Courtship and Combat Behavior in Gopherus berlandieri

Abstract

Field and laboratory investigations of the courtship and combat behavior of Gopherus berlandieri and other Gopherus species show that this behavior is specific for each of the two species groups comprising the genus. In G. berlandieri sex recognition is made on the basis of sexually different behavior, cloaca scent, and possibly scents from secretions of seasonally active chin glands found in tortoises only in species of Gopherus. Heterosexual preferences by males and females are made only when the chin glands of both sexes are secreting. Females, but not males, can differentiate sex by cloaca odor and are attracted to other moving tortoises. Neither males nor females can distinguish sex or are attracted to other tortoises by external morphology alone.