Nature Preserve

[Foursteels]

Took a walk in the preserve behind my house this weekend and found some interesting torts. There were lots of adult gopher tortoises, one tortoise that looks like a yellow foot tortoise and one looks like a baby gopher tortoise. Someone must of placed the Yellow Foot into the preserve, but it looked like it was healthy.

 

[ascott]

Took a walk in the preserve behind my house this weekend and found some interesting torts. There were lots of adult gopher tortoises, one tortoise that looks like a yellow foot tortoise and one looks like a baby gopher tortoise. Someone must of placed the Yellow Foot into the preserve, but it looked like it was healthy.View attachment 140748 View attachment 140749 View attachment 140750

Did you remove the redfoot? Since it is not designed for that area and can adversly affect the natives?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

It does appear to be a Redfoot. Not a Yellowfoot.
It SHOULD be removed.

 

[Foursteels]

The public is not allowed to remove anything from the preserve, be it plants or animals. There are state officials who monitor the tortoises in the preserve.They flag off the holes, mark the tortoises for ID purposes, etc. They are the only ones who are authorized to disturb anything inside the contained areas.

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

The public is not allowed to remove anything from the preserve, be it plants or animals. There are state officials who monitor the tortoises in the preserve.They flag off the holes, mark the tortoises for ID purposes, etc. They are the only ones who are authorized to disturb anything inside the contained areas.

Hopefully you let them know that this foreign red foot has moved in - I'm sure they'd appreciate having the opportunity to remove it for the sake of the native torts.

 

[Lyn W]

Hopefully you let them know that this foreign red foot has moved in - I'm sure they'd appreciate having the opportunity to remove it for the sake of the native torts.

What would they do with it if removed? Would they destroy it or place it elsewhere?

 

[Foursteels]

I'm not sure, but it was living in a different type of the terrain in the preserve than the gophers were living. It doesn't seem likely that they run into each other as they were 1/2 mile apart and the gophers all had established dens, as did the red foot (which really looked like a yellow foot from a front view).

 

[whisper]

It's not native. It should be removed. That's how I got 2 out of the 5 of my red foots. I found them in our natural scrub area. You can call FWC if you're nervous about removing it.

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

One of the dominant hypotheses for disease outbreaks within wild Gopherus spp. populations is contact with escaped/released captive tortoises. It may seem fine because you saw them far apart, but their area of roaming and defecation could easily overlap within the preserve, allowing the native tortoises access to potentially infected material. That redfoot looks quite smooth - some in Florida do raise captive babies that nicely, but it could also be a wild caught, meaning it potentially has pathogens from another continent (an even less desirable scenario).

I would hope that the state officials wouldn't destroy it and instead send it to a tortoise rehab to be adopted out... I'd be more concerned for the native tortoise population by leaving it there though.

 

[Foursteels]

I found an app called IveGot1 for my iphone which the FWC uses to track invasive species in the State of Floria. Apparently the RF is one of the invasive species that are being reported often. I was able to upload a picture of the tortoise along with location where I had seen it.