While I have kept many adult redfoot tortoises over the years I had seen aggression only on one occasion and involving only one adult male tortoise. That animal, a 'northern' type that was probably of Colombian origin, was highly aggressive towards any other redfoot tortoise, regardless of sex. Although he had extremely nice color he could never be used for breeding purposes as he would savagely bite any other redfoot he encountered. His behavior was completely aberrant for some unknown reason and so he was kept in isolation as a pet by some other tortoise keepers.
However about ten years ago I obtained an adult male cherryhead to add to my group of one male and three female cherryheads that I had been breeding. What I quickly learned was that those two males could never be kept to together as they would engage in a ritualized combat that would end up with serious biting.
Even when another male was added to the colony, this third male would fight with either of the existing males whenever they were placed in the same pen at the same time.
Recently I posted some photos of two of my adult males that, although they were in the same large enclosure for only a brief period of time, had inflicted some decent wounds on each other from fighting. One of the males in the most recent episode named Moe was also one of the males that was involved in aggressive behavior over ten years ago.
A few days ago I tried once again to see if these two males could co-exist within the same environment and so the smaller, younger male was released into the other male's territory. It didn't take long for the younger male to spot the older male Moe who was actively courting a female. The result was that the smaller male, named Pindo, pursued the larger Moe and began ramming his shell. In this first photo you can see that the male in the rear (Pindo) is actively battering Moe as he was trailing the female...
The result was that Moe immediately broke off from trailing the female and with a "What the...?" look turned and engaged Pindo...
Although I refused to allow these guys to really hurt each other I did want to see if maybe they could resolve their differences quickly and decide who will be the boss.
Well, that wasn't going to happen. These photos are in sequence...
What these two males basically did was take turns biting each other but with each attempt they tried to get closer to the other's face. As the event went on they made more concerted efforts to really harm each other and you could hear the sound of their bites from several feet away. I broke it up after it was clear that one or both of my little buddies was going to get messed up, but good.
cont...
However about ten years ago I obtained an adult male cherryhead to add to my group of one male and three female cherryheads that I had been breeding. What I quickly learned was that those two males could never be kept to together as they would engage in a ritualized combat that would end up with serious biting.
Even when another male was added to the colony, this third male would fight with either of the existing males whenever they were placed in the same pen at the same time.
Recently I posted some photos of two of my adult males that, although they were in the same large enclosure for only a brief period of time, had inflicted some decent wounds on each other from fighting. One of the males in the most recent episode named Moe was also one of the males that was involved in aggressive behavior over ten years ago.
A few days ago I tried once again to see if these two males could co-exist within the same environment and so the smaller, younger male was released into the other male's territory. It didn't take long for the younger male to spot the older male Moe who was actively courting a female. The result was that the smaller male, named Pindo, pursued the larger Moe and began ramming his shell. In this first photo you can see that the male in the rear (Pindo) is actively battering Moe as he was trailing the female...
The result was that Moe immediately broke off from trailing the female and with a "What the...?" look turned and engaged Pindo...
Although I refused to allow these guys to really hurt each other I did want to see if maybe they could resolve their differences quickly and decide who will be the boss.
Well, that wasn't going to happen. These photos are in sequence...
What these two males basically did was take turns biting each other but with each attempt they tried to get closer to the other's face. As the event went on they made more concerted efforts to really harm each other and you could hear the sound of their bites from several feet away. I broke it up after it was clear that one or both of my little buddies was going to get messed up, but good.
cont...