A home range is the area in which a tortoise travels, feeds, sleeps, courts, and has its burrows. This is the area with which the tortoise is familiar. Large tortoises have large home ranges and small tortoises have small home ranges. Females are more sedentary than males and do not move about as much, so they probably have smaller home ranges. Large males are known to occupy home ranges over 0.75 square mile.
Tortoises appear to have a good sense of compass direction.
They also are very familiar with local landmarks. They can travel to find burrows in a straight line. Actually the tortoises are merely living in close proximity to the highways and roads and will travel across them during the course of moving about the home range. Male tortoises generally court female tortoises whenever the opportunity presents itself, e.g., in spring, summer, or fall. Male tortoises may court and mount the females, but not actually copulate.