Questions:
- How do you differentiate a male and a female turtle?
- Can human control the sex of turtles?
- Asked by SooHK and Steve Hedberg
Answers:
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In mature turtles, differentiation lies in the size of the tail – a long and thick tail in males that in marine turtles, extend beyond the length of the hind flippers. In addition to tail length, the iris of male river terrapins become creamish in colour compared to the female. Click on the site below to view some pictures of male and female river terrapins: Malaysian Turtles — River Terrapin.
In the painted terrapin, sexual differentiation is even more remarkable in that the head of the male becomes white and marked by a red strip on the top of its head. This gives the terrapin its name. A picture is provided to show how beautiful the male painted terrapin looks in its full reproductive coloration.
male painted terrapin colour in full colouration
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Certainly, by conducting research to determine male and female-producing temperatures, then controlling incubation temperatures. The sex of turtle hatchlings is determined by incubation temperature.
This post is part of Turtle Blogathon 2009, where we stayed up for 24-straight-hours to blog about turtles. Posts written during the Turtle Blogathon are filed in the Turtle Blogathon 2009 category.
the male painted terrapin is really beautiful, but i don’t understand why always the male one is more beautiful than a female in animal… even the peacock also the male one is more beautiful :(
It’s sad to know that climate change and increased temperatures would alter the sex ratio of turtles since it is determined by incubation temperature. Would human activities like beach transportation and sand compacting affect incubation temperature and hence sex ratio too?
That is a sad effect of climate change that I hadn’t considered before…