Creating the Next Generation of TURTLE HEROES!

追加: 2026-05-11

[00:00:03]This species might be extinct within your lifetimes unless we do something about it.

[00:00:10]Subscribe.

[00:00:18]>> [music] [music] >> What's up, everybody?

[00:00:31]Thanks for joining us on another exciting edition of Just Turtles. This is a a new one, something that we haven't brought to you before, but it's something that we care a whole lot about. If you're going to make a difference for endangered species like turtles, then you really need to focus on education. In that way, we can make a much bigger impact than we can breeding animals in captivity under human care or or even protecting them in the wild. If people don't care, then we're not going to make any progress, and they're not going to care unless they know about something, and they're not going to know about something unless people like you get out there and share what you know about turtles. So, today, we're going to share this side of what we do with you. This is kind of a rare thing and something new that we're trying. I hope you like it. I know you're going to like it. Of course, you will.

[00:01:18]Any turtle activity is not complete without the stars of the show, and Tapanga and the others are certainly the stars here, and we're loading them up right now so we could be ready to uh hopefully change a life or two for some kids that'll be nerds like us one day.

[00:01:37]Do you have water to dump into this?

[00:01:39]Water would make a big di- big difference for her right now. She smells. Yeah, she does stink. Mhm. You hold this, I'll pull her out, and we'll dump it in. Towards dookie on the pavement.

[00:01:49]>> [music] >> That's a lot of dookie, Tapanga.

[00:01:53]You shouldn't do that at a school. It's embarrassing for everyone. You know, these kids, they learn early what's embarrassing.

[00:01:59]And uh that's embarrassing. Hey Kev, you're going to love this.

[00:02:08]You're going to love this. Can't bring her anywhere. You can't. Well, you can, but there are consequences.

[00:02:15]Topanga's making a run for it.

[00:02:17]You're going to have to catch me.

[00:02:19]Topanga, I hate to break it to you, we're going to catch you.

[00:02:22]Oh, there's another one.

[00:02:25]Oh my gosh. That's three cuz there was a big one in the bin. We got one, two, and a big one in the bin.

[00:02:32]There you go. Yep.

[00:02:34]Cool.

[00:02:36]It's a little bit awkward, but take your time.

[00:02:39]I don't mind.

[00:02:40]>> wanted his picture taken. Just my Just my chest. Just my chest.

[00:02:44]He's like, "Zoom in."

[00:02:46]Great. Thanks. My pleasure.

[00:02:48]>> Appreciate it. So, really excited to be here today because we're doing something that we do all the time, but we're not able to usually record what we're doing.

[00:02:57]And that is meeting with uh a lot of children, younger children, at an elementary school on kind of a pep rally day. Uh and we're bringing them turtles so that we can tell them about what we do and tell them about these amazing species that we have have here with us today. I think we have something like eight species that Kevin and I brought between the two of us. And it's really important to try to do this when you can, but also to understand that not every time you're with kids is an opportunity to film, and that's why we're not able to do this all the time.

[00:03:24]But uh Kevin and Amanda know people here at the school, so we were able to actually, you know, get releases signed and that sort of thing and get permission to actually film here today.

[00:03:32]So, we're going to be making making a video of this.

[00:03:36]We're excited about it.

[00:03:38]So, for me, when I am going to a school or or really any speaking event where I'm going to bring live animals, I really want to think about what animals will make the biggest impact. All my animals have a job, and that is to generally to create baby turtles. But, there are some animals like my large alligator snapping turtle, which is there to educate. My albino snapping turtle, who's here with us today, is here to educate. But usually when I pick a species that I want to bring, I usually want one or two talking points that I can point to to say, you know, okay, here's this spider tortoise. It's from Madagascar. Have you seen the movie Madagascar, kids? What other species of animals live on Madagascar? That sort of thing. So, it gets the conversation going. Uh McCord's box turtle. It's extinct in the wild, but it's also a box turtle like our box turtles, and it has a hinge, and it can close its shell.

[00:04:25]But, as interesting as all these facts are, the most important thing when you're working with kids this age that you'll see here today is the Dale Carnegie quote that I try to keep in my brain all the time. It's better to be Well, in order to be interesting, you must first be interested. So, in other words, it's better to be interested than interesting, at least at first. Kids want to feel like they're a part of it.

[00:04:47]All they want to do is ask questions.

[00:04:49]They're waiting. They can't wait.

[00:04:50]They're so They're They're so impatient with it. So, start by asking questions, and that's why I love Kevin so much.

[00:04:55]He's really good at that, and that's why he does well with kids. Yes, to the older gentleman. I'm going to try to be like Kevin today.

[00:05:02]Here we go.

[00:05:04]Thank you so much.

[00:05:07]Thank you.

[00:05:10]Yikes.

[00:05:17]Oh my god, it's so big.

[00:05:20]So, right now there's a roadblock. We're waiting. We've We've We've hit the hallway where folks are waiting to get into the Pet Rally. We're working our way through. We're waiting too. So, it's a little bit of a standstill here.

[00:05:33]Come here.

[00:05:37]>> [music] [music] [music] >> I like animals. Anyone else here like animals?

[00:06:03]That's a lot of hands. Okay, you're you are in for a treat if you like animals.

[00:06:11]Hi everyone. My name's Anthony.

[00:06:14]This guy's name is Kevin.

[00:06:15]We are obsessed with turtles.

[00:06:19]So much that we like dedicated our lives to turtles. So, everything that we try to do is to make the world a better place for turtles. Can you believe it?

[00:06:30]So, what that means is no matter what you're interested in in life, you too can have like a really specific interest that you can work towards learning a lot about and making the world a better place. So, what we do is all about making the world a better place for turtles. Yes. So, I'm not going to talk at you a lot. I want to ask you questions. I am going to show you specific animals. We are going to show you specific animals. Some of these animals live with me in Wallingford and some of these animals live with Kevin and his family very close to here. Let's start by seeing a turtle and I'm going to ask you some questions. Okay?

[00:07:06]All right.

[00:07:08]One of the things that you're going to learn about is camouflage.

[00:07:15]What What does camouflage mean when we talk about animals? Yeah, right here first.

[00:07:19]>> Camouflage is like when you go in the environment When an animal blends in, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm going to show you an animal that does a really good job blending in. All right, let me ask you another question.

[00:07:29]Why am I putting a glove on right now?

[00:07:32]Right here. Because because cuz cuz turtles and other animals can have diseases on them. They can.

[00:07:39]But, my biggest concern is not me getting a disease. My concern is when I go to touch one turtle and then another turtle, I don't want to get the next turtle sick. Does that make sense? So, I want to be careful about that because these turtles are endangered species. Who can tell me what an endangered species is? Right in the back, yeah.

[00:08:00]It is a species that's about to go extinct.

[00:08:02]>> Yes. Do you know any other animals that went extinct? Yeah, right here. New York Jets. What is it? The Megalodon. Yeah.

[00:08:11]The Megalodon Yeah, well, we think so, right? But some Jason Statham movies might want us to think that maybe there are still a few out there. Yeah, something here? Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs did, too. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:08:23]Uh what's what's the most famous dinosaur, arguably?

[00:08:26]T-Rex. Yeah, I love it. Okay, the T-Rex.

[00:08:29]Who can tell me how long ago the T-Rex lived?

[00:08:35]Right here.

[00:08:38]65 million years ago. Can we What's your name? Brian. Brian. Round of applause for Brian.

[00:08:45]Brian.

[00:08:46]It's a way to bring it, Brian. That's the way to bring it. I love it. I love it. That's the way to give 110% Brian.

[00:08:52]I love it.

[00:08:54]65 million years ago. Some people say 64 million years ago. That's a really long time ago, right?

[00:09:01]Turtles have been turtles for 200 million years.

[00:09:07]That's three times as long as the time since T-Rex lived. So, dinosaurs are still alive. Isn't that wild? It's like 200 million years ago. That's like Stegosaurus. That's way longer than T-Rex. It's really crazy. All right, I'm going to tell you about this turtle. I still see some hands up. I'm going to make sure everyone has a chance to to chat with with me and and Kevin. This is >> [clears throat] >> called a black-breasted Now, you notice it has a black chest, okay?

[00:09:36]Leaf turtle. Now, why do you think this thing is called a leaf turtle?

[00:09:42]Right here.

[00:09:44]It looks like something Yes.

[00:09:47]Yes, and this is the one, remember I asked you about camouflage? This is a species that is really well camouflaged.

[00:09:53]Now, there's one other thing I wanted to tell you that I didn't get to yet, but I'm actually an author.

[00:09:59]This is crazy. If you knew me when I was your age, you'd be like, "What? That guy became an author?" Because I'm so interested in turtles, I basically became a writer and I wrote articles for magazines and things like that, and then I became an author. And the first book that I ever wrote was about these turtles, and it made me an author. This is where I started. Do you see this little book? It's like a pamphlet.

[00:10:20]It's not a very big book, right? That's where I started, but then this is the most recent book.

[00:10:26]So, turtles made me a real author. Isn't that amazing?

[00:10:29]>> Yes. Right? I'm telling you. So, when you find something that you really care about and where you feel like you make a difference, cool things like that can happen. What is it called when an animal is awake at night?

[00:10:40]Just yell it at me. Nocturnal animal.

[00:10:43]All right, that's it. You know too much.

[00:10:45]I'm out of here.

[00:10:46]I'm out of here. You already know all this stuff.

[00:10:48]>> keep the turtles? No.

[00:10:51]>> [laughter] >> You just Whatever, guy. Just leave the turtles. Uh >> [laughter] >> This turtle is not nocturnal, but it lives in a forest that is so dense. Who said that? Who said that before with the vegetation grows in with the dinosaurs?

[00:11:07]Yeah, there's so much vegetation where these live in Southeast Asia that the amount of UVB, the amount of sunlight that hits the ground is zero.

[00:11:17]So, they're awake during the day, but they get zero light, and that's why they have those owl eyes.

[00:11:21]Did the leaf turtle thing like does it Does it go in the leaves a lot?

[00:11:27]They do. Yes, yes, yes. I didn't even say that. They're shaped like a leaf so that they can hide. that's part of their camouflage, but they absolutely live around all of the leaves on the on the forest floor, absolutely. The first one was endangered, this one is critically endangered.

[00:11:44]Okay, this species might be extinct within your lifetimes unless we do something about it. Okay, they're from Madagascar. Has anyone here heard of Madagascar?

[00:11:56]There is a movie about Madagascar.

[00:12:01]It is heavily fictional, yes.

[00:12:03]Once I saw the zebra talking, I'm like this isn't real.

[00:12:06]So so this this little tortoise is from that island.

[00:12:11]I'm going to bring it around to everyone.

[00:12:13]Madagascar is No, it does not smell bad.

[00:12:17]Yes, it can go all the way in its head, but it's choosing not to because I maybe it likes you. I don't know.

[00:12:22]I know, how cute is that?

[00:12:25]So this This little one hatched right here in Connecticut. Um and the adults the adults the the mother and dad of this little tortoise came from Zoo Knoxville and and Zoo Knoxville is one of the best zoos in America for endangered turtles and tortoises.

[00:12:45]Turtles hatch ready to go and this is a very short trip, so I felt like it was worth it. If you learn about the species, that's a real big benefit and now this tortoise is doing a really good job today.

[00:12:57]This is a snake neck turtle and it's called that because it has a neck like a snake.

[00:13:03]It's a snurtle um and and and this species lives in Australia.

[00:13:12]Can anyone do an Australia No, we shouldn't do that.

[00:13:15]I know. I know. I know. I'm going to come around again.

[00:13:19]Questions here? Question?

[00:13:21]Can it survive out of water? Yes, turtles can survive out of water. They have lungs.

[00:13:26]Uh reptiles have lungs. They don't go through a metamorphosis like amphibians where they have gills when they're young, that sort of thing. Turtles hatch out of eggs that are a lot like bird eggs.

[00:13:38]Yeah, they do they do they can tend to dry out but some turtle species never go in water um or very little and some can that are water turtles can come out and aestivate. It's called aestivation. They'll stay on land for like 6 7 8 months.

[00:13:53]Our job as scientists of sorts is to take that turtle that egg and to incubate it and to incubate it you have to keep it the right temperature and the right humidity. That's like how wet the environment is around it and if everything's perfect the egg will hatch.

[00:14:07]Now, with most turtles and with things like alligators and things like that if you keep it at one temperature you could produce boys and if you keep it at another temperature you can produce females. So, you can literally determine what the baby ends up being.

[00:14:25]Isn't that amazing? When you have animals that are really endangered like this, sometimes you might the the the very small population of animals that are left for that species, it might be a lot of girls and not a lot of boys so you might want to produce more boys so that you can make it more even.

[00:14:40]Um, and then also when you think about global warming and how the temperature is getting hotter and and on the earth that can be very bad for turtles in the wild that have this type of incubation because you can end up having a population in the wild that's all female and then eventually the species can go extinct.

[00:15:01]You have lots of questions and comments.

[00:15:02]Yes. Um, if you're like incubating the egg, can you like if you start at a hot temperature, can you change it to a cool temperature? Yeah, yeah. And and there's actually a small window with so they some of these turtles take like this little tortoise from Madagascar takes almost a year to hatch the egg. A chicken egg takes 21 days. I've had these take over 300 days to hatch. Now, there's a window in the incubation where it's determined what gender the baby's going to be.

[00:15:31]Yeah, great question. So, these were really really common in the 1970s and 80s, which is not that long ago. I know it sounds like forever ago, but it's really not that long ago.

[00:15:40]Uh and farmers used to pick these up and throw them at their livestock, at their cows, at their cattle. I know, it literally says that in the scientific research. Like That's what people said, because they were just everywhere. Like there's more of these than rocks. But now they're extinct. That fast. It changed that fast. So, by the time you all are Kevin's age, cuz he's really old, there are turtles that live here in Connecticut that could be gone if we don't do something about it. Wild, right?

[00:16:08]Well, we're trying. We're trying. But you know, there's a lot of other things in the world that people have to worry about than turtles. So, that's why we're here to remind them. Question here?

[00:16:16]Is Joe the sign? Is it hollow or It's hollow, but it's not full with air.

[00:16:25]It's full of lungs and stomach and kidneys and all the things that we have inside us, they have.

[00:16:32]Um but it's just protected by a shell.

[00:16:33]So, like I work in the veterinary field where we take care of dogs and cats and everything and we do surgery sometimes when animals need it. But turtle surgery is very complicated because that shell is just in the way. So, it's a great thing, but not a great thing when you want to do turtle surgery.

[00:16:48]This is a snapping turtle.

[00:16:50]He's not huge. Okay, his name is Crud.

[00:16:54]And I'm not going to put him on the floor.

[00:16:57]I'm not going to put him on the floor.

[00:16:57]And his name might suggest that we're not going to respect Crud, but we should respect Crud. Okay. Crud is um a snapping turtle.

[00:17:06]Oh, no. And he actually has a big leech on his back. So, I was like, you know what? I'm going to leave it so you could see the leech.

[00:17:11]I know, education, educational.

[00:17:13]Leeches are parasites.

[00:17:16]And they What do leeches do? Suck your blood. They do. They drink the blood.

[00:17:20]Yes, just like kind of ticks do. Yeah, so so he's got a nice leech on his back right now.

[00:17:26]Yeah. Yeah, they can take Yeah, they can take right through the shell. Yeah. It's pretty wild.

[00:17:31]I'll take it right off, but I left it for everybody.

[00:17:35]Hey, hey. Hey, hey. Everybody does it.

[00:17:38]Everybody does it.

[00:17:40]Everybody does it, okay?

[00:17:43]Okay. So, this is Crud. Now now Crud is not a normal snapping turtle.

[00:17:49]And I bring him The only reason I have Crud it cuz he's not an endangered species. Snapping turtles are still relatively common. This is called the common snapping turtle.

[00:17:58]Um you see the leech on his back? Can you see that?

[00:18:01]Oh, I don't want that on me.

[00:18:04]All right. All right. All right.

[00:18:07]Now, this is not how a common snapping turtle normally looks. He's lighter in color. And if you look closely, his eyes are actually red.

[00:18:17]Why would a turtle be really light in color and have red eyes? Yeah.

[00:18:21]There's a name for it.

[00:18:23]Cuz they're like like evil.

[00:18:27]Very good guess. Because they're evil was And you might be right. You might be right. He's He's an He's an ornery little guy.

[00:18:37]Yeah?

[00:18:38]He is albino.

[00:18:41]He's albino. Very good. Very good. He's very good. Albino is a res- Okay, you're going to learn about this in sophomore year biology, okay?

[00:18:51]So, try to remember until then. Uh basically albino is a very rare thing.

[00:18:56]Sometimes you'll see animals that are just really, really white. Uh I There's an albino squirrel in my in my neighborhood. But But uh do you have one, too? You've seen one? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:05]Well, there are also different types of albino that don't have quite as red eyes. Sometimes they'll have blue eyes.

[00:19:11]That's like we use the word leucistic. I don't want to get too far into that, but it's a rare thing that happens in animals that um that you just don't see very often.

[00:19:20]Yes, to the older gentleman. Why are you holding it like that?

[00:19:24]Uh so, yes, snapping turtles, that's great. Yeah, so snapping turtles, if you come across any that are crossing the road and this this turtle normally tries to kill me. This turtle wants nothing more than to see me dead anytime I see it or it sees me. So, um they normally are not this sweet. I don't know what's going on. He was a little cold this morning.

[00:19:41]Yeah, he wants to be nice. So, um any any who, when you find a snapping turtle, the best way is to pick them up by the back of the shell and then you can grab them under the They have like normally this is called the plastron, the belly of a turtle.

[00:19:54]They have kind of like a little bikini plastron because it's like smaller and skimpier than a normal plastron. So, you can grab them right here underneath, right? Does that make sense?

[00:20:04]And and that's a really good way to hold them. Now, they tend to scratch you with their back claws, but um you don't want to pick them up by the tail because that could hurt them hurt their spine, the lower part of their spine.

[00:20:15]Um and you don't want to grab them like some snapping turtles, like the big ones down in the south, you can grab behind here, but uh common snapping turtles could bring their head right back and try to bite you. And they will usually if you find a wild one.

[00:20:31]You're just not You're just not the same anymore after that leech.

[00:20:35]Okay, I'm going to put a couple tortoises down.

[00:20:39]Front row, don't come forward. We want to make sure that everyone can kind of see, but I'm going to talk to you about different turtles while I while we put these small ones out. Does anyone know what the biggest tortoise species is?

[00:20:50]The two biggest tortoise species in the world are in this bin. They are obviously not big. These are just babies. So, this is the Aldabra tortoise.

[00:21:02]>> [crying] >> This is not big.

[00:21:05]But these get to be These get to be over 600 lb.

[00:21:12]That's even more than I weigh.

[00:21:14]And then this is a Galapagos tortoise.

[00:21:17]Now, these are species that if you go to a zoo, a big zoo, a lot of times you'll find these two species being kept together.

[00:21:28]No [snorts] way, buddy.

[00:21:30]He's like, "You're going to have to catch me."

[00:21:32]So We use a bunch of different methods to keep them to tell them apart. We want to know exactly what parents these came from.

[00:21:41]So, that's why there's paint on this one's shell. We also use microchips, which is like a little grain of rice that we put into our dogs and cats if they ever get lost, we can tell who they are. We do the same thing with turtles and tortoises.

[00:21:53]But these ones have markings on them sometimes, but again, these are two different species that are part of two different groups in terms of like conservation programs.

[00:22:02]Cuz in the Galapagos Islands, there are all these different islands, and every island has a different type of tortoise.

[00:22:08]Because there are different plants, and the tortoises need to have different bodies to deal with the different environments on the different islands, even though they're close together.

[00:22:20]Uh can two types of turtles have babies, or can you only be the same Two different types of turtles who like each other very much, can they have a baby together?

[00:22:31]The answer is yes. Turtles are actually very prone, some species are very prone to hybridization. That's creating different babies.

[00:22:43]Some of them actually some of the hybrids actually have names because scientists found them and thought that they were their own thing, but they're actually a natural mix between the two.

[00:22:53]It happens naturally sometimes in the wild.

[00:22:57]No. Good question, though.

[00:23:00]Yes, and hybrids can have babies, too.

[00:23:03]So, there are some turtles where there's like a hybrid that's a mix of two turtles and then a hybrid that's a mix of two other turtles have a baby. So, then the baby is a mix of four. Yes, it's wild.

[00:23:16]Turtles are the coolest.

[00:23:25]Yeah, it depends. Different species are different. So, the question was, can you tell the difference between a male and a female turtle or tortoise? The answer is yes. Usually we look at the tails, but some species like the painted turtle or like the red-eared slider, the boys have really long pretty fingernails and they go like this to impress the female.

[00:23:51]So, when you see a turtle doing this, usually it means, "Hey, hey, look at me, how handsome I am. You should totally let me be your boyfriend."

[00:24:00]And then a lot of times you see the female turtle swim away and be like, "Yeah, right.

[00:24:05]I'm a strong independent woman. I don't need no man." And she goes the other way.

[00:24:09]Yeah, so that's that's turtle talk. In diamondback terrapins, the males are small and the females are bigger because they carry the eggs, um but they don't do this. So, the males don't have big claws in the front. Is there something else you were looking for there? Yeah.

[00:24:23]And then, you know, with with these big tortoises and with snapping turtles, the males are bigger because they tend to show how macho they are and try to beat up the other males so that they can get a girl. Thank you. That was exactly.

[00:24:39]Um so, the males are the bigger of the two for that because the females are big enough even at their smaller size to still carry all the eggs. So, there's a tortoise in the room that's going to be staying here.

[00:24:52]It's a Russian tortoise.

[00:24:54]Agrionemys horsfieldii, in case anyone wants to write that down.

[00:24:58]So, this tortoise is being is has been donated by my friend and esteemed colleague, Mr. Kevin. And um this is a species of tortoise that is declining.

[00:25:14]So, the numbers are going down. Um so, it's nice to be able to learn what we can about these animals in in human care and also just try to protect them and and keep them safe. And this one is a little bit special. You'll notice if you look closely at it and you'll have a chance, I think, to do that in subsequent days.

[00:25:34]Uh the shell is a little bit wonky shaped. It's not totally symmetrical.

[00:25:38]And then if you look really close at this little guy's face, you'll notice that he has a really extreme underbite.

[00:25:45]Like this.

[00:25:47]Um and that's not normal. So, this is this is um a special tortoise that was just born different that is um really cute.

[00:25:56]Yeah, he should be okay. I think he's a good question.

[00:25:59]High five again?

[00:26:01]No? I thought you'd keep on to high five me.

[00:26:04]Question here.

[00:26:07]These guys These guys live in a really rough habitat where they spend It's kind of like desert habitat where they spend a lot of time underground. So, if you see your tortoise just kind of hanging out, that's okay. That's a good thing.

[00:26:19]That means the tortoise is doing what it wants to do. That's a really good question. Let this be a lesson. Take it slow.

[00:26:26]Right? Take it slow, drink it all in, enjoy the dandelions when they come up in the spring like they do.

[00:26:33]You don't have to eat them. I'm just saying enjoy them.

[00:26:36]You know?

[00:26:37]And you can eat dandelions. Just to be clear, you can eat dandelions.

[00:26:42]Yeah.

[00:26:46]That's a great question. Anyone want care to guess what the difference between turtle and tortoise is?

[00:26:53]Land.

[00:26:55]Water and land?

[00:26:57]Good job. Good job. It's okay. It's okay.

[00:26:59]There's There's no no no competition.

[00:27:02]Water versus land, and you can see it in their feet. Tortoises a lot of times have like more elephantine feet.

[00:27:09]Tortoises. Uh but, if you go to If you go to England, I just went to England a couple months ago to talk about turtles.

[00:27:16]They call our water turtles, like a painted turtle, they call that a painted tortoise.

[00:27:22]So, we would not A tortoise, yeah. We would not call it a tortoise, but they do. And um It's So, it's just kind of like weird names that change in different areas. It's just how people use them. Uh so, that's why we don't even use common names. So, we say, "This is a Russian tortoise." When When we talk to scientists and conservationists about this species, we call it Agrionemys horsfieldii, because that's the only name that is specific to this species.

[00:27:50]Um and I could, you know, Geoemyda spengleri, Pyxis arachnoides arachnoides, Cuora mccordai, um Chelodina longicollis.

[00:28:00]And so on and so forth. So, those are the scientific names that we use for animals um to really keep track of what's what, because if we start using willy-nilly words like turtle and tortoise, it gets complicated.

[00:28:13]I mentioned I write books. Not many people read books anymore. So, if we make a a video that we throw together to try to educate people, we get thousands of people that watch it. And if I spend a year writing a book, sometimes I only get a few hundred people that buy it and read it. So, that's why I am an author, and I'm very proud of that, and I am still writing, but I'm not writing as much as making videos now, because we want to make a difference for turtles, and people watch videos.

[00:28:40]Yeah, right, exactly. And people watch videos. So, that's why we do that.

[00:28:46]Thank you all so much.

[00:28:49]Make us feel like this this odd thing that we're really passionate about is is interesting.

[00:28:55]Thank you.

[00:28:56]So, we just had an absolutely amazing time here with these kids. Like you know, sometimes it feels like you're on a lonely island when you're doing this type of work. Like with you know, a population of people that just don't care about these things.

[00:29:10]And how could you blame them, right?

[00:29:11]There are so many things in the world today that people have to worry about and navigate and and live through and get through.

[00:29:18]But then, you have an opportunity to come and meet with kids like this that just brighten your whole month. And you know, their questions. How many questions did they ask? 100 questions? 150 questions?

[00:29:29]200 questions? I don't know, but their questions, their interests. Some of their questions were really good. Some of their answers to our questions were absolutely amazing. I said, "How long ago did T-Rex live?" And the hands shot right up and first answer, 65 million years. Like, no problem. So, um being able to be with kids who are interested in this sort of stuff, even if it's just for today. And then there's kids mixed in that are really interested in this stuff and could end up carrying the torch for endangered species in the future. Nothing to me is more exciting than that. So, today was an absolute thrill. And also to be here to do it with my friends Kevin and Amanda was incredible. Don't forget to like, subscribe, hit the bell icon, do all those things. Tell your friends.

[00:30:09]Thanks for joining.

[00:30:12]Hit subscribe. Join the crew. Just turtle. Since always something new.

[00:30:17]All right, free freeze Jay Walker.

[00:30:20]>> [groaning and screaming] >> Oh, man. You're jacked.

[00:30:24]Woo. How do you do this?

[00:30:28]Watch out for the poop.

[00:30:30]Feel like you have practiced doing that.

[00:30:32]Question here, yeah.

[00:30:34]I watch your YouTube channel. Really?

[00:30:36]>> Oh, and also electric turtle.

[00:30:39]You came to the right place. I love it.

[00:30:41]Thank you and awesome.

[00:30:43]My first turtle was Eastern painted turtle. That's my first love and I was like 5 years old and I've been a nerd about this stuff ever since because I just loved it so much. And when I say nerd, that's not a bad word.

[00:30:55]That's a that's a term of endearment these days for people that are really into certain science-y things. It's 7:00 on the dot. I'm in my drop top cruising the streets.

[00:31:06]I got a real pretty [singing] pretty little thing that's waiting for me.

[00:31:12]Oh, hey, I thought I heard someone back here.

[00:31:15]Wait a minute. If you're here, then that means you just watched that video all the way till the end. Which is pretty amazing considering our videos tend to be a little bit long and I'm also long-winded. So, thank you. Thank you for being a part of this community.

[00:31:26]Thank you for making the world a better place for turtles and tortoises because it really means a lot.

[00:31:31]Oh.

[00:31:33]That was weird. Anyway, since you watched this long, if you haven't already subscribed, you should consider doing so via this link here in the corner of the screen. Also, if you like this video, I know you'll love our other videos which you can access here in the other corner of the screen.

[00:31:46]Like the drip that you saw during the video? I know you did and yes, I know I'm old. You can access that via this QR code here. And lastly, my Amazon author page because I am a turtle author. I've written several books about turtles you can access via this QR code.