Red-footed Tortoise

About the red-footed tortoise

The red-footed tortoise is a species of tortoise native to northern South America. Adults generally average 30 cm (12 in), though they can reach over 40 cm (16 in), with dark, nearly black, "loaf"-shaped carapaces marked by a lighter patch at the center of each shell segment, and a somewhat lighter plastron underneath. Their dark limbs are dotted with brightly colored scales ranging from pale yellow to vivid or dark red — the origin of the common name — and these colors, along with shell shape and size, vary noticeably between tortoises from different parts of the range.

The carapace is generally an elongated oval, fairly high-domed with a flatter back, and often shows a high point over the hips with a sloped section over the neck; growth rings are visible in most individuals but wear smooth with age. The head is relatively small and squared off, with a large, dark eye and an upper jaw that's slightly hooked and notched. Males tend to be slightly larger and more colorful than females, with a deeply indented plastron and a long, muscular tail carried to one side, while females have a flatter plastron and a shorter, more conical tail. The largest known specimen, found in Paraguay, measured 60 cm (24 in) and weighed over 28 kg (62 lb).

The red-footed tortoise is closely related to the more easterly-distributed yellow-footed tortoise of the Amazon Basin. Its natural habitat ranges from savanna to forest edges around the Amazon, and unlike many temperate tortoises, it does not brumate given its equatorial range, though it may aestivate during the hottest, driest months.

Behavior and diet

Red-footed tortoises are omnivorous, eating a wide assortment of plants, grasses, flowers, fruit, and — notably — fungi, along with occasional earthworms or other invertebrates; when the opportunity arises, they will also scavenge carrion. They're popular in the pet trade, and captive breeding is relatively easy, which has helped supply demand without always requiring wild-caught animals, although wild populations still face significant collection pressure.

Population density for the species ranges from locally common to very scarce, driven partly by habitat destruction and over-collection for both food and the pet trade. Little detailed information exists on population density or sex ratios across most of the range, and many records come from areas near research stations and cities simply because animals are easier to find there — genuinely remote parts of the range, such as much of Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and central Brazil, are poorly documented by comparison. Locating tortoises in the wild is difficult, since they're often well hidden or dug into burrows; trained dogs have been used to find individuals that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Eggs, hatchlings, and even adult tortoises face pressure from a long list of predators across their range, including caimans, crocodiles, and giant otters near water, along with birds of prey, bush dogs, jaguars, jaguarundis, margays, certain monkeys, ocelots, pumas, and tayras.

Range and habitat

Red-footed tortoises range from southeastern Panama through Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana in the north, south along the Andes through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, east into Brazil, and along a southern range through Bolivia, Paraguay, and possibly northern Argentina. They're also found on numerous Caribbean islands, including the former Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, the Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Barbuda, and Puerto Rico, though it isn't always clear whether these populations are native or were introduced by people, with many colonies apparently established as far back as the 17th century for food or as pets.

Preferred habitat varies by region but generally features fairly consistent seasonal temperatures near 30 °C (86 °F), rarely dropping below 20 °C (68 °F) or exceeding 35 °C (95 °F), along with high humidity and substantial rainfall, though some parts of the range can be quite dry. Red-footed tortoises are often found in transitional zones between forest and savanna — forest clearings, wood edges, or areas along waterways — rather than deep inside heavily forested regions, where they're documented less often.

Conservation status

No IUCN Red List category is cited for the red-footed tortoise, but it is considered vulnerable to extinction and is listed on CITES Appendix II, which restricts international trade. The main pressure is over-collection of eggs and the capture of mature animals from the wild, despite the relative ease of captive breeding and the wide availability of captive-bred animals as an alternative.

Many remote tribal communities in South America still rely on the tortoise as a basic source of meat and may be unaware of the pressure this places on wild populations, and travelers and activists have reported seeing live red-footed tortoises for sale in markets alongside bushmeat and other live animals.

Habitat destruction compounds the effect of this hunting and collection pressure, and together these factors have left population density highly uneven across the species' large range, from locally common in some areas to very scarce in others.