{"id":13589,"date":"2023-06-25T08:18:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T08:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=13589"},"modified":"2023-06-25T08:18:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T08:18:48","slug":"look-at-you-youre-healthy-botanist-says-to-chonkosaurus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=13589","title":{"rendered":"'Look At You, You're Healthy' Botanist Says To 'Chonkosaurus'"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Joey Santore has seen plenty of things in his time, from spitting cobras in South Africa to other wonders of nature that his travels as a botanist provide.<\/p>\n

But when the La Grange native, who now lives on the Texas-Mexico border, decided to go out on the Chicago River last week and enjoy the first prime spring days Chicago offered up, he never expected to witness what he did.<\/p>\n

As he and a colleague spent the day on kayaks documenting interesting plant life, Santore spotted what he suspects was a 60-pound snapping turtle near the Division Street bridge. The sight, which Santore preserved on video from his cell phone, allowed him to document the occasion in sometimes colorful language as he captured photos and video of the large aquatic reptile.<\/p>\n

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Find out what's happening in Chicagowith free, real-time updates from Patch.<\/h2>\n

Santore, who hosts a comedy educational podcast with his friend Al Scorch called “Crime Pays But Botany Doesn\u2019t,” nicknamed the female turtle “Chonkosaurus.”<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see something like that, and it feels pretty good, especially what has been historically such a polluted and toxic place,\u201d Santore told Patch on Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m very familiar with the Chicago River, I\u2019ve spent a lot of time around it, I\u2019ve smelled it \u2014 I\u2019ve known that smell since I was a kid \u2014 but it was remarkable just to see this thing apparently very healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Find out what's happening in Chicagowith free, real-time updates from Patch.<\/h2>\n

While filming the sight, Santore provided the soundtrack for the video, saying, \u201cLook at you, you\u2019re healthy. You look good. I\u2019m real proud of you. You\u2019re eating healthy. Have you ever heard of liquid salad?\u201d<\/p>\n

Santore said that he and his friends initially saw two snapping turtles \u2014 a pregnant female and what Santore believed to be her mate. Santore said he has been told other people have seen presumably the same snapping turtle in the same area by the bridge.<\/p>\n

He expects the female was 20 to 30 years old \u2014 if not older \u2014 and says that snapping turtles can live to be 600 years of age. While most are found in warmer climates and in swampy areas, he presumes the turtle he witnessed last week has somehow found a way to survive a Chicago winter.<\/p>\n

Since posting the video on social media, Santore says the response has been overwhelming. While the group saw other varieties of turtles and fish (including Asian carp), nothing compared to the behemoth turtle that has given him his social media 15 minutes of fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about the context,\u201d Santore, who has since made at least one morning TV news appearance in Chicago, said Wednesday of the response to his photos and video. \u201cYou see this giant snapping turtle \u2014 just to see something that big, an aquatic reptile that big on the Chicago River surrounded by industry and hundreds of thousands of people \u2013 was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI just wanted to share it, and I didn\u2019t expect it to blow up like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santore, who will soon be traveling overseas to do more documentation for his botanist job, said that although snapping turtles are native to the region, the mere size and location of last week’s sighting has created a buzz similar to the 2019 “Chance The Snapper” phenomenon that held Chicago’s collective interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people are excited about it because they don\u2019t get to see that kind of thing where it is,\u201d Santore told Patch. \u201cPeople don\u2019t know that nature \u2014 for the lack of a better word \u2014 is right beneath their feet, especially in an urban environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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CHICAGO \u2014 Joey Santore has seen plenty of things in his time, from spitting cobras in South Africa to other wonders of nature that his travels as a botanist provide. But when the La Grange native, who now lives on the Texas-Mexico border, decided to go out on the Chicago River last week and enjoy … <\/p>\n

Read more “'Look At You, You're Healthy' Botanist Says To 'Chonkosaurus'”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}