Radiated gender question

[Markw84]

I would love Bill's imput here. @zovick if you please...

I have a customer (Smart Enclosures) that I correspond with a lot. He is now acquiring a small group of radiated. Thinking he already probably has 2 males, he is looking for a female. He has the opportunity to buy the tortoise pictured here. Here is what he is telling me, and I tell him too small and young to be sure and mounting is not totally an indication of sex. The anal/supracaudal opening is narrow, but could widen. The anals look female as does the tail at this point. But they all look female when younger. The supracaudal is curving slightly inward, but not more than most female radiata if it stays that way. No obvious concavity to plastron yet as even female rediata get a small amount of concavity many times. No thickening of the rear edge of the anals.

Let's get some opinions, please. Thank you!

Here is what he tells me... The seller believes it to be female because his males do keep trying to mount this one. It is 6 years old and 9-10 inches SCL.

 

[TammyJ]

If I might comment here, maybe it would be helpful to know the sizes and ages of the two males your customer thinks he already has, and to see pictures of both of them?

 

[zovick]

I would love Bill's imput here. @zovick if you please...

I have a customer (Smart Enclosures) that I correspond with a lot. He is now acquiring a small group of radiated. Thinking he already probably has 2 males, he is looking for a female. He has the opportunity to buy the tortoise pictured here. Here is what he is telling me, and I tell him too small and young to be sure and mounting is not totally an indication of sex. The anal/supracaudal opening is narrow, but could widen. The anals look female as does the tail at this point. But they all look female when younger. The supracaudal is curving slightly inward, but not more than most female radiata if it stays that way. No obvious concavity to plastron yet as even female rediata get a small amount of concavity many times. No thickening of the rear edge of the anals.

Let's get some opinions, please. Thank you!

Here is what he tells me... The seller believes it to be female because his males do keep trying to mount this one. It is 6 years old and 9-10 inches SCL.

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Hello Mark,

Looking at the very obtuse anal scute angle and the recurved supracaudal scute, this tortoise looks very much like a male to me. In fact, I would almost bet on it, especially if it is 10" long already.

In my experience, the supracaudal scutes of female radiateds flare outward and the anal scute tips point almost straight to the rear, creating a much more acute angle where the two anal scutes meet.

There is no room for an egg to pass between those anal scutes and the supracaudal scute, and I seriously doubt that that space will enlarge in the next few years.