Russian tortoise age and size at maturity?

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Mork and Mindy are both about 4 inches SCL - Mork a little more, Mindy a bit less. Until now, I have noticed Mork making courtship-type gestures toward Mindy: approaching her face-to-face and bobbing his head up and down. All of this was pretty low-key, so I figured that either one or both was approaching maturity but was not fully mature yet, or else they needed to brumate first.

However, this morning I went outside and found Mork in full-blown courtship mode. He was rapidly circling Mindy and even biting her on the anterior marginals. I thought 4 inches would still be too small, but does this mean that Mork is sexually mature now?

If I thought this courtship could lead to mating and offspring, I would have let it continue. However, given that Mindy is a bit smaller than Mork and has fewer scute annuli (rings), and they are probably WC, I think that she is probably younger. So, even if Mork is mature, I think that Mindy is not. Am I right in thinking that? I didn't want her to get injured for nothing, so I separated them. Did I do the right thing? And if she is mature, does it matter that she is about the same size or smaller than Mork? Knowing that females get bigger than males in Testudo spp., is it always necessary for the female to be larger than her mate, or is it okay to let males mate with sexually mature females that are the same size or smaller than themselves?

 

[egyptiandan]

No male tortoise has to be mature before they will try to mate. Doesn't mean they'd get the job done with a mature female before they are of mature size though. Male Russians usually need to be around the 5 inch mark to get the job done and females aren't mature until they are around 6 inches.
He will mature quicker than your female, so it was a good idea to seperate them. I wouldn't put them back together until your female is 6 inches.

Danny

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Great to know! I'll do that. Since they each have their own separate pens, I don't have to worry about the male doing this while I'm not around (there's a reason they have separate pens!). As for not putting them together, they might come into contact outside, but given what you said, I'll separate them when I see him getting rough until they're big enough to actually breed. Thank you for the advice! You are a fount of knowledge on all things chelonian, as usual.