Greetings dear friends and photography lovers

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The Red-legged Turtles, Morrocoy Sabanero as it is known in Venezuela or simply Morrocoy, is a very beautiful animal, I know some will not agree with my opinion, but, to me they seem very nice, I will see them with eyes of affection like they say Belonging to the family of the Testudinidae, they are characterized by their habitat is terrestrial, found mainly in savannas and dry forests. Their habits are diurnal and their food is mainly herbivorous, however, if given the opportunity, they can be a gustico when eating one or another invertebrate, lizard, bird or small fish.

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As for its appearance, as you can see in the photographs, its carapace is black, and resembles a kind of puzzle, formed from many hexagonal patterns. In the center of each of the hexagons have a spot, which can be yellow, orange or orange tending to reddish. On its legs and head the presence of spots is also observed, but they are normally orange or red. These spots on their legs, is precisely the peculiarity that gives rise to his name and that the difference from his cousin the Yellow-legged Turtle, who has a larger size. On the other hand, this nice reptile, when it reaches 40 cm. long and as you can see in the images, their colors are more intense when they are smaller.

In Venezuela, it is not possible to talk about its fauna, without mentioning this curious animal. But not only are they found in their natural habitat, it is also traditional to see them as pets. This is due to the fact that some of the roads in the south of the country cross their natural passages and this fact causes them to get trapped halfway along the road. When drivers realize, many stop, either to set them aside, or in some cases, take them to their homes as pets.

In the case of the images that I share today, correspond to my pets, Many and his much younger friend, Chispita, I must mention that both were born in captivity. I clarify this point, because at present, these animals are protected, since, they are in danger of extinction, because, on the one hand, they are victims of indiscriminate hunting to consume their meat, and on the other, a large part of their natural habitat, has been destroyed by human beings. That is why it is very important that we create awareness in our society, so that we all contribute to the conservation of these nice animals, since it would be very sad that they would swell the list of extinct species thanks to unconsciousness and irresponsibility of us human beings.

Reference

Content and photographs of my intellectual property

_{Previously published in WEKU}

Technical information

Camera	Pentax * istDL
Lens	Pentax 18-55
Lighting	Natural Light
Location	Barcelona, ​​Anzoátegui State, Venezuela

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://esencia-imagenes.mipropia.com/2019/08/30/red-legged-turtle-or-morrocoy-sabanero/

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