# Sexing Desert Tortoises (photo demonstration)



## Yvonne G

The first two pictures are of a 6 year old CB desert tortoise, a rescue. As you can see, he looks female, however, he is still too young to determine the sex. He is appx. 6" long.












This next picture shows a wild caught male and female with the male on the left. Notice that the male's overall shape is longer and slightly triangular. While the female is more round.






I couldn't get this old body down far enough on the ground to show you how the female's side view is more symetrical and how the male's rear portion drops off, but maybe you can get the idea.






In young adults it pretty hard to tell male/female from the tail. As you can see here, while the male tail (on the left) is slightly longer and slightly fatter, while the female tail is pretty small, they are very similar and without the other sex to compare to, it would be diff. Also, in this picture you can see that the male's gular (the part of the plastron that goes up under the chin) is bigger and longer than the female's.






I tried to get a shot of the two glands under the male's chin, but my arm isn't long enough for a clear picture. You can see one of the glands just under the bit of food in his mouth, but the other is hidden by the gular. In real life, they look like a couple large pimples.







Yvonne


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## Jacqui

To make comments or ask questions about this thread, please go here:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-7319.html


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