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Turtle Mating Strategies

An example of mounting behavior in turtles

Turtles are known for displaying a wide variety of mating behaviors, however, they are not known for forming pair-bonds or for being part of a social group. Once fertilization has occurred and an offspring has been produced, neither parent will provide care for the offspring once it's hatched . Females generally outnumber males in various turtle species (such as Green turtles), and as a result, most males will engage in multiple copulation with multiple partners throughout their lifespan . However, due to the sexual dimorphism present in most turtle species, males must develop different courting strategies or use alternate methods to gain access to a potential mate . Most terrestrial species have males that are larger than females, and fighting between males often determines a hierarchical order in which the higher up the order an individual is, the better the chance is of the individual getting access to a potential mate. For most semi-aquatic species and bottom-walking aquatic species, combat occurs less often. Males belonging to semi-aquatic and bottom-walking species instead often use their larger size advantage to forcibly mate with a female . In fully aquatic species, males are often smaller than females and therefore they cannot use the same strategy as their semi-aquatic relatives, which relies on overpowering the females with strength. Males in this category resort to using courtship displays in an attempt to gain mating access to a female.

Fighting Between Males

Saddle back Galapagos tortoise

Wood turtles are an example of a terrestrial species where the males have a hierarchical ranking system based on dominance through fighting, and it's shown that the males with the highest rank and thus the most wins in fights have the most offspring .

Galapagos tortoises are another example of a species which has a hierarchical rank that is determined by dominance displays, and access to food and mates is regulated by this dominance hierarchy . Two male saddle backs most often compete for access to cactus trees, which is their source of food . The winner is the individual who stretches their neck the highest, and that individual gets access to the cactus tree, which can attract potential mates .

Force Mating

Male (left) and female (right) radiated tortoise

The male scorpion mud turtle is an example of a bottom-walking species that relies on overpowering females with its larger size as a mating strategy. The male approaches the female from the rear, and often resorts to aggressive methods such as biting the female's tail or hind limbs, followed by a mounting behavior in which the male clasps the edges of her carapace with his forelimbs and hind limbs to hold her in position . The male follows this action by laterally waving his head and sometimes biting the female's head in an attempt to get her to withdraw her head into her shell. This exposes her cloaca, and with it exposed, the male can attempt copulation by trying to insert his grasping tail .

Male radiated tortoises are also known to use the force mating strategy wherein they use surrounding vegetation to trap or prevent females from escaping, then pin them down for copulation.

Courtship Displays

Red-eared sliders are an example of a fully aquatic species in which the male performs a courtship behavior. In this case the male extends his forelegs with the palms facing out and flutters his forelegs in the female's face . Female choice is important in this method, and the females of some species, such as green sea turtles, aren't always receptive. As such, they've evolved certain behaviors to avoid the male's attempts at copulation, such as swimming away, confronting the male followed by biting, or a refusal position in which the female assumes a vertical position with her limbs widely outspread and her plastron facing the male . If the water is too shallow to perform the refusal position, the females will resort to beaching themselves, which is a proven deterrent method, as the males will not follow them ashore.

Peer Review by Sarah Abbott

I really liked that you incorporated an image into your article and that you linked other articles. I also really liked that you provided examples of certain mating behaviours by different species of turtles. Your content also appears to be neutral and its great that your sources are scientific journals. One thing that I noted was that sources 1 and 2 are used much more frequently than sources 3 and 4. I would suggest trying to incorporate more of these sources into your article. There are also a couple of sentences that I found to be slightly difficult to read, and so I would suggest either breaking them up and adding in a comma where necessary for clarity. It is also not overly clear if you have a lead section and so to divide up your lead section and other topics of your article, I suggest creating separate paragraphs and potentially a sub heading or two where applicable.