Tortoise "humping"

[JoanneS]

Hello, I wondered if anyone can help?

I have 3 Hermanns Tortoises, age 7. All female. One of them has begun humping the other two. Now when I first got them 6 years ago the same tortoise humped the other two and I believed it was to do with a dominance thing and after a couple of weeks it stopped. However, she has started up again and its now been a few months. I have mostly just watched rather than get involved as they are animals and have tortoise instincts of which I know nothing about, but today we intervened and moved the humping tortoise to a different part of the table. At this point she charged straight back to other tortoise and the 3rd tortoise kind of intervened and they got rammed into by the humping one.

Does anyone have any ideas at what could be going on? I am hoping I wont need to separate them.

 

[JoesMum]

Well the obvious is that she is a he. They all look female when they're smaller.

If you post a good, clear photo of the plastron (undershell) and tail along with the SCL (Straight Carapace Length) of the miscreant we can probably clear this up for you.

Groups of 3 or more torts may work together in a large outdoor enclosure with plenty of sight barriers, but there are no guarantees. Pairs are never recommended as the less dominant animal has nowhere to hide.

You may have to separate these three in the near future

 

[JoanneS]

This is her although I have misplaced my ruler for her measurements. She's the largest of them by quite a bit though.

 

[WithLisa]

Dominant behavior is not unusual at this time of the year. Maybe she wants to lay eggs, that can make them even more aggressive.

But I agree with JoesMum, it may work in a large outside enclosure, but keeping an adult group inside in a tortoise table is not a good idea.

 

[JoesMum]

I think she looks female. It's undoubtedly dominance. How big is their shared enclosure?

 

[Yvonne G]

You sometimes see this behaviour in a female when she's ready to breed.

 

[Tom]

Springtime gets the hormones flowing for both sexes.

What size is your table?