Gopher tortoise combat

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soulsurvivor
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Gopher tortoise combat

Post by soulsurvivor »

I wanted to share a short video I shot on Christmas of some gopher tortoise interaction in the yard, and get some input. Two of the three tortoises in this video are "head-butting" and I am wondering if they are males fighting over a female. I have seen the head bobbing behavior before, but never seen it escalate to head-butting, so I was curious what it is all about. A dispute over a female or just territory....or both.

https://flic.kr/p/BzbDpp

~Bree
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Noah M
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Re: Gopher tortoise combat

Post by Noah M »

I asked a tortoise expert friend of mine and he wrote,

"Most likely head bobbing to impress a female Gopher. They usually do that behavior on the apron of the burrows looking down at the female within the burrow."

When pressed to explain the head-butting specifically, he said,

"Tortoise mating is pretty aggressive, especially if they are in captivity because they have consistent interactions instead of occasionally. There could have been another Gopher in the burrow preventing the female from going back down so she showed more aggression then usual. It is also a possibility that it is two males going at it (It looks like breeding behavior though), and when males go at it there is a lot of head butting involved."
simus343
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Re: Gopher tortoise combat

Post by simus343 »

I second what Noah said. Working with Gopher Tortoises just about every day that I'm not in class, I see them interact frequently. The left tortoises looked like it was merely interested in the middle tortoise, while the middle tortoise looked like it wanted nothing to do with the other. In my experience, male Gopher Tortoises suffer a lot of rejection before finally finding a female haha. That being, said, I agree with Noah - the left may have been a male and the middle a female, and the male has to go try his luck elsewhere :lol:.
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soulsurvivor
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Re: Gopher tortoise combat

Post by soulsurvivor »

Simus - did you notice at the end when the middle tortoise did a brief head bob? Do females bob, too? I was imagining the two on the mound were males. In any case, I do know now without doubt that the very small population isolated in our neighborhood is still reproducing, as I found a hatchling in my yard last weekend.

~Bree
simus343
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Re: Gopher tortoise combat

Post by simus343 »

Yes females do bob heads. Head bobbing is basically tortoise-speech. One of my friends that I'm almost always with at work has some footage where some come up to each other, rapidly bob heads for several seconds, and then just wander off. He's got a lot of footage actually from when he first started out here.
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