Redfoot tortoise: Geochelone carbonaria
In the Wild
Description:
 Can reach 12-14 inches in length
 Can weigh 11 lbs
 Develop distinctive hourglass shape as they mature – from above, adults look as though
they have a slight waistline
 Males are longer and heavier
 Dark red scales on feet and yellow scales on head
Habitat and Range:
 Native to southern Central America to South America, including the countries of
Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia,
Paraguay and Argentina
 They are also on several Caribbean islands where they were introduced centuries ago.
 Redfoots can survive in a few different types of habitat, and it is not clear which they
prefer. They are found in dry forests and grasslands, as well as in humid rainforests.
Diet


Eat fallen fruits, wild vegetables, grasses
Will eat carrion when they come across it
Adaptations
 Heavy shell protects them from predators
 Like all tortoises, redfoots have strong limbs, good eyesight, and a keen sense of smell
 No teeth but have sharp, powerful jaws similar to bird beaks
 Males have a pronounced concavity of their plastron to help during mating
Lifespan
 50 years or more in captivity
Reproduction
 Breed during the rainy season (June-September)
 Males compete for females
 Female lays 5-15 eggs, either in a hole that she digs or on a patch of ground that she
clears
 No parental care
 Eggs hatch after about 3-7 months
 Temperatures determine sex of offspring. Temperatures higher than 88° F will produce
female offspring, and lower than 82°F will produce male offspring.
 Few babies survive to adulthood
02/06/2013
Redfoot tortoise: Geochelone carbonaria
Activity
 Diurnal
 Most active immediately after the rainy season
Other “fun facts”
 Perhaps the most usual thing about their breeding behavior is that the male makes a
clucking sound during courtship and mating. The clucks sound amazingly like a hen.
 When the weather turns cool, their metabolism slows down considerably, allowing
them to survive on minimal food. With the temperature in the sixties, for example, a
mature redfoot can survive nearly a month on a single banana!
Conservation Status and Threats:
 IUCN Least Concern
 Threatened by habitat loss. Redfoots can survive in open savannas, but are more easily
captured there and often perish in fires set by farmers practicing slash-and-burn
agriculture or by hunters flushing out other wildlife.
 Hunted for their meat, also collected for pet trade
 Protected under Appendix II of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. CITES is an international agreement
between governments that aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild
animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Giving protective status to redfoots
means that they cannot be exported from any home country without a permit, and
acknowledges the pressure that this species is under from over-collection and hunting.
 Within some countries, efforts are also being made to protect and preserve habitat for
redfoots in the form of national parks or private reserves
At the Zoo
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
Jake and Ellwood are both males. They were purchased by the zoo in 1986. Their ages
are unknown.
They are fed produce
What We Can Do
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
Make environmentally responsible lifestyle decisions to help conserve habitat –
conserve energy, reduce litter and pollution
Choose your pets responsibly. If you do decide to keep a redfoot tortoise as a pet, make
sure that it was bred sustainably in captivity, not caught in the wild.
References:
 www.marylandzoo.org
 http://www.tortoise.org/archives/carbonar.html
 http://www.kingsnake.com/rockymountain/RMHPages/RMHredfoot.htm
02/06/2013