How Do Turtles Mate?

Turtles are some of the strangest and most unique animals in the world. There are a lot of things that they do differently from every other animal, the way they breathe underwater, the way they hibernate, and so on. But what about mating? How do turtles mate? Do they do something different from the other animals?

The turtle mating process starts with a courtship ritual. After which the male turtle will climb on top of the female turtle and use its cloaca, which is found at the end of its tail, to inseminate the female’s cloaca, which is found at the base of the tail.

But there are three different types of turtles, aquatic, sea, and terrestrial turtles. And all of them have a slightly different mating process. So let’s take a closer look at each of them.

How Aquatic Turtles Mate

It all starts with a mating ritual in which the male turtle has to impress or attract the female.

Different turtle species have different rituals but most of them have a lot of similarities. Some of the most common things male turtles do to attract females are:

Circling around the female
Biting or nudging the female turtle
Showing the colored parts of their body, like the neck
Flutter their claws in front of the female

The mating ritual can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours. It all depends on how confident the male is in his ability to attract females. During the ritual, most females just hide in their shells and don’t communicate back in any way. So it’s up to the male to decide when the ritual is over.

After the male is done with the ritual, he will attempt to climb on top of the female. If she agrees to mate, she will hook her back legs to his, signifying her acceptance and mating can begin. If not, she will try to get the male off.

The male turtle then inseminates the female by inserting his tail, into the cloaca of the female.

The cloaca is an organ that has multiple roles. It’s used for urination, defecation, and reproduction. Females have their local positioned at the base of their tails. And males have theirs near the tip of the tail.

One more thing that the cloaca does is that it allows turtles to breathe underwater. If you want to know more about the turtle cloacas and how they give turtles the ability to breathe underwater you can check out this article: Do Turtles Have Gills? (How Turtles Breathe Underwater + Pictures)

How Sea Turtles Mate

Sea turtles mate very similarly to the way aquatic turtles mate.

During the mating ritual, the male will nuzzle a female’s head or gently bite her neck and rear flippers to court her. If the female doesn’t swim away the male will hang on to her using his flippers and the mating process will begin.

During the mating process, the female swims both of them to the surface to get air, as a mating session can last 2, 8, 12, or more hours!

After they are done mating, both turtles will usually take a small break, then will go looking for other partners.

How Land Turtles Mate

Land turtles, also known as treatises. Mate very similarly to the way aquatic turtles do.

It all starts with a mating ritual in which the male tortoise chases the female and bites her head, neck, and the edge of her shell. And in some extreme but rare cases, he will even flip her over.

If the male gets permission, he will get on top of the female and proceed with the actual mating.

Due to the shape of the shell of a tortoise, the mating process is slightly more dangerous than in the case of turtles.

As you can see in the picture adobe, the shell of a tortoise is bigger and rounder, and this makes it a lot more difficult for male tortoises to get on top of females. And there is a serious risk of them falling on their back. Which can be very dangerous for tortoises if they can’t get back up immediately.

When Do Turtles Mate?

The turtle mating season usually takes place in the spring, right after turtles get out of hibernation.

But depending on the weather the mating season can take place earlier or later. If the weather gets warmer sooner than March, the mating season will start earlier. But if the cold weather persists, it will start later.

Where do Turtles Lay Their Eggs?

Unlike most animals, turtles won’t stay and take care of their eggs, so the place where they lay their eggs is very important.

In general, a good place for turtles to lay their eggs must have enough sunlight to keep the earth warm, enough moisture to keep the eggs hydrated, and a place where predators won’t find the eggs easily.

River turtles will usually dig their nest in sandbars.

Sea turtles lay their eggs on beaches. The interesting part about this is that sea turtles always lay their eggs on the beach where they were born. They will always return to the same beach to lay their eggs, if they are unable to lay their eggs on that beach, sea turtles prefer not to lay their eggs at all, than to go to another beach, even if turtles from their own species are using it.

All turtles, with the exception of one species, lay their eggs on land. Even sea turtles that spend most of their life in water, will come out on land to lay their eggs. Most turtle eggs won’t be able to hatch if they spend time submerged in water.

The only exception to this is the northern snake-necked turtle that lives in Australia. In the 1980s the Australian biologist Rob Kenneth discovered that this species will lay its eggs in water. This turtle species lives in wetlands known as billabongs, that alternate seasonally between dry and wet. The northern snake-necked turtles laid their eggs in water during the wet season. After the wet season passes and the dry season comes, the water will go away and the eggs will usually hatch. So the babies aren’t born underwater, but they are able to survive until they hatch.

How Many Eggs Do Turtles Lay?

The amount of eggs that a turtle will lay depends on its species, here is a list of how many eggs certain turtle species lay:

Red-eared slides: 10 to 30 eggs
Box turtles: 3 to 9 eggs
Snapping turtles: 20 to 40 eggs
Mud turtles: 2 to 5 eggs
Green sea turtles: 100 to 120 eggs
Flatback turtles: 50 to 60 eggs
Leatherback turtles 100 to 120 eggs

If you want to know why there is such a big difference between the number of eggs laid and the species of the turtles, you should check out this article: How Many Eggs do Turtles Lay?

Do Turtles Lay Eggs Without Mating?

Yes, female turtles will lay eggs even if there is no male around to mate with them.

Female turtles will lay eggs every year, even if they didn’t mate. The difference is that the eggs won’t be fertilized, so no baby turtles will come out of them.

What Do Turtle Eggs Look Like?

Usually, turtle eggs have a very plain look. Unlike bird eggs, turtle eggs don’t have so many color or shape variations. Turtle eggs are white or cream colored, and don’t have any kind of pattern on them. They do vary a little in shape, some species lay perfectly spherical eggs, while others lay slightly elongated eggs. The only thing that can vary greatly between the eggs is the texture of the shell. Some turtle species lay hard-shelled eggs, like chicken eggs, while others lay eggs with a leather-like texture.

Here are a couple of pictures that will show you some bird eggs, and some turtle eggs, so you can observe the difference better.

Can Turtles and Tortoises Mate?

Despite all the similarities turtles and tortoises are two distinct species, and while not easy to spot with the naked eye, there are a lot of differences between the two of them to make them incompatible.

Basically, turtles and tortoises are not the same species, and a crossbreed between the two of them is like trying to crossbreed a cat with a tiger. While this might seem like an exaggeration it’s not. So let’s take a look at how species and subspecies work.

Here is a simple graph that shows how animals are classified:

Now let’s fully classify two turtle species and two tortoises species, and see how different they really are, and then we will also look at a cat and a tiger, and you will see that the two of them are actually closer, despite their looks.

	Red-Eared Slider	Pond Turtle	Russian Tortoise	Leopard Tortoise
Kingdom	Animalia	Animalia	Animalia	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata	Chordata	Chordata	Chordata
Class	Reptilia	Reptilia	Reptilia	Reptilia
Order	Testudines	Testudines	Testudines	Testudines
Family	Emydidae	Emydidae	Testudinidae	Testudinidae
Genus	Trachemys	Actinemys	Testudo	Stigmochelys
Species	T. scripta	A. marmorata	T. horsfieldii	S. pardalis

As you can see the similarities stop at family, which is not far off from the place where most animals start to split into completely different animals, let’s take a look at a cat and a tiger since the differences are more clear in their case.

	Cat	Tiger
Kingdom	Animalia	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata	Chordata
Class	Mammalia	Mammalia
Order	Carnivora	Carnivora
Family	Felidae	Felidae
Subfamily	Felinae	Pantherinae
Genus	Felis	Panthera
Species	F. catus	P. tigris

So despite their looks, cats and tigers are a little bit more related than turtles and tortoises.

When it comes to mating, the highest chance of successfully taking place is when all participants are of the same species. Successful mating can also take place between members of the same genus, but the chances are very low, and the offspring won’t be able to reproduce.

And the higher you go in the classification order, the lower the chances of happening are.

Final Thoughts

So this is how turtles mate. It all starts with a mating ritual in which the male tries to impress the female. If the ritual goes well the male will get on top of the female and it will insert its tail, along with its cloaca, into the cloaca of the female.

I hope this article answered all of your questions about turtles and how they mate, but in case there is anything else that you would like to know, don’t hesitate to leave a question in the comment section below. I regularly check for questions and answer each and every one of them.