Female Tortoise Humping tortoise statue

[LP5402]

This is Sonia, a 32 year old female desert tortoise engaging with a stone statue of a tortoise. We have never seen this behavior before and wonder why she is doing this now. Video attached.

 

[Akdrillo86]

Dominance? Maybe remove it if it is causing unusual behavior.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

You might have a male there after all.
I've seen females ram and chase other tortoises. But I've only seen one female mount another tortoise.
This could be sexual or it could just be aggression. But it'd probably be best for the tort to remove the statue.

 

[Tom]

This is Sonia, a 32 year old female desert tortoise engaging with a stone statue of a tortoise. We have never seen this behavior before and wonder why she is doing this now. Video attached.

Sonia is not a female. The chin glands and the long gular scutes are a dead giveaway. Name change to Sonny maybe...?

Also, females and males will do that to show dominance. It's not always mating behavior.

Here is the care info for your species. I'm leaving this here because most of the care info given for this species is all wrong and results in their eventual death in one of several ways. Questions are welcome:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Yvonne G]

Sometimes females act that way when they are receptive to being bred.

 

[TammyJ]

Sometimes females act that way when they are receptive to being bred.

If there are no males around, do the females get receptive anyway?

 

[Yvonne G]

Sometimes

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

No matter the reason, sexual or aggression, I would remove the statue before any injury is caused. I had to do this with a log in my male Russians enclosure, he would mount it daily, but I didn't wan to take any risks.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

No matter the reason, sexual or aggression, I would remove the statue before any injury is caused. I had to do this with a log in my male Russians enclosure, he would mount it daily, but I didn't wan to take any risks.

Any item that is stressful in any way should probably be eliminated.
Stress causes illness.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Any item that is stressful in any way should probably be eliminated.
Stress causes illness.

Yeah, you are right. There is a chance of both stress caused illness and direct injury.

 

[LP5402]

You might have a male there after all.
I've seen females ram and chase other tortoises. But I've only seen one female mount another tortoise.
This could be sexual or it could just be aggression. But it'd probably be best for the tort to remove the statue.

Thank you for setting me straight! Yes, Sonia is now Mr. Sonia. We've had adult male and female desert tortoises in the past but after looking more closely, I see that we have a male tortoise. We’ll move the stone tortoise to a different spot.