Did you know that seemingly insignificant seasonal triggers in a habitat can trigger hormone cascades in turtle species that exhibit specific behaviors at particular times of the year? Yes, more obvious environmental triggers like changing temperatures or light cycles are incredibly important for telling many reptiles what they should be doing, biologically, but perhaps lesser triggers like falling leaves in their environment can also have that impact. In this video, I talk about how important leaves are to my turtles, and we see a Northern Spider Tortoise, Pyxis arachnoides brygooi, lay an egg only a few minutes after the leaves were dumped in her enclosure.