Let’s talk turtle sex

By Madeline McCurry-Schmidt

Hello there, little lady.

People are incredibly curious about how turtles have sex. This blog gets fairly good traffic based mainly on the search term “how do turtles have sex.” I wrote about turtle sex once, about two years ago. Based on the post’s popularity, I think it’s time for a follow-up.

So we already know how turtles have sex, but did you know:

1. Turtles gotta watch their backs.

Biologists have discovered that bottle-nosed dolphins seem to enjoy having sex with sea turtles. In her book, Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation, Olivia Judson describes how dolphins do it:

“Males are frequently sighted copulating with turtles (they insert their penises into the soft tissues at the back of the victim’s shell), with sharks and even eels.”

Review: “Wild Ones” shows a new side of our shrinking world

I’ll miss the sharks. I’ll miss the sea turtles and the manatees. These are the species that have my heart—and that’s not fair.

In his 2013 book, Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America, Jon Mooallen follows the efforts to save threatened and endangered species. The book was a well-researched page turner, and it made me think more about the importance of saving entire ecosystems, not just the photogenic species that use them.

Honeybee study holds clues for humans

European honeybees show their flash-dance side

I recently moved from small-town Illinois to big-city California, and now a new article has me wondering if this move could have changed my genes. In this article for Pacific Standard, science writer David Dobbs explains how bees, birds and even humans respond to their environment on a genetic level.

For example, when European honeybees are raised in a killer bee colony, they not only act more aggressive, but they begin to resemble killer bees on a genetic level. Their actual DNA code doesn’t change, but certain angry-bee genes switch on.