Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues, it is 8.15 and we're at 57 under bright sunny skies and our friends from the Wildlife Rockstars and Bridges for Brain Injury are here, James and Santino and our special guest, James, good morning.
James, Santino: Good morning.
Paul Szmal: Santino, how are you sir?
James, Santino: Doing very well. How about yourself?
Paul Szmal: Oh, and he's opened his mouth. Our special guest today is a 35 pound alligator snapping turtle named Bubba. And Bubba has just opened his mouth and I can see where he packs quite a wallop with that bite.
James, Santino: Oh yeah. Bubba, he actually has a bite force of about a thousand PSI, so he is in the top ten. I believe he might be the 10th strongest bite force, but he does, he has a very large head that packs a lot of power in there, but if you do notice that he has that little pink tongue that's inside his mouth. So what he actually does with that is he can actually, what he does, he's a stationary predator. So he'll sit there with his mouth open and he'll kind of wiggle that tongue like a worm and what they'll do is attract fish or other, maybe other turtles. And that's where he goes in. That's real, that's how he attracts his prey and that's how he hunts. So he's a stationary hunter.
Paul Szmal: Yes. Interesting. Very effective at it. Very interesting. And you can attest to it, James, because you're holding him by the sides of his shell, that he is a dense 35 pounds. He looks like he should weigh about 60.
James, Santino: Yeah, he is pretty heavy. He's got a very thick shell and it's best to try to just keep your hands away from his mouth as much as possible.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. I mean, normally I like to be able to touch the animals that come in. I ain't getting anywhere near this guy. I'll leave the handling to you guys as the experts, shall we say. Alligator snapping turtle. What kind of a, what kind of a subspecies is that?
James, Santino: So he is, he's a freshwater turtle. The snapping turtles are kind of their own category of turtle. But for him, he is the largest freshwater turtle here in North America. You wouldn't find him here in New York though. We have a lot of common snapping turtles here. He is primarily found down South. He is, he's a Southern boy and he finds himself in the swamps. He loves that type of environment.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. Imagine a pretty easy for him to get around in a swampy environment.
James, Santino: Oh yeah. A lot of the times, since he is such a stationary predator, these guys very rarely even come out of the water. They're almost fully aquatic. So really only females will go out of the water and that'll be to lay eggs. Primarily in the springtime.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. I noticed his shell construct and the way it meets his body seems to be a little different than other turtles.
James, Santino: It is. So he, where he gets his name, the alligator snapping turtle, is he actually has these ridges along the top of his shell that kind of imitate the back of an alligator. So that's kind of the main reason where they got their name from, but a lot of turtles, they have kind of an extra plate on the upper part of their shell where they can kind of bring their head in and hide. He doesn't have that. He's all game all the time. So he doesn't hide from anything.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. I was going to ask about that. Just looking at the general physiognomy of Bubba here, he's not one of those that is going to just retreat back into his shell. He's just, he's there for the party no matter what.
James, Santino: Oh yeah. Things are retreating from him. He's not, he doesn't back down. So what kind of a diet would an alligator snapping turtle have in the wild?
Paul Szmal: So him, he eats primarily fish. He'll eat other turtles. It's really anything that he can attract that he'll eat. It could be small mammals. There has been recordings of them even eating algae, so they're not fully carnivorous. They may be a little omnivorous as well, but very a variety of stuff that he can have.
James, Santino: I'm trying to imagine him eating another turtle. How would he manage to get that turtle out of its shell?
Paul Szmal: Well, with that really strong bite force, he's going to do a lot of crushing on that shell.
James, Santino: Ah, so with that 1,000 PSI you're talking about, that's enough to crack a standard turtle shell.
Paul Szmal: Oh yeah. How would that relate to like bending a piece of metal?
James, Santino: So I'd say his bite can break easily through a wooden broomstick and even some bone. So he could maybe amputate a finger, but very strong. And as you say, he's primarily a stationary animal, but I tend to think they would move around a little bit from time to time, possibly looking for different environments to find food.
Paul Szmal: Oh yeah. And if the food is scarce, he will move to kind of find it. But one of the things that's really cool about him is if you notice he has these really long nails on all of his feet and he uses that to kind of break up the sediment or the mud and he'll kind of bury himself in that. So he'll kind of use that as a form of camouflage and he's just very successful at it. He's a very successful predator. So he's a large animal, but he's a smart animal.
James, Santino: Yes. Very smart animal. To get large, you have to be smart.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, absolutely. And to stay alive, you have to be smart as well. I mean, is there anything that hunts these? When they're as big as Bubba, not really. Their main predator would probably be humans getting the turtle meat or the shell. But there are a lot of laws and restrictions in place to help protect these turtles. But when they are smaller, one of their biggest predators are river otters. So the otters will be able to grab them, kind of eat away at them, and then maybe break their shell open.
James, Santino: Oh, wow. I didn't think river otters had it in them to be that kind of a predator.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, they're actually pretty aggressive.
James, Santino: Oh, okay. Okay. How long... Well, number one, do we know how old Bubba is?
Paul Szmal: We do not. So Bubba actually was confiscated by the DEC and they had reached out to us to see if we would want to be his home, give him the proper care that the previous owner did not. And Bubba is a great educational animal and a great animal ambassador as well, because being from down south, not many people in New York get to see an alligator snapping turtle and not many people even know of their species.
James, Santino: What is the standard life expectancy for one of these?
Paul Szmal: So these guys, they're an ancient breed. They can live upwards to over 100 years, they can get over 200 pounds. Of course, it's all depending on the right genetics and their environment, but these guys, they can stick around for a while.
James, Santino: Now, you have him in captivity, so what kind of a home does he have back at base for wildlife rock stars?
Paul Szmal: So he has a large pool. He has kind of a hide where he's able to go in. There are times when he comes out and he gets some sunlight, but being a turtle, he likes to spend most of his time in the water, in dark areas. You can even see on his shell, he's kind of got this algae buildup and that's just because they stay underwater so much. And having that algae is actually somewhat beneficial to them because it provides camouflage, but also helps them break up the water currents when they're swimming.
James, Santino: He just blinked. That was a very interesting blink because they blinked sideways, not up and down. You normally don't see it as a predator. Normally predators, they have forward facing eyes, so they have eyes on the front of their face. He has them on the side, so it gives them kind of a wider peripheral. But super cool, he actually has like golden irises and he has a weird ability as well in his eyes where he can detect water pressure. So if a prey is close to him, he has excellent eye vision, so he'll be able to detect that and respond accordingly.
Paul Szmal: So what's his diet in captivity?
James, Santino: He'll get anything from chicken, some beef, rats. He really loves rats and Santino has actually been doing some wonderful training with Bubba as well.
Paul Szmal: Now I want to mention that you guys have one more Wildlife Wednesday coming up at East View Mall. I assume that's coming up this coming Wednesday.
James, Santino: Yes, it'll be this Wednesday, our last one of the season. It's been wonderful to be there and if you haven't gotten to catch us yet, please come see us next week.
Paul Szmal: And also, this is a good time of year to book fall and winter events. I imagine you guys get calls from, I imagine, quite a few schools probably like to have the presentations where you guys bring in the animals.
James, Santino: Yeah, absolutely. Schools are one of our biggest presentation places and with going back to school, we're excited to be able to see familiar faces and even some fresh faces.
Paul Szmal: And also, the can and bottle drive is ongoing at your home base location.
James, Santino: Yeah, so if you have any spare cans and bottles that you would like to donate, all of that money goes towards these animals. You could either drop them off at our facility or you could call and schedule a time for us to come pick them up. Or if you see on our website, there are multiple locations such as Can Kings and if you drop your cans off there and just say you'd like to donate the money to Bridges for Brain Injury, all of that will come back to us as well.
Paul Szmal: And speaking of that, there is also going to be a walkathon that is coming up for Bridges for Brain Injury September 13th. That's going to be at Trout Lake behind Seneca Park Zoo, so that'll be a good fundraising event.
James, Santino: Yeah, that is a wonderful time. So, we get to do the walkathon with the Brain Injury Association of New York State. We've done it previous years. It's always been a big hit to get together with other organizations that have the same mission. So, if you would like to participate in that or make some donations, that would be very appreciated.
Paul Szmal: All right. Well, guys, I appreciate you bringing in Bubba. And Bubba, I hope you have a happy and long life. And thank you for the wink, by the way. That was cool. And yeah, we'll see you guys in a month.
James, Santino: Awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah, much appreciated.
Paul Szmal: So, again, Bubba the alligator snapping turtle, our special guest in studio here this morning with our friends from the Wildlife Rockstars. It is 826 on FLX Morning.
