not to sound condescending... somebodys been doing their reading/research.
Madkins007 said:Speaking of the Vinkes, Red-foots, and the Chaco area of South America, there are two good articles you can download-
- Turtle and tortoise fauna of the central Chaco of Paraguay, (http://www.chelidae.com/pdf/vinke2001.pdf) and
- An Unusual Survival Strategy of the Red-Footed Tortoise Geochelone carbonaria in the Chaco Boreal of Paraguay (which I cannot seem to find online anymore)
According to Vinke, the Gran Chaco is a big area- 800,000 km2. Its climate is warm but drops to freezing in the winter, although frost is rare and it does not snow. Big temp fluctuations in the day, lots of rain in some months and almost none in others, and like the American prairies, it can deluge in one area while being bone dry just miles away. The area includes near desert, grasslands, palm savannahs, thorn forest, marshes, sub-tropical rain forest.
Here is a quote from the first article:
"The Red-footed Tortoise mainly inhabits dry forests in Paraguay. It also lives in smaller embedded savannas. In all the preferred biotopes appear to be slightly damper and therefore a little greener than those of Geochelone chilensis, the forests are higher and less thorny. These tortoises like to be near temporary riverbeds or at places with a lower level where rainwater accumulates over a long period of time."
Like we've said in many places in many ways- microhabitats rule!