~ He looks happy!
Beautiful torts. You give me hope that I can raise a smooth Aldabra in ca.
As for reptiles that seek human interaction, the iguana is the only other one I've heard of. My father had one when he was a kid that was hand raised from a baby. It would crawl onto his shoulder when ever he sat down and make popping sounds in his ear as he pet it. That was before I was born. His second iguana was the polar opposite. mean old bastard. For the record, when they hit you with their tail it freakin hurts.
You are probably right. My little 10 mo old aldabra Cupcake , stood all the way up first time I sprayed him. Though he was ( and still is ) people shy, he let me rub his back legs, then front as long as I stayed behind him and didn't make any fast moves. I didn't teach him this, I believe he responded with some kind of genetic imprint. You are right , in their natural environment they stand to be cleaned of bugs and parasites ( symbiotic relationship)Thank you for the compliments re: Toothless and Jett. I've caught many Iguanas in various places, i.e. Mexico, Bonaire; one of them in Bonaire managed to get a tail whip across my face before I could control it. I'm not sure Iguanas actually seek out attention from humans as much as they simply tolerate it or perhaps associate humans with food. With Aldabras there is a definate interaction that happens that says " oh please dont stop patting my shell and rubbing my neck" thing going on; they will allow their neck to be scratched, rubbed until their human gets tired. It has nothing to do with aquiring food and seems tp serve some purpose. It may be that, as on the islands, they are allowing parasites to be removed(birds do this for them there); Aldabras and other large tortoises are prone to tick infestations. This is just a theory on my part but there has to be some evolutionary payoff for the behavior to have become ingrained. The more I think about it the more I'm convinced that the tortoises are simply allowing their humans to delouse them. Any other takers out there?