Tortoise Talk
My tortoises have been living separately for now, but I have decided to get them used to the idea of living together by putting Adagio in Andante's home for visits. I was initially worried that he would become aggressive toward her because male tortoises get aggressive toward females when they want to mate. Females generally are not aggressive. It turns out, though, that Andante is.
As soon as I put Adagio in her home, she started bobbing her head, which is a behavior that males use to dominate females and each other. I'm not quite sure how this communicates dominance because it just looks silly to me, but I guess it does. I didn't think there could be much harm in this, so I figured that if she wanted to be a little bobble-head tortoise, I wouldn't interfere. But then she went right over to him and tried to bite his front leg, which is another male dominance behavior that can cause harm. I moved her away from him, and he turned and ran to a corner so that his head and front legs were in the corner where she couldn't get at them so easily. This did not dissuade her, though. She tried to climb up over the top of his shell to stick her face in his. Fortunately, he just did what any smart tortoise would do and pulled his head and legs into his shell. Since she had no luck with this, she then decided to just pace back and forth behind him, as if she was stalking him. I couldn't believe how very aggressive she got with him, so I posted about it on the tortoise forum I belong to. A man who has been breeding tortoises for over 20 years responded with the question, "Are you sure she isn't a he?" I guess aggression is so uncommon in females that he thought the most likely explanation is that I'm confused about her sex. The fact is, though, that she has a very short, feminine tail with a star-shaped cloaca, which is also a feminine trait. I'm pretty sure she's a she.
So then I started to wonder why my girl would act like a boy. I know that a tortoise's sex is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated... high temperatures for girls and low temperatures for boys, but there are medium temperatures that produce some girls and some boys. Maybe she was incubated at a medium temperature and got the physical characteristics of a girl and the psychological characteristics of a boy. Essentially, maybe she's a transgender tortoise--a male in a female body. Or maybe it's sexist to say that a female tortoise can't be a strong, dominant tortoise. Maybe other females are not dominant because they were raised to be submissive. Maybe Andante grew up with strong female role models. Maybe she watched a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes in her youth. Or maybe she's possessed. She did try to do that Google search for 666, after all. Maybe she was just trying to figure out how to perform an exorcism, and I should have let her do her research. Or maybe it's something in her diet... like the Twinkie Defense... "Carrots made me do it!" When it comes right down to it, I have no idea why she is being so unexpectedly aggressive, but I sure have fun speculating about it!
As soon as I put Adagio in her home, she started bobbing her head, which is a behavior that males use to dominate females and each other. I'm not quite sure how this communicates dominance because it just looks silly to me, but I guess it does. I didn't think there could be much harm in this, so I figured that if she wanted to be a little bobble-head tortoise, I wouldn't interfere. But then she went right over to him and tried to bite his front leg, which is another male dominance behavior that can cause harm. I moved her away from him, and he turned and ran to a corner so that his head and front legs were in the corner where she couldn't get at them so easily. This did not dissuade her, though. She tried to climb up over the top of his shell to stick her face in his. Fortunately, he just did what any smart tortoise would do and pulled his head and legs into his shell. Since she had no luck with this, she then decided to just pace back and forth behind him, as if she was stalking him. I couldn't believe how very aggressive she got with him, so I posted about it on the tortoise forum I belong to. A man who has been breeding tortoises for over 20 years responded with the question, "Are you sure she isn't a he?" I guess aggression is so uncommon in females that he thought the most likely explanation is that I'm confused about her sex. The fact is, though, that she has a very short, feminine tail with a star-shaped cloaca, which is also a feminine trait. I'm pretty sure she's a she.
So then I started to wonder why my girl would act like a boy. I know that a tortoise's sex is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated... high temperatures for girls and low temperatures for boys, but there are medium temperatures that produce some girls and some boys. Maybe she was incubated at a medium temperature and got the physical characteristics of a girl and the psychological characteristics of a boy. Essentially, maybe she's a transgender tortoise--a male in a female body. Or maybe it's sexist to say that a female tortoise can't be a strong, dominant tortoise. Maybe other females are not dominant because they were raised to be submissive. Maybe Andante grew up with strong female role models. Maybe she watched a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes in her youth. Or maybe she's possessed. She did try to do that Google search for 666, after all. Maybe she was just trying to figure out how to perform an exorcism, and I should have let her do her research. Or maybe it's something in her diet... like the Twinkie Defense... "Carrots made me do it!" When it comes right down to it, I have no idea why she is being so unexpectedly aggressive, but I sure have fun speculating about it!