bred successfully. In my personal opinion, I doubt they're not viable.

As Wheezy posted, most of us shoot for distinct population lines and their unique characteristics, but it's a personnel choice. I'm sure there are hybrid lines between these populations (Eastern/Brazilian, Northern, etc.) in their native range (gene flow); if not we may see a speciation event over many more thousands of years.

 

[Madkins007]

Some keepers say they have crosses, but no one has yet shown any evidence that the cross is anything much different than the usual variation you see in the species.

One thing that makes this tough in tortoises is that female tortoises store and mix sperm for about 3 years, so you are probably never quite sure who the fathers are. Mixed sperm would also dilute the effects of any crossing, which is probably why lots of the possible crosses just look like the mom.