Interesting wild red foot photos from Inaturalist.

[SealMarioz]

I normally use Inaturalist to learn about local species and distributions and habitats of species across the world and came across some neat wild redfoots (likely cherryheads? from south-eastern brazil)

Red-footed Tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonarius)

Red-footed Tortoise from Ipiranga, Brumadinho - MG, 35460-000, Brasil on November 29, 2023 at 04:59 PM by Luciana dos Anjos

www.inaturalist.org

Red-footed Tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonarius)

Red-footed Tortoise from Linhares, ES, Brasil on March 1, 2024 at 05:52 PM by Gabriel Bonfa

www.inaturalist.org

Is this pattern on their scutes marbeling like you see with some captive torts or like just how their shells formed in the wild?

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Maybe @ZEROPILOT can answer that?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

That's not what I'd call "normal" marbling.
But those are spectacular tortoises.
The marbling we see in the hobby fades away about as quickly as it started.
This (to me) looks more permanent.
But it's just a guess

 

[cooky_luvs]

iNaturalist is a great resource to observe wild examples, the closest most of us will ever get! Have you seen this absolute stunner on there? I have this photo favorited in my phone.

Most marbling we see does fade, but some lasts on the more extreme examples but never as bright and vivid on adults as on juveniles.

 

[cooky_luvs]

I normally use Inaturalist to learn about local species and distributions and habitats of species across the world and came across some neat wild redfoots (likely cherryheads? from south-eastern brazil)

Red-footed Tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonarius)

Red-footed Tortoise from Ipiranga, Brumadinho - MG, 35460-000, Brasil on November 29, 2023 at 04:59 PM by Luciana dos Anjos

www.inaturalist.org

Red-footed Tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonarius)

Red-footed Tortoise from Linhares, ES, Brasil on March 1, 2024 at 05:52 PM by Gabriel Bonfa

www.inaturalist.org

Is this pattern on their scutes marbeling like you see with some captive torts or like just how their shells formed in the wild?

I looked more closely at the second photo you shared, and that looks more like shell damage on that one, the first one looks like true marbling though. I have an older girl that is missing half a scute and it looks similar to that underneath.