Some months ago a neighbor of mine called me to report that another neighbor had found one of my missing tortoises. "Oh yeah, its exactly like your other ones, just smaller. But the same markings and color"
The thing was, I wasn't missing any of my tortoises. Or was I?
You see for over 20 years my wife and I have been keeping and breeding the type of red-foot tortoise often called 'cherryhead' or more properly, Brazilian red-foots. Courting, mating and egg laying has been the routine in our back yard for many years. Usually I find the females either nesting, preparing to nest, or I see evidence of a nest and thus we retrieve most eggs. But not all. Each year we will find a number of 'yard incubated' neonates from nests that we, the local Raccoon Clan and the Possum People-- that cruise my yard at night-- have missed. In fact, a number of such have been discovered by neighbors next door, two homes over and even across the street. Typically they are freshly hatched or but a few months old. Sometimes they have been larger. A few years back a perfect 3.5 inch individual was found next door and last year one 4.5 inches was found two houses over.
For a long time my fence prevented the larger tortoises from escaping, but not the very small animals. That's been fixed. Um, mostly anyway.
Here is what happened this last time, a neighbor was walking her dog one evening along with her adult Autistic daughter. The daughter discovered this little guy sitting alongside the road a block south of me. But instead of being just a recent hatchling, this particular animal was a full 6.5 inches! That means that he had been wandering around the neighborhood for, what? Three or four years? Maybe more.
That's three or four years feeding on weeds, garden plants, hiding in hedges and the like. Most of our neighbors have lushly planted tropical gardens while conversely, there are some homes with overgrown and weedy yards. There is even a double vacant lot that has been overrun by weeds and grass for 30+ years. That particular property also has five enormous old mango trees that dump loads of fruit from late April to August. That is also precisely where this little one was found.
In addition he had endured at least a few winters outside when the temperatures dropped to the upper 30s or low 40s on several occasions. And temperatures in the 50s numerous times.
Here is the foundling I called The Feral Kid...
Wow, what a perfect shell too. Pretty sure no one was giving him cat food or chicken...
Maybe he did (yes, its a little boy) run across the occasional stray cat poop. But certainly no dead animals laying all around. This aint that kind of neighborhood...
Nice plastron too. There was a bit of fungus here but it's been addressed.
One last pic of him...
I know what some of you are thinking...'why is his face yellow? How is that a Brazilian?' Actually, in the above photo the camera flash makes it appear a lot more golden that it really is. But, there is definite yellow there and I can tell you why.
Here is his mom...
This is Marty. We've had Marty for over 11 years now. Marty has what is a bit unusual for a cherryhead and that is she possesses a yellow color to her face and nares. This color is often passed onto her young. Not always, but when bred with a particular male of mine who also has some yellow on his face, she will.
Marty also has the 'red striped pants' on her rear legs that again, isn't all that rare, but it a bit unusual for this race. These two traits made identifying the Feral Kid as Marty's pretty easy. I have hatched quite a number from her and after a couple hundred, you just sort of know.
The thing was, I wasn't missing any of my tortoises. Or was I?
You see for over 20 years my wife and I have been keeping and breeding the type of red-foot tortoise often called 'cherryhead' or more properly, Brazilian red-foots. Courting, mating and egg laying has been the routine in our back yard for many years. Usually I find the females either nesting, preparing to nest, or I see evidence of a nest and thus we retrieve most eggs. But not all. Each year we will find a number of 'yard incubated' neonates from nests that we, the local Raccoon Clan and the Possum People-- that cruise my yard at night-- have missed. In fact, a number of such have been discovered by neighbors next door, two homes over and even across the street. Typically they are freshly hatched or but a few months old. Sometimes they have been larger. A few years back a perfect 3.5 inch individual was found next door and last year one 4.5 inches was found two houses over.
For a long time my fence prevented the larger tortoises from escaping, but not the very small animals. That's been fixed. Um, mostly anyway.
Here is what happened this last time, a neighbor was walking her dog one evening along with her adult Autistic daughter. The daughter discovered this little guy sitting alongside the road a block south of me. But instead of being just a recent hatchling, this particular animal was a full 6.5 inches! That means that he had been wandering around the neighborhood for, what? Three or four years? Maybe more.
That's three or four years feeding on weeds, garden plants, hiding in hedges and the like. Most of our neighbors have lushly planted tropical gardens while conversely, there are some homes with overgrown and weedy yards. There is even a double vacant lot that has been overrun by weeds and grass for 30+ years. That particular property also has five enormous old mango trees that dump loads of fruit from late April to August. That is also precisely where this little one was found.
In addition he had endured at least a few winters outside when the temperatures dropped to the upper 30s or low 40s on several occasions. And temperatures in the 50s numerous times.
Here is the foundling I called The Feral Kid...
Wow, what a perfect shell too. Pretty sure no one was giving him cat food or chicken...
Maybe he did (yes, its a little boy) run across the occasional stray cat poop. But certainly no dead animals laying all around. This aint that kind of neighborhood...
Nice plastron too. There was a bit of fungus here but it's been addressed.
One last pic of him...
I know what some of you are thinking...'why is his face yellow? How is that a Brazilian?' Actually, in the above photo the camera flash makes it appear a lot more golden that it really is. But, there is definite yellow there and I can tell you why.
Here is his mom...
This is Marty. We've had Marty for over 11 years now. Marty has what is a bit unusual for a cherryhead and that is she possesses a yellow color to her face and nares. This color is often passed onto her young. Not always, but when bred with a particular male of mine who also has some yellow on his face, she will.
Marty also has the 'red striped pants' on her rear legs that again, isn't all that rare, but it a bit unusual for this race. These two traits made identifying the Feral Kid as Marty's pretty easy. I have hatched quite a number from her and after a couple hundred, you just sort of know.