A silent war
When I went into the bathroom this morning to take my shower, G'Kwan was in there in front of the garbage can. Our garbage cans are metal, and have mirrored surfaces. Male turtles, before they mate, fight with other males, and the winner gets to mate with the female. You see where this is going.
During my shower, I heard repeated thumps. When I was drying myself afterwards, I was treated to a show of male turtle fighting behavior. Other times I've seen him rush the garbage can and strike is with the front of his shell, his head tucked back in for safety, but today he was rushing the other turtle and striking with his closed beak. (Turtles don't have mouths per se, or lips.) I guess it must be working, because he kept on doing that until I got out of the shower. He then wanted out of the room, just like the boys (the boy cats), so I let him out.
An interesting thing about this bitter fight is that, except from the shell thumping, it's entirely silent. When Mac or Barry attacks a mousie, they don't growl or hiss, I suspect because for smaller prey they don't need to scare them and they don't want to alert them. Afterwards, though, from Mac at least, there is victory warbling. The turtles may hiss when we step too near them, but G'Kwan never makes a noise when he's fighting.
Another thing turtles do before they fight is release any extra weight they may be carrying, so I had a quick cleanup of discarded liquids on the floor.
Right now G'Kwan is perched alertly under the sideboard in living room, right next to the door into the kitchen. I'm sure he's waiting for Dymphna to come get her lunch.
During my shower, I heard repeated thumps. When I was drying myself afterwards, I was treated to a show of male turtle fighting behavior. Other times I've seen him rush the garbage can and strike is with the front of his shell, his head tucked back in for safety, but today he was rushing the other turtle and striking with his closed beak. (Turtles don't have mouths per se, or lips.) I guess it must be working, because he kept on doing that until I got out of the shower. He then wanted out of the room, just like the boys (the boy cats), so I let him out.
An interesting thing about this bitter fight is that, except from the shell thumping, it's entirely silent. When Mac or Barry attacks a mousie, they don't growl or hiss, I suspect because for smaller prey they don't need to scare them and they don't want to alert them. Afterwards, though, from Mac at least, there is victory warbling. The turtles may hiss when we step too near them, but G'Kwan never makes a noise when he's fighting.
Another thing turtles do before they fight is release any extra weight they may be carrying, so I had a quick cleanup of discarded liquids on the floor.
Right now G'Kwan is perched alertly under the sideboard in living room, right next to the door into the kitchen. I'm sure he's waiting for Dymphna to come get her lunch.