My best friend is a reptile.
For a long time, I didn’t care about the sex of the tortoise I adopted in April of 2012. I called it “Annie” and rolled with feminine pronouns.
Turns out Annie is a boy. Recently, I decided to Google “gender of Sulcata tortoise?”. The reason for my search is because both sexes’ genitals aren’t visible. Well, I guess that’s not the only reason. Also, I wanted to be using the right pronouns, and I’m certain of Annie didn’t want me to assume its gender it would have told me in clear, perfect English.
Some of the physical traits that differ among male and female are tail width, belly plate, and “butt horns”. I don’t know how else to describe the two protruding boney things under their tails appearing to guard their rectums.
Annie has features common in males. He has the concave belly plate versus a flat/neutral one. Secondly, he has sharp, pointy butt horns. Lastly, he likes to stare me down in a disdainful, Alpha-challenging manner. As far as the tail goes, I don’t know if his tail is broad or average or what, because I don’t have others around to compare.
With a score of 2 out of 3, Annie — I guess I’ll spell that “Ani” — is a dude. And as originally planned, Ani is now short for Anakin. Officially.