Survivorman!

[compassrose26]

There is a show called survivorman and I'm watching an episode where he is in Grenada where there are wild redfoots!! They aren't even afraid of him, and they are the ones with the yellow head and red legs! It's super cool to watch them in the wild. I thought it was interesting that some of them had a little bit of pyramiding.

 

[bigred]

There is a show called survivorman and I'm watching an episode where he is in Grenada where there are wild redfoots!! They aren't even afraid of him, and they are the ones with the yellow head and red legs! It's super cool to watch them in the wild. I thought it was interesting that some of them had a little bit of pyramiding.

Ya I saw a little bit of that, my friend told me there is another one with redfoots and aldabras

 

[compassrose26]

Re: RE: Survivorman!

There is a show called survivorman and I'm watching an episode where he is in Grenada where there are wild redfoots!! They aren't even afraid of him, and they are the ones with the yellow head and red legs! It's super cool to watch them in the wild. I thought it was interesting that some of them had a little bit of pyramiding.

Ya I saw a little bit of that, my friend told me there is another one with redfoots and aldabras

Really? In the same place?

 

[TheColossus]

There is a show called survivorman and I'm watching an episode where he is in Grenada where there are wild redfoots!! They aren't even afraid of him, and they are the ones with the yellow head and red legs! It's super cool to watch them in the wild. I thought it was interesting that some of them had a little bit of pyramiding.

That episode is on right now! I just saw it, ironically enough as I was prepping some growth I just cut off my prickly pear cacti (which that island was covered in) for my own redfooted tortoises. I turned it off when he said he might be making them into "turtle soup," I didn't want to stick around to find out.

I guess that answers some questions about the importance of prickly pear cacti in a redfoots diet, as I saw a ton of large adults and some sub-adults who looked like they were thriving, and their diet was almost surely compromised heavily of it.

I noticed the same thing, there were a few torts with quite a bit of pyramiding. I suppose it naturally occurs in the wild, too, it isn't just caused by improper diets in captivity.

 

[Maverick]

For anyone looking for the episode it's season 5 episode 2 I believe. The first episode is titled Grenada, but the second episode is on an island off the coast.
He never did eat one, I was worried too. Lol
I was curious about the pyramiding myself. My thought was maybe it is because of the lack of variety and they were mostly eating the cactus and low nutrition foods. It was interesting to see wild tortoises on a tropical island with pyramiding though, kinda makes you think.

 

[EricIvins]

You do realize those aren't "wild" animals right?

 

[Maverick]

Re: RE: Survivorman!

You do realize those aren't "wild" animals right?

Ok...... So maybe I'm not understanding, these animals are self sustaining, living on an uninhabited island. So are you saying they brought 30 tortoises with them for the show?

 

[Mgridgaway]

Pyramided Redfoots in the wild?

I'm currently watching Survivorman, and in this episode (Season 5, episode 2, "Frigate Island"), dude is on an island in the Grenadines.

Halfway into the episode, Survivorman encounters a little herd of wild Redfoots, and I was surprised to see that they were all pyramided. Guess mother nature has just as much trouble getting them to grow smooth

Either that, or they were imported for the show. He doesn't eat any of them... at least not yet.

 

[Maverick]

Re: RE: Pyramided Redfoots in the wild?

I'm currently watching Survivorman, and in this episode (Season 5, episode 2, "Frigate Island"), dude is on an island in the Grenadines.

Halfway into the episode, Survivorman encounters a little herd of wild Redfoots, and I was surprised to see that they were all pyramided. Guess mother nature has just as much trouble getting them to grow smooth

Either that, or they were imported for the show. He doesn't eat any of them... at least not yet.

Hi, we started a discussion here, http://www.tortoiseforum.org/showthread.php?tid=86338
Survivorman! But it didn't seen to take off.

 

[gustaf]

I hope i will get a chance to see these episodes. And hopefully we will get to the bottom of this anomaly

 

[CharlieD]

I live in the Midwest and have Comcast, this episode is available OnDemand for a couple more weeks if anyone wanted to watch it.

 

[Redstrike]

RE: Pyramided Redfoots in the wild?

I'd lean toward they were imported for the show. TLC, Discovery, and History channel are all becoming more and more uneducated. They used to show educational and more sound science shows, now they're all on the shock-tv bandwagon infused with reality and pseudo-science programs.

 

[Maverick]

Re: RE: Pyramided Redfoots in the wild?

I'd lean toward they were imported for the show. TLC, Discovery, and History channel are all becoming more and more uneducated. They used to show educational and more sound science shows, now they're all on the shock-tv bandwagon infused with reality and pseudo-science programs.

Have you actually watched the show we are talking about? Or any of the Survivor man series? Of any of the programs of this type I find this one to be the most credible. There is no camera crew, I would be surprised to learn they imported multiple adult tortoises to say "look at these tortoises I could eat them but I'm not going too." In an episode before that there were coyotes around one of his camps, am I to believe they imported coyotes and released them for the show? I think this is unlikely.

 

[Yvonne G]

I've not watched the show, only seen snippets of it as I channel surf, however, it is my understanding that the subject of the show holds his own camera, does his own filming. I imagine he's within radio distance of help should he need it, but I just don't see this one man being able to keep a continued watch on a whole flock of tortoises brought in for the sake of filming them. It's hard enough for one person to keep her eye on one tortoise out loose in the yard.

 

[ascott]

It's hard enough for one person to keep her eye on one tortoise out loose in the yard

.

LMAO...sing it sister.....

 

[Maverick]

Re: RE: Survivorman!

I've not watched the show, only seen snippets of it as I channel surf, however, it is my understanding that the subject of the show holds his own camera, does his own filming. I imagine he's within radio distance of help should he need it, but I just don't see this one man being able to keep a continued watch on a whole flock of tortoises brought in for the sake of filming them. It's hard enough for one person to keep her eye on one tortoise out loose in the yard.

Any thoughts on how some of these torts became pyramided? If in fact we can take it at face value.

 

[EricIvins]

You do realize those aren't "wild" animals right?

Ok...... So maybe I'm not understanding, these animals are self sustaining, living on an uninhabited island. So are you saying they brought 30 tortoises with them for the show?

The magic of a production crew...

Redfoots are actually feral to Grenada but have become naturalized over a few hundred years. But yes, a "herd" of Redfoots did not just magically show up on an island. They are popular pets with the wealthy on the main island, and most of those "pets" are pyramided. Connect the dots from there...

 

[Redstrike]

You do realize those aren't "wild" animals right?

Ok...... So maybe I'm not understanding, these animals are self sustaining, living on an uninhabited island. So are you saying they brought 30 tortoises with them for the show?

The magic of a production crew...

Redfoots are actually feral to Grenada but have become naturalized over a few hundred years. But yes, a "herd" of Redfoots did not just magically show up on an island. They are popular pets with the wealthy on the main island, and most of those "pets" are pyramided. Connect the dots from there...

Ditto to Eric. Yes, I've seen the show. It's reality TV, period.

 

[Maverick]

Re: RE: Survivorman!

You do realize those aren't "wild" animals right?

Ok...... So maybe I'm not understanding, these animals are self sustaining, living on an uninhabited island. So are you saying they brought 30 tortoises with them for the show?

The magic of a production crew...

Redfoots are actually feral to Grenada but have become naturalized over a few hundred years. But yes, a "herd" of Redfoots did not just magically show up on an island. They are popular pets with the wealthy on the main island, and most of those "pets" are pyramided. Connect the dots from there...

Thanks, that was way more helpful then your first response.

 

[TheColossus]

I'd just like to add in that I'd love to believe those tortoises are wild, if just for the fact that taking 30 something captive tortoises/pets, and putting them all on an island, unsupervised, just sounds like really bad and stupid idea to me.

If anything, those tortoises were part of a wild population that may have begun with cast-offs from the pet trade. It's not uncommon, I mean look what's happened with pythons down in Florida! All it takes is for a gravid female to get out of her pen, and things will naturally increase from there.

In the program, I saw redfooted tortoises of all sizes (and ages), which seems to suggest that there was indeed a breeding population present. The largest tortoises were the ones that were slightly pyramided, but this could be because they may have originally been pets or captive tortoises, or offspring of them, so being present in a habitat they are not native to, they were not able to consume a completely proper diet and such.

Again though, that's my theory.

Then again, some places actually sell captive bred Grenada Island redfooted tortoises, so redfoots are obviously living there, although I cannot say for how long. It seems like they're naturally found there. My theories about captive origins was specifically for that herd we saw on the show, because of that pyramiding.