- All right, so it's
finally spring here in Ohio and it's Coyote's favorite time of year. It's snapping turtle season
and he's really excited to catch the first snapping
turtle of the season, but I wanna beat him to it,
so I'm out here right now. He hasn't gotten here yet. I'm just gonna scope the area. Wait a minute! I think I see a turtle. Oh 100%, turtle, I see
its carapace, you ready? (splashing) Oh, it's getting away, it's getting away! Oh got it, oh he's a big one! Oh he's in the mud, he's in
the mud, he's in the mud. There he is, oh he's
all dirty, come with me. Gotta wash him, where's
his head, where's his head? Oh, there he is, Carl Junior. I caught this turtle five years ago. He was probably 20 pounds,
I betcha he's 30 pounds now. Look at this turtle, hey buddy. Oh don't get that close to me. Check it out, first turtle of the season. Coyote, eat your heart out! All right, let's go get
him up closer to cameras. (jungle music) - All right, it is
officially spring in Ohio which means that it is also time for us to start catching snapping turtles. Dragon Tails kicks off today. Now we just got back from Australia and the marketing team
said, "You can go out "into the field today on one condition." And I said, okay what's that condition? The Brave Wilderness Adventure Kit Reptiles and Amphibians Edition just came out and they said, "Here's the challenge,
here's your mission. "Can you take the kit out?" One of the coolest things in the kit is the toy common snapping turtle. "Coyote, can you catch a snapping turtle "and get a photograph of
the toy snapping turtle "on top of a real snapping turtle?" And I said, you better believe I can. So myself and Mario, who's
operating GoPros today and I'll have GoPro too,
actually why don't I just turn it on and get a shot of
you Mario filming me. Hold on, not on yet, there we go. - Howdy. - There's Mario filming me, our
goal is going to be to catch the first snapping turtle of
the year and get a picture of a toy snapping turtle
on top of a real one. So stick with us, it's gonna
get muddy, it's gonna get wet and with any luck, we're
gonna find some dragons. Now some people say that the
most wonderful time of the year is Christmas, but as
far as Coyote Peterson and Mario Aldecoa are concerned,
the best time of the year is spring when all of
the animals start moving. Now today, we're at one
of my favorite metro parks in Central Ohio, Blacklick
Woods Metro Park. What, did you see something already? - [Mario] I'm gonna go
grab the other camera. - Oh, Mario is getting a
walking shot of us going past the camera, I guess we don't
want to leave that back there. We are cutting through the underbrush, headed down towards the pond. This will be the very first
snapping turtle of the year. Oh, I'm excited. Now the only concern that I have right now is that it is not very
warm out and holy mackerel, I just found an enormous deer antler. Holy cow, dude Mario,
look what I just found. No kidding dude, look at
the size of that shed. Literally just found this, holy cow. So you may remember the buddy
film that Mario and I shot this past winter looking
for sheds and right here, on the side of the pond is
a huge antler, holy cow. - That's huge. - This is one of the biggest
antlers I've ever found. But again, because we're
in the Metro Parks, it's not something that
we can actually keep, but I am gonna turn this one
into the visitor's center so that other people can enjoy it. - [Mario] Look at that. - Wow, stuff's already
starting to chomp on it. You can see right there. Wow, that is a great start to the day! - See, this gives me
confidence because it means we don't have to go out
in the freezing cold to find antlers, right? We just go out when it's warm. - He does make a pretty good point. Looks like we can find
antlers when it gets a little warmer, this is great. All right, let's find some turtles. It's kind of fun filming
episodes with just GoPros. Makes it a little more challenging. Okay, you ready to get in the water? - Let's do it.
- Here we go. Your best play is to
really just kind of fan out and keep our wits about us. - [Mario] Is that movement over there? - Where? - [Mario] What is that,
or is that vegetation that's moving, you see that? - That's some vegetation but that could be on the back of a turtle's shell. - It's movin'.
- Definitely movin'. - [Mario] That's not the wind. - I think that is a turtle, hold on. Yeah, it is, it is. I'm going for it. Got it!
- Nice! - Yes, look at that! First snapping turtle of the year! Wow, he is a beaster, look
at the size of that dragon! Wow, he is a heavy boy. This looks just like the toy too. Sorry, holy mackerel! First snapping turtle of
the year, there it is. Wow, hi buddy, I recognize you. I know you, I've caught you before. You are looking good and healthy. I haven't caught this
turtle in a couple years. His name is Carl and oh,
he's a good lookin' turtle. All right, let's get him back over here. Mission complete in
just a matter of minutes getting out here into the pond. Our first snapping turtle of the year. All right, let's get him up on
shore and get our photograph. (splashing) Okay so, I'm gonna set you here. You're not gonna get away and go anywhere. Oh now you just took a mouthful of leaves. Whew, gettin' muddy, that is the only way to do it in dragon season, man! Okay, hand me the Adventure Kit. Oh, we got some water in there. So I'm gonna record all
my snapping turtle data inside the Reptiles and Amphibians
Field Journal this year. And our real goal, this is so cool. This turtle looks exactly
like the turtle we caught. - [Mario] It does. - That is amazing, they
are almost identical. You could not have
planned this any better. Oh buddy, I'm so happy to see you. What an awesome turtle,
I can't believe it! It looks just like him,
here let me prop 'em both up on my leg for a second
and when people ask, are your toys anatomically accurate, I think this pretty much proves it. Look at the color design of the toy turtle as compared to the real turtle. I see, you're very close to my nose. No, we're not biting Coyote's nose today. The head structure, triangular in shape, yellow eyes, dark colored head, lighter forelimbs and hind limbs, and the quintessential
greenish brown carapace which of course, as we know,
is the top of the shell. Now if you look at the plastron
of the toy snapping turtle, it's one of the key features when it comes to truly identifying this
as a snapping turtle. And let's look at the bottom
of the actual turtle itself. Completely accurate in design. Look at that, toy common snapping turtle. How cool is this? (laughing) Now what we need to do is
get the ultimate photograph, so you can take the photo
while I hold onto both of these turtles because
obviously, taking a photo myself in this instance isn't
exactly gonna be possible. - I don't think you can
take any better than this. - Dude, I'm so excited,
it's the perfect turtle for this shot. (upbeat music) Okay, so with every
snapping turtle that I catch and document for the Columbus Metro Parks, I make sure to take measurements. This is my little turtle measuring tape, pretty cool, it's a turtle, in its tail is the actual measuring tape. So, I wanna get the
length of the carapace, both the length and the width. What I'm gonna do to
record that information is actually write it down in my Reptiles and Amphibians Field Journal. I have not put turtle
numbers into these books yet, but now that we have them,
it's the perfect place to record all of that data. Now we need to do the weight. I have a basic 50 pound
scale, I know this turtle is not over 50 pounds, and of course, my classic weigh bag that has shown up in pretty much every
episode of Dragon Tails. Okay ready, turtle going up. - Okay, you are clear.
- Clear. Oh man, right there, 30 pounds. This turtle is about six pounds heavier than he has been in the past. Oh, there we go, give me that bag back. All right, well we got
our ultimate photograph. At this point, I think the marketing team is going to be thrilled. I have to give you guys a warning. If you're out this spring
and you see a snapping turtle in the wild, do not try to
get your toy close like I did. They have an incredibly powerful bite and a turtle this size
could easily, I know, take off a finger and you can
even see how powerful it is when it comes to biting onto Carl Junior. Can I have this back? Carl, can I have the toy back? I guess you like toy turtles
just as much as the rest of us. So guys, if you see snapping
turtles out moving about this spring, simply admire
them from a safe distance and leave catching them and putting your toys in their mouths up to me. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild. We'll see you on the next adventure. All right Carl, back off
into the wild with you. What a great start to
the Dragon Tails season. Our first snapping turtle of the year. A 30 pound giant and I cannot wait to see what sort of turtles we
manage to get up close with the cameras in the coming weeks. If you are excited for more
snapping turtle encounters, make sure to go back
and watch this episode from our turtle adventures last year. And don't forget, subscribe
and click the notification bell so you can join me and the crew
on our next wild adventure. (jungle music)
