South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise

Facts about South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise. "Scientific name for South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise is Geochelone denticulata". South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise is a Chelonoidis variety of tortoise that comes from the Testudinidae family. The South American Yellow-Foot Tortoises are native to the Amazon River Basin of South America. This tortoise species is the third-biggest mainland tortoise variety on earth, and they are also called the yellow-legged tortoise, the South American forest tortoise or the Brazilian giant tortoise.

Features of South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise

The South American Yellow-foot Tortoise is a big-size tortoise that attains a maximum shell size of 15 3/4 inches (40 cm). The South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise are the 5th largest of all varieties of tortoises in the world and they look like the red-footed tortoise.

The South American Yellow-foot Tortoise has an elongated, oval-shaped shell top, with parallel sides and an elevated-domed back, which is usually flat down the shell scales along the crown of the shell top, with a minor peak close to the back end. The South American Yellow-Foot Tortoises have four pairs of costals, five vertebral scutes, eleven pairs of marginals, and a big, unbroken supracaudal. The front and the back marginals of the tortoise are somewhat serrated in the facade and the back of juvenile yellow-footed tortoises. The carapace of the Juvenile South American Yellow-foot Tortoise is yellowish tan to dark tan or even black color at the borders of the scutes. The areola in every scute of the animal is pale yellow, light brown or orange in color and merges into the darker shell top.

The shell bottom of the South American Yellow-foot Tortoise is thick around the borders, and its gulars do not project after its carapace. The plastron of the animal is yellow-brown in color, changing to nearly black color close to the seams.

The head of the South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise is comparatively smaller and longer than the width. Its upper jaw contains three tooth-like ends. They have big-size black color eyes with a tympanum at the back of each eye. The head skin and limbs are black in color, with yellow to orange color scales on top and about the ear and eye. The forelimbs contain five, lengthy and somewhat flattened claws that are covered with superior, dark scales and somewhat overlapping bigger scales on the front in the similar color as their head. The back limbs of the South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise have four claws that resemble that of an elephant, and are enclosed in tiny scales, with the color that of the forelimbs. Male and female South American Yellow-Foot Tortoises have different tail, a row of tinted scales on the sides.

There is a slight sexual dimorphism in the South American Yellow-Foot Tortoises. An adult male South American Yellow-foot Tortoise is slightly bigger than the female tortoise. Male breeds develop a typical incurving of sides, offering them a distinct waist, and an intensely in-curved plastron. The female South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise has a small, tapering tail, whereas the male has a longer, brawnier tail that is usually carried tucked down one side. The male tortoise has a larger anal notch, most probably to allow improved tail mobility.

Diet of South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise

In the wild, the South American Yellow-foot Tortoise feeds on several types of foliage. They feed on grasses, carrion, fallen fruit, bones, plants, mushrooms, excrement, and sluggish-moving invertebrates, like worms, snails, and others they are competent to imprison. In captivity, the South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise are fed with a variety of fruits, collard greens, plantain, dandelions, ribwort, shredded carrots, clover, insects and worms.

Reproduction of South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise

In the South American Yellow-foot Tortoise, the breeding season starts from July and continues until September. Male tortoises recognize each other by eliciting a distinctive head movement, a sequence of jerks ahead of and back to middle-position. Usually, copulation follows sometimes, but there is a stage of biting at the legs. During mating and copulation, the male South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise composes more clucking noises, and rival males will fight, trying to knock over each other, but neither the females nor males will protect a territory.

The average lifespan of the South American Yellow-Foot Tortoise Yellow-foot Tortoise is more than 20 years.