Florida: Love Among the Turtles

A good many years ago, my then publishers, Key Porter Books, called me into their office for a conference. When I arrived, I was told that they wanted me to write a book about turtles. I replied that I would have thought that they would've preferred to get a turtle expert to do the job. I was told that indeed they had tried, but could not find an expert on land and freshwater turtles was prepared to tackle sea turtles, nor could they find an expert on sea turtles that was prepared to take on the land and freshwater turtles. I replied that I was equally ignorant of both groups, and on that basis was prepared to take on the job.

That meant, of course, that in order to write an intelligent book about my subject I had to do a lot of  desktop research. Now, desktop research is all very well, but it does have one major frustration - reading about a remarkable natural phenomenon makes you want to see it for yourself, and you can't see too many turtles from a desk. The book (now in a second edition published by Firefly Books) went to print without my having had first-hand experience of some of the fascinating bits of turtle behaviour I had described from the scientific literature. 

This entry, then, is to share my pleasure in having caught up with one of these bits, on December 28, 2014: the remarkable courtship behaviour of the Florida Red-bellied Turtle (Pseudemys nelsoni),

As in many turtles, male turtles of the genus Pseudemys are smaller - often a lot smaller - than females.  A courting male has to clamber over his female's shell like an alpinist if he is to get anywhere.

Obviously, for actual copulation to occur he has to bring their hind ends into contact.  His first goal, though, is her head.  A good many male turtles appear to get their females in the mood by stroking her face with their front claws, but Pseudemys turtles go one better.

Male Pseudemys turtles have long, straight front claws; in my book I remarked that they looked like they were clutching a handful of knitting needles.  A courting male brings these claws to either side of the female's head, but he does not actually touch her with them.

Instead, he vibrates them in the water along the sides of her head.  As I noted in my book, "A courting river cooter (Pseudemys concinna) swims above the female, positions his foreclaws beside her face, and uses a quite uniform pattern of vibratory titillation, lasting an average of 506 milliseconds.  Perhaps, for the female, the sensation is somewhat akin to the pulsations of a whirlpool bath."

Anyway, that is what this male turtle was doing, and to my great delight, he kept it up for some time, relaxing between bouts atop the female's shell...

...and occasionally, it seemed, checking with her to see what she thought of his performance.

Perhaps, in this case, she was not impressed.

Occasionally a rival tried to join the proceedings (or, as the newcomer is noticeably larger, is this another female with a voyeuristic bent?).  Obviously, whatever the case, I was not the only one excited by this wanton display of turtle courtship - even if I was the one who had written, at second hand, about it before.