A student at the University of Queensland said the vibrator could use a 100 accuracy rate to determine the sex of the turtle.
Donald McKnight, a PhD student at James Cook University, said that if successful, this method could be used in Australia as a more invasive way to distinguish between men and women.
"Most published methods are invasive.
"It's like surgery to open a turtle, which is stressful for the turtle and time consuming for the researchers," he said . ".
The shell shape, paw size, and color patterns of turtles generally indicate gender, but when these visual features give researchers uncertainty about the outcome of a particular species, they look for alternatives.
Previous studies used vibrators to collect sperm from male turtles.
"So we thought, if you could use it to collect sperm, you could also use it to tell men to separate from women," Mr McKnight said . ".
He said that when the vibrator was placed on the turtle, the animal quickly had a noticeable reaction.
"For some turtles, if it is in a place they don't like, they will put their bodies tightly into tuck," he said . ".
Mr. McKnight said it would take 10 minutes for each turtle to determine the gender.
"The soft shell reacted very quickly and we had a place where men exposed themselves in about four seconds," he said . ".
"Some other species took longer, and we stopped once the males found themselves, but if we didn't see anything in 10 minutes, we ended the trial.
"This study was conducted in the United States of America in the local wild population of Homer --
The threatened western chicken turtle
This method has also been used for Spiny Soft shells, Mississippi mud turtles and common musket turtles at the ages of 100, 80 and 55.
The accuracy rate was 6.
McKnight said the method could be effective for Australian turtles. "No-
"Someone has tried it, so there is only one way to actually discover it, but I suspect it will," he said . ".
"I really want people to start trying this.
"It is likely that there are different vibrators and different technologies that are more effective for certain species than others.
"The study was completed in the United States and published in the journal Animal.
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