Fascinating, it must have been a warm climate for a baby tortoise to hatch on it's own. It's a hand full just for me to take care of one baby red foot, I always loved turtles & tortoises this is my first pet tortoise & I'm ready addicted to it & every aspect of it's life. I did have pet turtles decades ago & didn't give them adequate care by todays standards, I know a friend who has a turtle for 3 or more years & except for feeding it once a day & keeping it in a plastic container gave it none of what is essential like UV lights, a basic enclosure or proper nutrition because many consumers treat a pet like a toy.I had multiple Redfoot tortoises for a very long time. Nine at one point and seven for several years.
About 2 years ago I began rehoming a few of them and eventually decided to just keep one. My Original(after a break from tortoise keeping) female. Named Julio.
Well, all was going well until the day I found a baby in the pen. A leftover, forgotten egg deposited by one of my old herd. He had hatched, survived and lived for about 4 or 5 months by my estimation due to its size. He had gone un noticed because of my rather large, tropical jungle type enclosure. And the fact that I was just not looking for any babies. Days later, I DID look and I found another, smaller baby and likely from a different nest. I promptly gave him to a friend of my brother and helped her set up an enclosure here locally.
Today I again saw "wild child". It had been about 2 weeks since I've seen him. So I took pictures and gave him an exam and treated him for a fungal issue. He's a tough little dude. A true surviver. And has the lumps and bumps to prove it.
The last photo is of Julio and Wild Child before the baby disappeared back into the jungle. Julio couldn't care less!