angry tortoise

Question
hi there, i have a 6 year old mediteraniam tortoise it is a pretty active tortoise if you put your finger next to her glass tank she goes crazy trying to bite your finger. If you put your finger near her she bites and shes got a strong pointy beak, but out of tank she doesnt bother at all. the other day i brought a 2/3year old testudo hermanni commonly known as hermanns tortoise he trys avoiding her but she keeps climbing ontop of him and trying to bite him. i thort i would leave it see if more time spent together she would exept him but then they met nicely head 2 head whilst walking around the room then the angry tortoise bit him on the head and its bit worrying about putting them back together, do you no of anyway we can stop this from happening with out having to seperate them from tanks?

Answer
Many tortoises from the Mediterranean go most of their lives without being around another tortoise, and usually fight upon meeting unless they have a lot of space and/or were raised together.

I am not sure what species your 'Mediterranean' tortoise is- there are many of them (Testudo hermanni, T. graeci, T. kleinmanni, T. marginata,and some combination of up to 9 other species or subspecies) but most keepers find they they need to keep at least some of their Med.'s apart at least some of the time. Especially since, at 6 years old, it is just entering sexual maturity and feeling its hormones.

Things get uglier if the animals are crowded- most adult Med. species need about an 8'x4' pen to feel like they have enough space. This is one reason most Med. species are best off in outdoor pens as much as possible.

Check out the articles on http://www.tortoisetrust.org for more ideas.