Alligator Snapping Turtle

Down south five years ago back in 2016. I know yeah it's really been five years.

A 15 year old boy saw a remarkably large snapping turtle in his neighborhood and thought it would be a cool idea to take a quick photo with the animal.

He successfully Compass Behemoth, heave them up out of the water and estimating their measurements against his own body figure that the animal was about 30 in wide. A massive Turtle worthy of a photo, so he posed for the Sean and his presumed photo-op did the snapping turtles version of a. Photobomb, the turtle took off his index finger with a single bite and Hawk back into the water.

Say cheese.

The boy had been bitten by an alligator, snapping turtle macro chalice.

Now, this story wasn't in the news. As far as I can find, I'm reading this directly from a case report in, a scientific journal Wilderness and environmental medicine. The author is Johnson and are really funny hilarious for an academic article. Actually, in the text, they refer to the 15-year old boy who has just lost his finger to a turtle attack as the quote self-described naturalist.

And they note that quote, neither the turtle, nor the digit could be recovered and quote as if an attempt was made to get the turtle back to complete the photo. Now, I feel bad for this kid. He made a terrible mistake but in a way, he's like it.

Lucky, the turtle didn't take more.

I'm acting, this is species. Welcome to the show and welcome to all of our new Canadian news CBC, which from what I can Garner is Canada's version of the BBC actually played an episode of this podcast on their radio station and the result has been a really crazy influx of listeners from up. North. At one point we were ranked as the second most popular nature podcast in their country and the 21st most popular science podcast which I believe was above Bill Nye. If I'd anticipated the effect of this, I would have prepared an episode on a Canadian animal for this week regardless. Thank you. Whichever Insider listener was at the CDC and thought it would be fun to put the song. It's been a massive help. Thank you. Eric and the animals are playing in. And now without further Ado, wipers

You want the alligator snapping turtle?

Don't get overexcited about one of them out to same because I don't think it's true. Even if I do think it's worth sharing,

Various sources report that a 403 lb alligator, snapping turtle was discovered in Kansas in the late 1930s.

Bought. Now, one of the sources reporting this fact, would seem to believe it themselves and none of them linked to any primary source material on this supposed to scab hurry. So I can't even review the evidence myself. I'm going to have to assume this is just a mess.

That's okay. We don't need Miss today. The truth is almost as absurd. There are multiple locked in 100% confirmed. Bet your house on. It reports of this species getting to be over 200 lb. No, I did not miss speak. No, this is not a mess. I'm talking about freshwater snapping turtles, whose weight was verified by credible institutions. And in some cases by multiple institutions all saying that they weigh over 200 lb. According to the United States Geological Survey about as believable sources, you could hope for on such an unbelievable fact. The heaviest confirmed. Wait for this species is 251 lb.

This snapping turtle an animal that lives in relatively small bodies of freshwater. Can grow to be larger than Anthony Joshua larger than Deontay Wilder, and larger than Tyson Fury to, at least when you trim down a bit,

I'm staying with some friends this past weekend in a few of them got stalking, my big extinct animals, good company, right? Well you're bringing up armadillos, the size of cars and that sort of thing. I'm realizing that I likely could have brought up the animal as if they were extinct and it would have fit into the conversation.

You imagined it all. Oh, did you know that there used to be snapping turtles bigger than a heavyweight champion boxer.

But realize, as best you can that, there still are.

Scientific American calls this animal, the dinosaur of the turtle world and it's not just because of their size that they look archaic. This animal is one of the gnarliest we've ever spoken about on this show. And when I say they're gnarly, I don't mean it in this language. I am not speaking informally. They literally have more Gnarls dictionary definition from Google rough. Naughty praetorians is than any other species or almost any other species. This animal is absolutely covered in lumps pumps Pines and spice not just on their shell but on their tail arms. Neck and face all with the function of providing extra defense against potential threats.

This Turtle doesn't have fins. This isn't Finding Nemo. These beasts have appendages. More like the paws of a lion with claws that can get to be over an inch long. Their tail would look better on a dragon than on them. It's long and thick and has got a mohawk of spikes going straight down the back of it, turtles have beaks. Maybe you've noticed that these animals don't have teeth and most turtles have beaks like finches, like kind of soft a little rounded. This one is a beak like a raptor. It's hooked down into a vicious sharp points, except it's twice as fearsome because unlike and Raptors were the beat curves down into a point on top. But is relatively flat and dull on the bottom. This animal has two curved points. The bottom nested inside the top, when they close their mouths,

If they bite you gently, you have to Sharp puncture wounds in your arm.

If they bite you hard, while you might not have an arm, we'll get to that later.

Between their incredible size and they're almost comically conspicuous offensive and defensive adaptations. Photos of them. Look, photoshopped videos of them look like CGI.

This animal could be dubbed into a Godzilla movie and it would probably make the movie better.

This animal just looks like they're from an ear out when life on Earth was harder and they don't just look like an ancient species. These animals are at the end of visual level in a colloquial sense, often ancient this animal has a natural lifespan similar to that of humans. Many don't make it 2:20 but those that do have a good chance of growing old enough to retire at 65. In many cases, one zoo in North Carolina claims they have a 120 year old alligator, snapping turtle now, I don't know if that's an estimate incentivised into an Uber estimate by the need to drum up business, but if true with this specimen is the oldest alive. I can find

Another aquarium claims that their turtle was 150 before they died.

Again folks, unless their life was documented start to finish, I have a hard time believing, it given the incentive to your butt. Look it's not improbable and you will find people who saying that this is barely scratching the surface of how old they could get. And when you actually see some of these grizzled vets, 150 years old does seem like a reasonable guess.

For me though, the most interesting part of their looks isn't on their exterior but on the inside of their mouths of all places they hunt with a form of aggressive, I link the video of this behavior in the bibliography. It's on Wikimedia, Commons. And it's actually embedded on the Wikipedia page for this animal. But basically, they've involved and Incredibly convincing fishing lure. It's pink Wrigley and barely attached to the bottom of their mouth. Looking at the video without caption it, a trick me to sue. Metal worm was living inside this animal's mouth during the day, this animal hunts by taking a big breath, diving down to a refuse Laden part of their habitat. Nestling themselves into the scenery opening their mouths and going fishing.

They're not in a rush. This animal can chill underwater for almost an hour.

Eventually a fish will come along, think that they must be the early bird stick their head into want. They hallucinate to be an oak with worm in it, but upon entrance reveals itself to be a guillotine.

Most of the unfortunate animals who fall for this trick. Probably don't feel a thing.

A night. This Turtle takes a more aggressive approach searching for their prey in the dark. Sensing them by inhaling water to taste and Sample for signs of nearby animals. According to the National Wildlife Federation, this animals bite force is 1000 lb. That's the weight of 3 panda. Bears coming to you through the points of their John, definitely enough to cut your finger off. That's not up for debate. Is it enough to split your forearm or your spine or your skull? I'm not sure but I'd Venture, yes, although, I can't imagine the type of photo you'd be trying to take if you gave them that opportunity,

I can't find any record of death by alligator, snapping turtle, but it's definitely not impossible.

This animal is comedic, Lee overpowered on the Jaguar episode. I said that I felt bad for the turtles ride because in a video game analogy every time the turtle has leveled up. They put all their stats into defense and yet still the Jaguar somehow bites through them

it says, this this Turtle heard my criticism of their over specialization and power level until their offense could match their defense

Am I saying match? Here might seem like an unprovable exaggeration but it's actually a proven fact. Let Me Explain. Let me tell you something. I learned that I'm still wrapping my mind around even has a shared here. This turtle eats other Turtles studies of this animals. Intestines show fish are the priority crawfish on the second most popular pray and then other species of turtle are there third choice.

Think about this, this Turtle has become so powerful as a predator that they've been able to surpass, their own lineage is legendary, and the predator adaptations match is not too big of a word. Miss animal eats every species. They can get their jaws around. If they can rob Byrd they'll take them on a possum. They'll take them an armadillo, they'll take them, they might even take in wild pigs when they can manage it, but I'm not sure if you have it into Pig remains in these Turtles is from Scavenging or probation, but it's there, either way.

This animal has the name, alligator snapping turtle for their appearance and nature. There is a huge jaw that could remove your arm if they put their mind to it and they're covered in big spiky. Scoots just like an alligator.

But I don't care about the historical reason why they got this name because I've got a better reason to call them buy it. This is the turtle that eats alligators able to clarify once again that I'm not miss speaking. If this Turtle finds a small enough alligator that they can defeat them, don't rip them apart.

So you could say, this is an alligator, snapping turtle.

Growing up, I played far too many games in the Mario franchise before I realized Bowser, with his Turtle discovering. The Bowser, was not in fact, a dragon with pretty confusing for my eleven-year-old brain.

I mean a turtle.

The villain, I've been Waging War against this entire time is a turtle.

Really well, that's kind of silly.

But now that I'm grown, and I'm wise to the reality of heavyweight champion, turtle shell, smashing alligator, snapping alligator, snapping turtles,

I think it's quite fitting.

That's where she'll thank you so much for listening. Thank you again to the CBC. And again now that I know how helpful I share like this is going to go out of my way to facilitate this kind of thing. So if you're in or connected to media and you want to give this show a big line up and get some free content out of me. I'm happy to let you play my show on your website, radio station blog, even your own podcast just reach out and the same goes for interviews, which I'm very happy to do.

So anyone listening who has the capacity to feature this show on there outlets, that's probably the best donation. You could give thanks to the donors, of course, as always. Now let's read some five-star reviews.

So, first. We have a review from JC Podcast Addict who says, quote, we heard about this podcast, while listening to CBC podcast playlist, they played the Kiwi episode. What a wonderful find end, but you are one of many. Thank you so much, JC. I appreciate it. And I appreciate the sport really glad that this podcast found you.

Next up, we have a review from Sue Viper. Who says quote I love it. Please do more. I love this podcast. Please do the cassowary or the birds of paradise or the catfish. Maybe the fire salamander and they say LOL. Not sure what that means. And what thanks do I appreciate that very much. I appreciate the review and I appreciate the requests. They have all been added to the list. Thank you again.

And finally, we have a review from g h f, f h, g g, g u g, g a g e g f f g Who Says quote cool and I'm on smiley faces.

Thank you for continuing the trend of making me say silly things live on-air. I appreciate the review and I appreciate the five stars.

So, that's all. That's, that's all I've got for this week. If you want to be fused on the show, we read all the five-star reviews on iTunes and recommendations on Facebook. I can't wait until next time. So have a great week and remember to be kind to animals.