Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/turtle-slaps-courting/

A strangely adorable turtle courting ritual has gone viral after being shared on social media, and people can’t get over how cute it is.

Twitter user @jamieamalea shared a video of two turtles she spotted swimming in a pond.

One turtle, the male, could be seen swimming in front of the female and gently slapping her face with his little claws.

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Photo: Twitter/@jamieamalea
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Photo: Twitter/@jamieamalea

It sounds aggressive, but it looks gentle and somehow sweet. The female turtle accepts the face slaps, but continues to swim and allows the male to follow. It’s unclear if the male’s “wooing” ended successfully or not, but he seems to be off to a good start.

Check out the video below:

According to the Wildlife Waystation, the behavior of the male turlte in the video above is completely normal.

They explain, “During courtship, the male turtle will swim in front of the female and wiggle his front fingernails at her to entice her into mating with him.” If the female accepts his advances, they’ll mate. If she doesn’t accept the fluttering fingernail slaps, then she’ll act aggressive in turn.

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Photo: Pixabay/Chesna

Spruce Pets reports that the courting behavior of “just fluttering and wooing” can last for up to 45 minutes! That’s a lot of face slapping and fingernail fluttering.

Nature is strange!

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog