If you didn't already think I'm kooky...

[Balboa]

Sorry if somebody else has come up with this crazy thought, but I did some interesting reading about the ancient amazon cultures that I never knew existed.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lost-amazon-cities

They make it sound like a HUGE area of the amazon was thoroughly domesticated by man. The culture as presented was a fascinating one, more focused on working WITH the jungle, not against it. The majority of the land was at the least managed, if not outright cultivated. Very different from the wild, no mans land we see today.

This is where Red-Foots come from right?

I know what got my wife wanting red-foots years ago was just how darn personable they were, nothing like the other tortoises we saw, they seemed drawn to people. In fact I've read anectdotes as to that being their biggest threat, they don't fear us, and will walk right up to hunters. I see it in Rocky.... its like she's instinctively drawn to me.

Makes me wonder if they weren't domesticated by the peoples of the Amazon, before their civilization vanished.

Other owners talk about how personable their non-redfoots are, I have no idea on other species. Are Red-Foots really any more prone to bonding with us?

---

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080828-amazon-cities.html

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't think you're kooky at all. It makes good sense to try to know facts about the area where your type of tortoise originates. If more people would do that we would have better acclimated tortoises in our collections.

Thanks for the links.

 

[Madkins007]

Cool!

It reminds me of many native American sites- these huge, well-organized cities that housed thousands of peoples from several tribes and groups with well-organized trading routes, etc.- that are so completely erased it is hard to think of what life in the US must have been like before the Europeans invaded.

I think 'domesticating' the tortoises is a stretch. The lack of fear of humans is common in a lot of tortoise species and is probably based on a combination of not recognizing man as a predator since we are such a new species, and on their confidence in their defenses.

However, my own weird brain went a slightly different direction... maybe these people cleared more of the forest (in a less destructive way, hopefully), and the clearings-loving Red-foots moved in, and just stayed as the forests grew back- explaining the co-existence of the Red and Yellow-foot in forests but only Red's in clearings and grasslands.

Nothing wrong with odd thoughts! (I hope! )

 

[Balboa]

hmmm that's a good one too, Mark.

and I'm NOT debating, not in the debatables, bouncing ideas
but
if the area was actually once highly populated as they are now saying it was, the redfoots would have had considerable contact with man. I suppose that could go away again after 400 years.

which kind of makes me think the other way. could the yellowfoots be the forebears, the wild counterparts? After the apocolypse of the native human culture, as the jungle slowly reclaimed the land, now "feral" redfoots would likely seek out the peripheral areas more like the world they'd become adapted to, and I understand there IS still considerable debate as to where they truly prefer, but you'd know more current info on that than I.

I've heard mention of genetic studies being undertaken on redfoots. That would likely be the best evidence of any for this crackpot theory. If redfoots were to prove to have surprisingly little genetic diversity despite their wide range and differing appearances, especially as compared to yellowfoots, then domestication would be a likely scenario. Its like wolves and dogs, as I recall, and could be in error on, there is more genetic diversity between wolf pack members than between a great dane and a chihuahua.

In all reality, yah pretty far fetched... but what if???? LOL

---

I forgot to reiterate, I really have no clue if redfoots are "friendlier" to us than other tortoise, and as I'm not hearing any support of that, I'm assuming its a myth.