{"id":1365,"date":"2013-01-25T18:43:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T17:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=1365"},"modified":"2025-08-10T16:12:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:12:32","slug":"how-do-tortoises-get-it-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=1365","title":{"rendered":"How do tortoises &#8220;get it on&#8221;?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ever wonder how turtles and tortoises &#8220;get it on&#8221;? &nbsp;You&#8217;d think they were cursed by anatomy, but yes, they do mate &#8211; there&#8217;s no &#8220;you lay the eggs and I&#8217;ll come along after and fertilize them.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Animal Planet&#8217;s probably all &#8220;been there, done that&#8221; but on a recent trip to Madagascar I heard the strangest sound coming from a nearby riverbed. &nbsp;When I rounded the bend I discovered the craaaazy sex scene below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Loud Tortoise Love\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vMmbUpmqDqk?start=3&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Known as the &#8220;radiated tortoise, you can tell the male from the female by a unique feature that helps facilitate tortoise procreation. &nbsp;The underside of the shell of these male tortoises has a distinct concavity to accommodate the decidedly convex nature of the female&#8217;s backside. &nbsp;Incidentally, the underside is called the &#8220;plastron&#8221; while the top is called the &#8220;carapace.&#8221; &nbsp;I know &#8211; there&#8217;s no end to fascinating facts on this website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As it turns out, what you&#8217;re seeing in the video above is a very good thing &#8211; in a number of ways. &nbsp;It turns out that the radiated tortoise of Madagascar is likely to be extinct 20 years from now. &nbsp;Why? &nbsp;Political instability on Madagascar has made it much easier to poach the radiated tortoise and a number of other species, to the point that they are in danger of disappearing forever. &nbsp;And it&#8217;s not like rhino horns or other natural products that fetch thousands on the black market &#8211; a radiated tortoise will net a poacher &nbsp;&#8211; wait for it &#8211; fifty bucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, now you know how these ancient reptiles do the nasty. &nbsp;But don&#8217;t assume this applies to all turtles and tortoises. &nbsp;This species, which lacks the concave plastron, has to employ a different lovemaking technique. &nbsp;I don&#8217;t know about you, but to me it seems so&#8230;.I don&#8217;t know,&nbsp;<em>impersonal<\/em> this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mating turtles\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kpMui1Ei0XM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever wonder how turtles and tortoises &#8220;get it on&#8221;? &nbsp;You&#8217;d think they were cursed by anatomy, but yes, they do mate &#8211; there&#8217;s no &#8220;you lay the eggs and I&#8217;ll come along after and fertilize them.&#8221; Animal Planet&#8217;s probably all &#8220;been there, done that&#8221; but on a recent trip to Madagascar I heard the strangest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[641,107],"tags":[735,1796,736,734,733,732],"class_list":["post-1365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-madagascar","category-wildlife","tag-endangered","tag-madagascar","tag-mating","tag-radiated","tag-tortoise","tag-turtle"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1365"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5965,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions\/5965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}