Redfoot/Yellowfoot hybrid

[domalle]

@Anyfoot @ZEROPILOT - clarification
The Cherryhead redfoots are exported from farms in Bahia State and surrounding areas of Brazil. Since this area has been generally accepted as their home range, the cherryheads were commonly understood to be southeastern in origin. From a Brazilian perspective, however, that area is considered part of the Northeast coast. So terming the Cherryhead redfoot 'northeastern' would not be incorrect.
Whether the marbled tortoises can legitimately be advertised as 'dwarf' or not is another matter. However, since I have never seen a highly marbled orange cherryhead of large size, I have always wondered if the smaller tortoises could indeed be another variant.

 

[Anyfoot]

@domalle
Out of the 3 Brazilians I have I think there are 2 variants. Edna the big female, she's pushing over 12" with a marbled plastron and faded marbling on the carapace. Then I have a smaller male and female. These are 8 & 9.5" with absolutely no marbling, Dark carapace and a both have virtually full black plastrons.
This is their offspring. Very dark. Whether captivity has played a role and I'm barking up the wrong tree is a possibility too.
I often wonder if there are yellowfoot variants like there are redfoots. We seem to look at yellowfoots all being the same, but are they?

Do you have any names of the farms in and around Bahia that I can look at?(any redfoot farms for that matter). I think the Santa Rita farm no longer exists.

 

[domalle]

@domalle
Out of the 3 Brazilians I have I think there are 2 variants. Edna the big female, she's pushing over 12" with a marbled plastron and faded marbling on the carapace. Then I have a smaller male and female. These are 8 & 9.5" with absolutely no marbling, Dark carapace and a both have virtually full black plastrons.
This is their offspring. Very dark. Whether captivity has played a role and I'm barking up the wrong tree is a possibility too.
I often wonder if there are yellowfoot variants like there are redfoots. We seem to look at yellowfoots all being the same, but are they?

Do you have any names of the farms in and around Bahia that I can look at?(any redfoot farms for that matter). I think the Santa Rita farm no longer exists.
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@Anyfoot There is a paper available online from The Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine called A zoological catalogue of hunted reptiles in the semiarid region of Brazil that pictures two very natural looking wild cherryheads. No scale to the picture though so hard to determine size. And the accompanying description does not apply. It describes redfoots in general terms not the cherryheads specifically pictured.

The Chelonian Farm of Santa Cruz in the city of Queimados, Bahia was a commercial operation as was Santa Rita Tortoise Farm. Neither has a website up and running any longer as far as I can discern. Tortoise Farms are notoriously short-lived. But I think Santa Rita can be found on Facebook and their nice photo spread can still be found on the internet especially on some Japanese sites. Try fotografia.folha.uol.com.br/galeries/12401-criacao-de-jabutis#foto-223193. That has some pictures of Aroldo Borges, the proprietor of Santa Rita, with his many turtles. It's a newspaper spread from this morning from Folha De S. Paulo in Baixa Grande entitled Criacao de jabutis.

Yellowfoots aren't so variable as redfoots. Yellowfoots are more muted in coloration. Some claim there are giants in the Amazon Basin and while there are certainly very large individuals found, the existence of any subgroups is questioned. Yellowfoots are more dependent on their wetter environments than redfoots and therefore more limited in what areas they can inhabit. Redfoots are more adaptable and extant over many different and varied habitats over a wider range in Latin and South America. Plus they have successfully colonized new areas and the Caribbean. That adaptability over such a wide and varying range explains the existence of the many undescribed, unrecognized, undesignated, unaccepted and uncatalogued variable subgroups of the Red-Footed tortoise.