10 Ridiculously Weird Animal Mating Rituals
6. Size Matters (When You’re A Male Galapagos Tortoise)
As was touched on earlier when discussing mandarinfish, for some species size really does matter. Galapagos tortoises are one such species.
When two mature male Galapagos tortoises meet during mating season they essentially have a competition to see who is the tallest, with the victor gaining the mating rights. The two males will rise up on their legs and stretch their necks up as far as they can with their mouths wide open.
The taller male gets to celebrate his victory with some hot and steamy tortoise lovin’, whilst the outcome for smaller male is much less satisfying, with frustrated non-dominant males often resorting to attempting to mate with boulders instead.