marbling in red foots

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99forever

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Is marbling in red foots specific to a particular type of red foot tortoise i.e. Brazilian or Cherry Head?
I saw a red foot today that had significant marbling and it didn't look like any cherry heads or Brazilians I have seen.
The shell colour in the non-marbled areas were light brownish like a regular red foot as opposed to a black colour that is more common with brazillians and cherry heads. So with the marbling, can it be concluded that this guy is a Brazilian or a cherry head or can the marbling effect occur in any type of red foots?

Another thing, this guy wasn't too large so my guess is that it's around 1 to 2 years old and in most pictures I've seen of marbled red foots around that age, the marbled area makes up only a small fraction of the scute. However, in this guy, the marbling makes up a large percentage of the scute almost to the point where the marbling goes all the way up to the beige center part of the scute and the tortoise kind of looks almost ivory.
 

Madkins007

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Red-foots that Dr. Pritchard saw in the Falcon area of Venezuela (I think) were supposedly smaller, more brown, and showed things like mottling more than others, but he only saw a fairly small sample.

I think I have read about mottling in other populations as well, but cannot put my hands on anything right now.
 

Redfoot NERD

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99.. a redfoot is a redfoot is a redfoot.

They basically range in "Northern" South America.. as far South as Bolivia [ south of Brazil ].

The "regular" as you call them are North of Brazil.. and the so-called "cherryheads" are from Brazil.

The only "marbled' redfoots I've seen are from Brazil.. and the colors vary quite a bit.

Some claim the "colors/marbling" can by enhanced by lighting/diet - I have no comment on that.

Examples of "marbling"..

ACHERRYCHERRY.jpg


AAugust07Cherryhead.jpg


muddycherryL.jpg


MarbledOrange.jpg


So they vary quite a bit! And most of the 'marbling' is most obvious between 18 - 24 months of age...

NERD
 

Redfoot NERD

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I make claim to none.. just showing examples - the last "marbled" comes from Carl May { my MENTOR } in FL! [ didn't know if he wanted the press ]

:shy:

Terry K
 

99forever

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So here is a picture of the red foot I was asking about.
I don't have a picture of his plasteron, but it is all yellow, no black at all.
Is this a northern red foot?
The shell is about 4 inches in length...

TITO.jpg
 

cdmay

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The head appears to be that of a Northern RF and if it has a solid yellow plastron (or one with little dark pigment) I would also lean towards that guess. But, the carapace is not normal for that race at all.
It might be a cross between a northern and a cherryhead as there are many keepers now who simply place all of their redfoots together without regard for the fact that there are clearly different races that are now here in the US. Much of this is from simple ignorance but there are also those those who want to mix up the genes to 'see what they get'.
 

Yvonne G

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What a beautiful little tortoise!

Yvonne
 
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