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Revisiting the same-sex mounting in chelonians under the concept of whole-animal

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Abstract

Most vertebrate species are bisexual. But as well as the sexual behavior, same-sex mating-like behavior sometimes occurs. Recently, the same-sex mounting reported from chelonians was reviewed. The potential causes for such behavior that were hypothesized, such as dearth of correct mates or expression of dominance, are of the social domain. On further consideration, it may be instructive to view animals more holistically. We propose here two additional hypothetical causes: intersex gonads, on which we present new data, and misleading body size, on which we speculate from recent literature. We also revisit the effect of the sex ratio on the frequency of same-sex mounting.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Blanche Capel, David Crews, Elhanan Flesch, Uwe Fritz, Flavio de Barros Molina and Uri Werner-Reiss for help with information, Ariel Chipman for access to optical equipment, Tzach Auman for help with photography, and Netta Kasher for editing the photographs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pos-Graduacão em Ecologia e Evolucão, Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Campus II, CP 131, Goiânia, GO, 74001-970, Brazil

    João Fabrício Mota Rodrigues

  2. Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Yuxiang Liu

  3. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel

    Yehudah L. Werner

  4. Museum für Tierkunde, Senckenberg Dresden, Köonigsbrücker Landstrasse 159, 01109, Dresden, Germany

    Yehudah L. Werner

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  1. João Fabrício Mota Rodrigues
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  2. Yuxiang Liu
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  3. Yehudah L. Werner
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Correspondence to Yehudah L. Werner.

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There are no conflict of interests, no involvement of human participants and/or animals, except one Mauremys rivulata sacrificed (etherized) in 1956 before the existence of relevant rules.

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Rodrigues, J.F.M., Liu, Y. & Werner, Y.L. Revisiting the same-sex mounting in chelonians under the concept of whole-animal. J Ethol 34, 349–353 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-016-0482-8

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