Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was recently told by an old-timer that all of the babies in a given NAWT clutch are always the same sex no matter what. Is this old news, new finding, or b.s.?
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www.gradeareptiles.com

I don't have any first hand experience, but that would seem unlikely. You might expect that with a wild clutch of temperature-dependent sex determinate (TSD) species like Spotted-Turtles or Blanding's Turtles. However, Wood Turtles display genetic sex determination (GSD), so I think you would anticipate sex ratios closer to 1:1 in any given clutch. Same as YOUR odds of having a baby boy or girl (i.e., we are a GSD species!).

Like I said though, I'm not certain. Maybe something odd is going on with turtles, but I see no reason to assume so. It might be tough to get a definitive answer considering you would have to ask someone who has raised (or tracked) an entire clutch up to maturity (12-20 years of age for wild turtles).

np
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www.gradeareptiles.com

I neglected to mention that folks can and do determine neonate sex by dissection or with the use of an endoscope. I looked into it a bit further and the data seems to suggest that sexes for a clutch would be 50/50 as I suspected. The source did not actually give any specifics for each clutch though. Rather, several clutches were probably lumped together and then eggs were selected at random for different temperature trials. Nevertheless, based on their results it appears that an approximate 1:1 ratio is probably present in each clutch.

Great posts, emy_did_it!

Not much to add. I can just say that I tend to get more males when I raise the hatchling NA Woods. The numbers I have dealt with certainly aren't high enough to show a reliable trend, but it is very close to 1:1.