Largest/Longest Non Gran Chaco Red Foot That You Have Ever Seen?

[Bryan]

I was just wondering what is the largest Suriname/Guyana RF's, Cherryheads, etc. that you have ever seen? Are the Gran Chaco variety the only ones that get up to 17+ inches? Certain animals grow larger in captivity than they do in the wild so I was wondering just how big some of these guys get. I came across a site where they have a 18" male but I didn't see a picture of his plastron, so I'm not sure if he is from the Gran Chaco region or just an extremely large Northern variety.

 

[Madkins007]

From "South American Tortoises" (Vinke, Vetter, Vinke, and Vetter):

The largest Red-foot they know of was a Gran Chaco that was 60cm (23.6") and 28kg (61.7lbs!)

Columbia- 40cm (16.14")
Suriname- 50.5cm
"Cherry-head"- 30cm, with reports of longer

 

[Bryan]

From "South American Tortoises" (Vinke, Vetter, Vinke, and Vetter):

The largest Red-foot they know of was a Gran Chaco that was 60cm (23.6") and 28kg (61.7lbs!)

Columbia- 40cm (16.14")
Suriname- 50.5cm
"Cherry-head"- 30cm, with reports of longer

I'm just wondering how big some of the torts that people have raised from young or bought as wild caught have reached. I've heard of people that raise Bolivians mention that there's are 16-17+ inches. I'd be interested to hear how big some Northerns and Cherryheads have gotten in captivity. There's a red foot video on youtube of what I'd consider to be a HUGE redfoot but I am new to the scene so perhaps the red foot on the left is an average sized northern adult? I would estimate it to be somewhere around 14" (my uneducated guess). Here's the link, I found it really cool to see some adult RF's size relative to a person. I would assume that the red foot on the right would be the size of an average cherry head adult? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpzQVK1wVzM

 

[Madkins007]

That video manages to make a mistake about every other sentence. The tortoises shown do not look especially large to me, but we would have to know how big she is to make a good judgment.

I don't have access to captive records, but there are not a lot of Gran Chaco tortoises in the US pet trade, sadly. In the wild, the authors of the book said they measured 21 tortoises in NW Paraguay that measured 26.4 to 36.5cm, or 10.4" to 14.4", or just about the same as a typical Red-foot.

There are undoubtedly giants- especially in the Southern group (there are giants among the Yellow-foots as well). It is also well known that you can force-grow a Red-foot to get huge, but they usually show a lot of physical stress from it.

Cherry-heads will drive you crazy. There are reports of dwarfism, giantism, and every other ism you can think of with these guys. I would not worry a lot about size records.

 

[Bryan]

That video manages to make a mistake about every other sentence. The tortoises shown do not look especially large to me, but we would have to know how big she is to make a good judgment.

I don't have access to captive records, but there are not a lot of Gran Chaco tortoises in the US pet trade, sadly. In the wild, the authors of the book said they measured 21 tortoises in NW Paraguay that measured 26.4 to 36.5cm, or 10.4" to 14.4", or just about the same as a typical Red-foot.

There are undoubtedly giants- especially in the Southern group (there are giants among the Yellow-foots as well). It is also well known that you can force-grow a Red-foot to get huge, but they usually show a lot of physical stress from it.

Cherry-heads will drive you crazy. There are reports of dwarfism, giantism, and every other ism you can think of with these guys. I would not worry a lot about size records.

How big would you estimate those RF's in the video to be?