These hilarious images show the moment a frisky tortoise scupper his chances while trying to mate with a female . Clearly in the mood for love , the aroused reptile is seen beginning its painstakingly slow ascent on to the back of a female 's shell . But instead of getting lucky , the blundering tortoise somehow manages to lose its balance , sending it toppling over onto its back . The moment things go south : The loved up male tortoise is seen here teetering before he falls on the ground . Shell we just leave it then ? He gets no second chances and after failing to impress his mate and she leaves . Talk about lying down on the job -the poor fella looked positively 'shell-shocked ' as it found itself on its back unable to get up . The amusing moment was caught on camera , by Ukranian photographer , Vadym Shevchenko , 34 , at Kiev Zoo . And it seems the female tortoise was n't willing to wait around as she was pictured leaving the clumsy Casanova on its back , in the mud . And to add insult to injury , he then had to spend a whole fifteen minutes desperately crawling across the grass of its enclosure before finally getting up . Vadym said : 'The tortoise seemed very eager to make his way over to the female , he was still incredibly slow but it was clear he had a purpose . 'Watching the tortoise attempt to mount the female was almost painful to watch , it took him so long , but we were all sort of curious to see what would happen . The tortoise casanovca made painfully slow progress in getting into position with his mate in the first place . Photographer Vadym Shevchenko said the tortoise seemed very determined even if he was unsuccessful . 'It looked about ready to start but then lost its balance when the female moved , which sent it it rolling onto its back , it really was very funny . 'It landed in a patch of mud behind him and its arms and legs were kicking quite frantically . 'The tortoise was wedged in the small patch of mud , I do n't think it would been able to get back onto its feet without some help . Flat on his back , the tortoise lost his balance when the female moved away - and he had to scrabble in the mud . She was n't too upset though and went to find some food , leaving her unfortunate partner flailing on the ground . 'The female did n't seem to upset and she quickly moved off in search of food . ' I felt pretty sorry for the little guy , it tried so hard but failed at the last hurdle . 'It makes me wonder how they have stayed alive for so many millions of years . 'Seeing its face struggling in the mud was priceless , I always laugh out loud when I look back at these photographs . '
Pictures show the laugh out loud moment loved up tortoise takes a tumble . Photographed at Kiev Zoo , he falls flat on his back while trying to mate . A zoo in Ukraine has captured an adorable scene of a laughing and giggling tortoise falling over as it tries to mate.