Leopard Tortoise Sex Frenzy
Category: Reptiles | Date: May 04 2008 | By: tumaren
Sorry, I couldn’t resist such a tempting headline. It does not look like much but what you have below is a tortoise orgy. Two males (smaller and darker) following and attempting to mate with the much larger female.
Many male turtles and tortoises can be identified by the concavity of their plastron (the underside). You can see a bit of this concavity in this image of one of the males:
And aging tortoises and turtles can also be done by an examination of the plastron. Just like in trees years are denoted in lines which can be counted out from the corner of each scute (square segments that make up the plastron). My counting on the below image is a rough estimate. Some years when a tortoise did not grow much are hard to count so give or take some years this little male chasing the big female is just a bit younger than me (i was born in 1970). The female’s plastron was so worn that i couldn’t read it. I think we can just say that she is definitely not a flower child,, maybe more like a baby boomer.
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7 Responses to “Leopard Tortoise Sex Frenzy”
sheryl, washington dc, on 04 May 2008
Great post title! thanks for the pictures. I’ve never seen a tortoise orgy before.
s.
Wim, on 04 May 2008
Well I admire their ambition, she’s a big girl, a tortoise Mrs Robinson. Actually, I’d never have thought them the same species. What constitues physical maturity in a tortoise? Do they just keep growing until they pop off?
Paula, on 05 May 2008
I saw several tortoise orgies this weekend, all equally uneventful - on a stretch of road about 5 km in the rift valley near the Tugen hills, we counted 9 tortoises on or near the road, and in most cases small males following females …. only 1 had been hit by a car. We stopped and moved all those that were on the road to the side to avoid any further roadkills
James, on 05 May 2008
it all sort of reminds me of a ridiculous scene from the television show seinfeld where one of the characters, George gets in an altercation with some elderly people who use those motorized buggy chairs. he offends them and they pursue. he flees all of them driving the chairs. its filmed like a hollywood high speed chase only the speed is more like 5 mph.
Wim, on 05 May 2008
On behalf of libidinous exhibitionist tortoises everywhere, bless you Paula.
That’s conservation in action folks!
Markus, on 07 May 2008
JC, you are sort of like the Kenyan version of Larry David…embrace it. So who eats these tortoises? Big predators or scroungers? I bet a big cat would have fun flicking one about.
James, on 08 May 2008
striped hyenas supposedly eat them as well as honey badgers . also, larry david is a hero figure for me.
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