- Now, you may be
asking yourself, does Coyote Peterson
always have a tiny turtle in his pocket? Well, not always. But today, we're going to
talk about the differences between the turtle
and the tortoise. Say hello to Buckshot. (adventurous tribal music) (enchanting music) Turtles. Turtles. Turtles. For nearly 200 million
years, a reptile we all know as the turtle
has inhabited our planet. These cold-blooded
ectotherms are protected by a hard bony shell. They breathe air, and eat their food using a beak. Of the 327 known species
that exist today, some live in water, while
others can be found on land. Since childhood, I
have been fascinated by these seemingly
slow-moving creatures. Yet to many peoples' surprise, they're actually quite speedy, especially when in the water. But what about the
land-dwelling, stumpy-footed, slow-moving reptile
that somehow defeated that speedy rabbit? Yes I am talking
about the tortoise. And the one question
people are always asking. Is a tortoise a turtle or
is a turtle a tortoise? Well, there is an
answer to that question. And to help us get to the
bottom of this timeless mystery, we're going to get
the cameras up close to one of the largest
species in the world. Okay, I hope everybody out
there watching is excited, because right here in this bag, I've got a bunch of vegetables. You guys know the vegetables
are good for you, right? - [Mark] Coyote, I don't
think anybody's going to get excited about vegetables, man. - Well maybe you're not
excited about the vegetables, but you should be excited
about who is going to eat these vegetables. You guys ready to
see a giant tortoise? - [Mark] How big
is this tortoise? You brought a lot, is it
going to eat all that? - Oh it's gonna eat all of it. We'll probably run out
of food before we're done filming this segment. - [Mark] Really? - If you guys are ready,
let's go meet Buckshot. - [Mark] Buckshot,
I like that name. - Oh yeah, she's my buddy. (gasps) There you are. - [Mark] Oh my goodness. - Hi Buckshot. This is the Galapagos tortoise, the largest tortoise
species in the world. And what we're gonna do today, is feed her her dinner. Buckshot, hey,
where are you going? All the food's over here. First bite. Oh, there's a big tortoise
poop, did you step in that? - [Man] I may have stepped
on the tortoise poop. - [Mike] Did I do it? Oh, I might've done it. Aw, it's on my boot. - [Coyote] Oh man, dude, oh. Mark stepped in
the tortoise poop. - [Mark] Oh it's
on this foot, too? - [Coyote] Nope. - [Mark] It's just that side. - Okay, Buckshot come this
way, away from the poop. Come over here, come on sweetie. - [Mark] Buckshot. - [Coyote] There we go. Now one very distinct
thing about tortoises and turtles, is the
length of that neck. And she's holding up the
entire weight of her body and stretching out her neck. And they would do this
in the wild to forage for plants that are higher up. She could pull them
down, fruits and berries. - [Mark] Listen
to those chompers. - Look at the
chomp of that beak. Now I'm trying to pay
attention to where your camera's at Mark, but I
also have to pay attention to her beak, because you
see when she bites out, she bites and lunges
her head forward. And I do not want to lose
a finger in that beak. Ooh, that's a
little close there. We are in south
Florida right now. And this is one of the
only Galapagos tortoises in captivity here in this area. And we were given the
opportunity to film with her. Now she is 25 years old
and she weighs 140 pounds. She actually just almost
bit my nose right there. No, my nose is not
romaine lettuce. And she is an absolute giant. This tortoise weighs just
about as much as I do. I weigh 155 pounds, so this
creature is absolutely massive. And oh boy, she's about
to step on top of my leg. Oh, watch this, this is cool. Watch how high she can
bounce up her 140 pound body. You see that? - [Mark] I can't even get
it all in the frame, wow. - It's like a
brachiosaurus, eating leaves at the top of a tree. Now the Galapagos
tortoise is an herbivore, and they get a large
percentage of their moisture through the food that they eat. And you can see how juicy, ooh, getting close
to my fingers. Okay, we're moving
on to the next piece. You can see how juicy a lot
of these vegetables are. Oh here's something. Look at this. Oh, look at that. Look at that. Look at that, she's
standing on my leg. She is like squishing my ankle. Ha, I never thought I would be
feeding a Galapagos tortoise. I hope that one day we can
end up on Galapagos Island or one of the islands. Oh that's better. Now she's not
actually on my ankle. And feed some of these
tortoises in the wild. How about the cucumber? Let's have some cucumber. That is my personal favorite. There you go. - [Mark] You know
what you should do, a Lady and the Tramp. - With the cucumber? - [Mark] Put one
end in your mouth. - Ready? (romantic music) Oh, she's standing on me, ready? - [Mark] Keep going,
one more bite. - It's too close to my nose. - [Mark] No no
no, it'll be fine. (vinyl record scratches) (laughing) - It's too close,
if she gets my nose. (laughing) - [Mark] Is there any
more cucumber in the bag? - Oh jeez. I'm telling you, if I get my
finger stuck in that beak, it is gonna be game over. She can easily snip off
the tip of my finger. Oow, oow! She crushed my shin. Oh she did, maybe
she's after these. At 25 years old, she is only
about a fifth of the size. Now at 140 pounds, they
can grow to be close to a thousand pounds. - [Mark] Wow. - Imagine something that
is five times this size. Look at this, this is
me hugging a tortoise. Let me see if I can
hear her heartbeat. No, nothing inside of
that solid bone carapace. Wow, I am in just such
awe of this creature. It is massive, can
you believe this? - [Mark] And this is rare. There's not like a
Galapagos tortoise in every street corner. - No, many zoos do have
Galapagos tortoises, but they're actually
really hard to take care of in captivity, so this is a
very unique situation for us to be able to get up
close with this animal. And like I said,
I would love to be on the island of
Galapagos someday, filming these
creatures in the wild. But we certainly
weren't going to pass up the opportunity to get this
one up close for the cameras. - [Mark] So, Coyote,
I have a question. So we were talking about
turtles and tortoises, and I'm a little confused. What separates a
tortoise from a turtle? - Great question. Technically all
tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles
are tortoises. Think about that for a second. Kind of crazy right? A bit of a brain scrambler. Let's look at the body
structure of the tortoise, and that's what will
help us distinguish this as being separate from a
lot of the aquatic turtles that we're used to
getting up close to. Alright, you want to do that? - [Mark] Let's do that. - [Coyote] Okay, where
do you want to start? - [Mark] Let's talk about size. - Size, yes. Massive size, now
tortoises are large because they constantly
are feeding, right? All this animal does
on a daily basis is crawl out into the
sun, heat up for a couple of hours, and then it
forages, all day long. So the more it eats,
the larger it grows. And look at the rugged
body structure, right? Many tortoise species live
in rugged environments, which has allowed them to adapt to a body structure like this. Their skin is like leather. It feels just like
an old catcher's mit. Come on put your hand
there and feel that. - [Mark] It kind of feels like
a rhino or an elephant skin. - Right? It's interesting that you
mentioned elephant skin, because look at the
leg structure, okay? Both the front legs,
no webbing on the feet, just these big gnarly paws
and these stumped claws. And then the back
feet specifically, here come back here
and look at this. Let me get her to
put her foot down. It looks just like Oh, don't want to scare her. - It looks just like
an elephant foot. - Yeah, and that's called
elephantine leg structure. And when she lifts her
body up, careful, yeah. - [Mark] Very sensitive
for a big turtle. - Look how her paw
is next to my hand. I don't want to leave
that there too long, because if she does
step down on my fingers, she can crush them. That's a bit of a risky
position to be in. But you see that? They do have claws,
and just like turtles, they lay eggs. Now let's look at
the shell structure. As compared to a turtle, a tortoise has a much more
domed shell structure. Turtles are streamlined. They have narrower
shells that allow them to quickly move
through the water. A tortoise doesn't
go in the water. A tortoise just needs to be
able to traverse over land. - [Mark] Wow, so it sounds
like tortoises are specialized. - Yes. - [Mark] For living on land. So is that the big difference? - I would say the
biggest different between most turtle species
and tortoises, is that tortoises are
specialized for living on land. Now you do have some
land turtle species, like the box turtle and the
wood turtle, two of my favorites that live in the United States. However, tortoises, you'll
never find them in the water. You're never going to come
across a pond and say, oh there's a tortoise
swimming around. Now a tortoise may crawl
into a puddle of water, to drink and to cool itself off, but you'll never
find them swimming. They just kind of
like (humming), kind of submerge through
like a giant tank. - [Mark] Is she full? Nope. - She's never full. Well I would definitely say
that we learned a lot today. And that technically all
tortoises are turtles. The thing that distinguishes
a tortoise as a tortoise, is that it is adapted
for a life on land. And I can tell you this much, you never want to bring a
tortoise to a salad buffet. - [Mark] I think they
could wipe out a salad bar in about 20 minutes. - Oh yeah, especially
the Galapagos tortoise. I'm Coyote Petersen. Be brave. Stay wild. We'll see you on
the next adventure. See you later, Buckshot. The turtle is an
evolutionary phenomenon that has fascinated
both children and adults since the dawn of mankind. And whether you think they
are adorable or scary, slimy or scaly, I think
there are two things we can all certainly agree upon. Turtles are one of the most
unique animals on the planet. And, I like turtles. If you thought feeding
the Galapagos tortoise was fascinating, make
sure to go back and watch the episode where I
fed carrots to another giant with an
appetite, the moose. And don't forget, subscribe. So you can join me and the crew, on this season of Dragon Tails. - Hold on to it, and let her
pull it out of your mouth. And don't let her
take your teeth. People with dentures
sometimes lose 'em here. Here we go, hold on, hold on. (coyote howling)
