Revisiting the same-sex mounting in chelonians under the concept of whole-animal
2016
Rodrigues, João Fabrício Mota | Liu, Yuxiang | Werner, Yehudah L.
Most vertebrate species are bisexual. But as well as the sexual behavior, same-sex mating-like behavior sometimes occurs. Recently, the same-sex mounting reported from chelonians was reviewed. The potential causes for such behavior that were hypothesized, such as dearth of correct mates or expression of dominance, are of the social domain. On further consideration, it may be instructive to view animals more holistically. We propose here two additional hypothetical causes: intersex gonads, on which we present new data, and misleading body size, on which we speculate from recent literature. We also revisit the effect of the sex ratio on the frequency of same-sex mounting.
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