Scientists in turtle test
IT may sound shell-shocking, but a North Queensland scientist has found a novel way of using a vibrator to further reptilian research.
James Cook University zoologist Don McKnight was part of a team of scientists that discovered that a personal massage device is the perfect tool for determining whether a turtle is a male or female.
The “Good Vibrations” study used sex toys to help find an easier, surgical-free method of accurately knowing the reptiles’ gender.
Unlike many mammals, turtles have no external genitalia, making sex determination difficult.
However Mr McKnight and his colleagues, who heard vibrators helped relieve captive reptiles of blockages, sought to make freshwater turtles’ penises emerge using the same devices.
If the appendage emerged – the turtle was obviously a male.
“We just bought a cheap, generic, silver bullet vibrator from the internet, rather than trying different styles,” Mr McKnight said.
Much to their delight (and the turtles’) the experiment worked with the vibrator inducing plenty of sexual excitement in the reptiles.
Mr McKnight said the method may not be a “silver bullet” for sexing some turtle species, but using vibrators to determine the gender of turtles was cheap, easy, and less invasive than other techniques.
“There are lots of reasons why determining the sex of a turtle is important,” he said.