Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 4 year old male who is becoming sexually active. I also have a yearling, sex unknown. Often times the male will try to mount the little one after chasing it around the pen. Can he tell this is a female, or is just basic animal behavior because it happens to be there?

This is basic 'horny male' syndrom but females do it to. Some believe it is a dominance thing but that would imply a social structure. I'm always looking for patterns that would indicate that these critters do certain things for a reason... I don't see any pattern when it comes to one tortoise mounting another. I've got some pictures of a turtle mounting a concrete turtle. I've seen every immaginable combination (3 hingback doing the mambo) and I don't see any ryme or reason for the action. There is the reason for breeding (i know) but I don't see why else they do it. (does there have to be one?)

As to the age of sexing... you can tell on some tortoises after a year. Some are tough to tell even as adults. Some breeders that have seen hundreds of the species that they've hatched out can give you a good guess because I'm sure they play the same game I do in that they look at hatchlings, take a guess and monitor the individuals as they grow (for the ones they keep).
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

His age is the human equivalent of a teenager. That should tell you everything you need to know about his behaviour.

I have sub-adult Russian's that do the same thing. They mount the older males, rocks, romaine lettuce stumps, pieces of wood, you name it. Some days it's a veritable sqeek feast. They aren't the least bit discriminating at that age.