- [Brian] Sam.
The legend. - Yes, sir.
- [Brian] How are you?
Thank you so much for having us.
- Oh, great to see you.
Thanks so much for coming by.
- [Brian] So tell me a little bit about Tank.
- Well, you know, these are three males that I have here.
This is Tank,
this is all Oliver, and this is Cecil.
So these are three animals that I've raised from hatchlings.
- [Brian] Wow, how old?
- Well, he's 35, 34 and he's like... 33.
- [Brian] Oh my gosh.
Wow, they're giant.
- Yeah, they're giant.
It's just amazing to come out and see them,
it's so special every day.
You know, it never gets old.
You have a relationship with these animals.
You know, you talk their language.
They don't have an animated face.
But to me, when I look in their,
I feel, it's like a sixth sense because-
- [Brian] I agree with you. - You know,
you can tell by the way they move their head,
the way they move their eyes, what they're looking at.
There's a lot of quiet times when you have to be able
to see what's in their eyes, you know?
- I feel the same way.
You know, we have a 16 year old Aldabra,
and she's like 135, 140 pounds, and same thing.
I mean, you can see that emotion.
You can see when she's happy, she wants attention,
you can see.
And it's not, I mean, they're majestic.
I mean, they are living dinosaurs.
It's amazing.
- Yeah, they are dinosaurs.
200 million years old.
- [Brian] 200 million years old.
- That style, what we call tortoise today,
that style is 200 million years old.
So, what we mean by the modern tortoise here is that,
you know, they have the ability
to pull their head all the way inside their shell.
They can close their legs in front of them.
Their body is complete,
it has a plastron, it has a top.
The tail gets pulled in.
They have the beak, they don't have teeth.
- [Brian] Right.
- We go back 240 million years, you know,
we see the development of the tortoise.
Some had a long tail with a club on the end.
And so we don't really call those tortoises,
but 200 million years.
And what I'm always psyched about is,
you think about it, I think it was 66 million years ago
we had the mass extinction.
75% of the dinosaurs get wiped out.
Those guys are survivors of that extinction.
They're dinosaurs. - [Brian] They are.
- You know, I mean,
people don't want to say,
"Well, dinosaurs, they're extinct,"
that definition of dinosaur is extinct,
but they're dinosaurs.
You know, by any means.
So we're discussing, you know,
how are we going to tell the difference between
Aldabra and Galops?
And so, a lot of people look at the shell,
don't look at the shell, it's all in the head.
For Aldabras,
you see they're round, between their eyes they're round,
and their nose comes to a point.
- [Brian] Right.
- Comes to a point because this animal
drinks water from the little crevices on the island.
And they drink through their nose.
They drink-
- [Brian] Through their nose? - through their nose,
they drink.
So, they drink water through their nose as like a straw.
Let's go check out the Galop now.
- [Brian] I'm having the best of time
just hearing the knowledge.
- All right.
So we're talking about how to tell the difference between
Aldabra and Galapagos.
This is Galapagos.
This is Adolf and he's actually 104 years old.
Now I've had them about 35 years.
And, you know, he hasn't changed much
since the day that I first received him.
But, again, looking at Galapagos,
look at his head and between his eyes, we were talking,
look how flat he is in between his eyes,
the top of his head.
How blunt his nose is.
(Adolf growls)
I knew you wouldn't like that.
So I've had him about 35 years.
I tell the story, you know,
I got them when I was a young man.
I'm an old man now, he hasn't changed a bit.
He's still jumping the girls.
He's still most active toward us.
He's still walking around.
Right now, you know, he's checking us out,
you see the way he's looking,
talked about that sense that you get, you know,
when you communicate.
Look at his eyes, how big his eyes are, you know?
He's checking you out.
- [Brian] What's the longevity, wasn't it-
- Over 200 years.
You know, there's a big debate between over 200 years,
they have some specimens that they know are even older,
but you know, our documentation doesn't go back very,
it's not very reliable going back so many years.
- [Brian] So is this, it's the longest living land animal.
- Longest living land animal.
We have some whales and everything, that live...
- [Brian] Yeah, yeah, Greenland wha-
- 500 years or something.
- [Brian] Yeah, Greenland sharks, 500.
- Longest living land animal.
- [Brian] How much does he weigh, do you think?
- 565.
- [Brian] 565!
- Yeah, 565 pounds.
I love their back feet.
Check their back feet.
It's so elephant-like.
Or, they're just, elephantiasis,
you know the scientific name,
so, - [Brian] Exactly.
- You know, you wonder where it comes from,
they're elephant-like.
- [Brian] Yeah.
- [Sam] It's an elephant with a shell, you know?
- It doesn't feel real, man.
It really doesn't feel, if he was animatronic or something.
Oh, you are a handsome one, huh?
- [Sam] Well, let's give a little something to eat here.
- [Brian] Oh my God, that'd be amazing.
- [Sam] There you go.
That'll make a great shot.
Look, he's on three legs to reach up higher.
So. (tortoise snaps off lettuce)
- Oh my God.
- Not only do you see that, you know,
he wants to get that higher vegetation.
So he'll tilt up a little bit on three legs.
A specific subspecies of Galapagos tortoise,
this is called a vicina.
And when you look at the vicina,
look how his front lift here of his shell really tilts up.
That allows him to reach that higher food
that you see on those islands.
That's what his shell design was actually meant to do.
I'll show you some of the other species
where we don't see that type of shell configuration.
- How many species of the Galops are there?
Subspecies.
- You know what, we got to talk about how many,
well they're actually sub, they're actually species, so,
- [Brian] They're complete species.
- Yeah.
- And I know they recently found one
that they thought was extinct, right?
- Yeah, yeah, that one from Big George.
So, I think there's nine currently living.
He, when he picks his head up high,
his neck still don't touches.
- Right, 'cause he's got that space between.
- It still doesn't touch, right?
So he's not restricted in that matter.
- This is heaven. (laughing)
- Look at the way he uses that leg
to break that food up on the side of his mouth
and everything.
It's amazing, their strength.
I've seen them actually pull people off their feet.
- [Brian] Oh my gosh.
- Watermelon or a pumpkin or something.
Check out the growth lines.
Look, he's still growing.
- [Brian] Isn't that something?
- Yeah, watch out, he'll ram you.
Yeah.
- [Brian] And so sexual maturity on these guys,
what was mid twenties? - 'Bout 26.
Recently, I've just acquired 10 females.
- [Brian] Oh, wow.
- So, you know, I went through a little process.
I had some females that I sold them to get some other,
some different females.
I'm getting real close.
It's gonna happen.
- [Brian] It's amazing. - Yeah.
- [Brian] That's gonna be such a experience, right?
I mean, keeping these for 35, 40 years
and then be able to see all.
- Being able to have one of these tortoises,
raised from hatchling and have them out in the backyard.
I come out here, I sit, I drink my coffee.
Every day, I look at it and I know it's special.
Real quick, look at the different.
- [Brian] The shells are so different.
- She's just sticking her head out a little bit
and she's almost touching.
- [Brian] Right. - [Sam] Right.
And the same thing, look, he's actually touching right now.
- [Brian] Yeah, and it's not-
- This is Bernie.
He's 35 years old.
And I raised him from a hatchling as well.
Was along with some of the other females here.
He comes from a different island, and you see,
he eats more from the ground.
- [Brian] Okay.
- And that he didn't develop that.
- [Brian] Yeah, from the trees, eating from the trees.
- That's right, he didn't develop that.
- [Brian] There he goes.
He's like, "Wait a second, what's going on over there?"
- [Sam] Uh-oh.
- [Brian] "What's happening over there?"
- [Sam] Look at the size difference
between the females and the males.
- [Brian] Yeah, it's amazing isn't it?
- 300 pounds, maybe.
300, 260, 280.
The little female over there is 170 pounds.
He's 570 pounds.
- [Brian] 570 pounds.
- When you look around a lot, you know,
a lot of these animals came into the country
too young to breed.
Or the people that have an animal that's ready to breed,
they don't want to sell it cheap.
- [Brian] Yeah, right.
- You know, they put all that into it.
Somebody who has raised an animal like that
wants a lot of money for an animal like that.
- [Brian] It's interesting that this female here
has such a round shell.
- Yeah, she's a hybrid between these two.
- [Brian] Oh, so that's why they're like that.
- Those little serrations there along the beak,
they have such a powerful grip, you know.
And they're so sharp that, I mean,
they could easily whack a finger off, you know,
especially if they get afraid and they pull on their shell.
Oh, you gotta be careful.
You gotta be aware of what you're doing.
It's easier to actually,
a lot of people try to feed them that last little bit,
'cause they try to feed it from here,
but actually, you know,
you're much better off doing it from the side
because they're going forward.
- [Brian] Oh, that's good advice.
That's really good advice.
- Well, another resident we have on the farm,
this is Elizabeth, and she's 103 years old.
- [Brian] 103?
- Yeah, she's 103 years old.
She still lays eggs.
She came into the country, actually before (indistinct)
Some 60 years ago,
some people from America went down visiting Ecuador
and they went into the meat market.
And there she is hanging in the meat market,
a little bit smaller,
but she's hanging in the meat market
and she's there for slaughter, she's there for food.
Well, they take her, they bring her home.
She's passed from one owner to another.
And you know, smiling here with me.
We're happy to have her.
That's Elizabeth, 103 years old.
And she was slated for death in the meat market, in Ecuador.
- [Brian] Wow, what an amazing story.
- [Sam] Yeah, it's just crazy.
- [Brian] I'm so happy you made it, girl.
- [Sam] Such a sweet animal, she is too, huh?
- [Brian] Such a good girl.
- All the way.
So, what happens is if you reach under here like this,
this is because he has that big cavity.
And it's that big cavity that allows them
to mount the females.
If you want a breeder, you got to get the cavity.
Otherwise they can't hold the female down.
So that cavity helps them hold that female down.
So just take the feel underneath it.
You'd be surprised at the depth of the cavity and what
you're really looking at there.
- [Brian] Oh yeah.
- Right?
What you're really looking at there
is this bridge skew that's right here.
So, you can see what kind of a breeder you may have
just by looking at that bridge.
- [Brian] And what age do they start to grow that?
- Probably about 15 years old, can start to see it.
You know, we have some others we'll look at,
and maybe we'll take a look.
What's going on, Adolf, huh?
We gotta get that, all that slime out of your eyes.
Want to get your face all nice and washed up.
They have that natural,
you'll notice that foaming in their eyes.
If you were looking at another tortoise,
you'd be thinking it had a respiratory infection
or something.
Not Galapagos.
Galapagos naturally produce
that slimy bubbling in their eyes.
And it's a protection against dand and dirt
and mosquitoes and stuff like that.
So, when you see that foaming in the Galapagos eye,
it's totally normal.
These animals are herbivores, the grass-land tortoises,
they eat things off the ground, plants and stuff like that.
But you know what else they eat?
Birds.
(indistinct) standing up, the bird get used to them,
they come pecking around.
They stand perfectly still.
Then when the time is right,
they come down and they squash 'em
and they back up, and they eat 'em.
Where did the tortoise come from?
Where was this along the archeological line?
The tortoise is actually a lizard
that has metamorphosized over time
into the tortoise you know today.
It was a digging animal, it was a dig,
it was a lizard and he would dig holes.
As he dug those holes, he wanted to get deeper.
So he started to get wide.
And if you look at the prehistoric history
is like a lizard has a little bit shorter tail,
he's got a little bit shorter head,
he's got legs in the front,
they're a little, changed a little bit,
and his body is getting wider.
Than the next evolutionary state is,
they start to spread their,
their ribs flattened out and they start to spread flat
and they start to fuse together.
And that's what starts to make the shell
that gets covered over with keratin,
which is the same thing, that's what the shell is made of,
which is the same thing that you see in your fingernails
and the rhino horns and stuff like that.
I think I was at about eight years old, my parents,
we lived up in Long Island, New York.
That's where the accent comes from.
They took me to some zoo, I don't even remember what it was.
And it was a giant tortoise out front.
To this day, I don't know if it was real
or if it was a statue.
It probably was a statue.
But I became infatuated with them at that point.
So all going for childhood,
"Someday I've gotta get these animals,
someday I've always got to get animals."
So, you know, you're young.
What resources do you really have?
But I remember telling my friends in school, you know,
you go through junior high and high school, these,
"You can't get those, they're, they cost a fortune,
or are very expensive."
I just got to figure out a way to make a lot of money.
And then people tell you,
"Oh no, no, you can't get 'em,
because only zoos can have 'em."
Guess I gotta get a zoo.
You know?
So it's been an inspiration my whole life.
- Tell you what.
I've seen a lot of red foot and yellow foot tortoises,
but nothing like this.
Look at the size of this one.
But the truth is, this is a little bit of a special
yellow foot tortoise.
- Amazon yellow foot tortoise.
This is an Amazon basin yellow foot tortoise.
And they're different than other yellow foots.
Because they come from different locations,
they grow to different sizes.
This particular animal is Gladys.
And she came here from South America when she was 25.
And that was 35 years ago.
Much bigger than, you know,
we see other yellow foot tortoises.
- [Brian] Yeah, like three times the size.
- Yeah, and weighs about 80 pounds too.
This is Humphrey.
I've raised him from a hatchling, and he's 32 years old.
Yeah, they can live quite long.
I've had 'em into the 60s.
- [Brian] Into the 60s, wow.
- Into the 60s, cyclura.
So what's up, Humphrey, huh?
What do you say?
Look, check him out.
Right, that nice little-
- [Brian] Gosh, he's so beautiful.
- [Sam] You remember the Twin Towers?
- Of course, and the Orlando.
- That's where, I used to have him sitting there.
- [Brian] Sitting there
at the Twin Towers. - [Sam] Right on the table.
You know, so many people remember me from
him sitting there on the table.
- [Brian] I'm sure that I remember it because,
I'm sure...
- I had the lewisi sitting out there and...
Just about as old as my daughter.
So, I have a lot of older pictures when she's a baby
and we're sitting there and he's the same iguana.
So every so often, you know,
I update that picture and everything.
What do you say, buddy, huh?
You need some lovin,' huh?
- [Brian] Look at this guy.
Look at that little beasty.
- What?
What?
He's like 30 years old too.
- [Brian] 30 year old boy.
- Yeah.
- [Brian] Look at the horn on that.
Wooo.
That's beautiful.
- Male.
This is the black dragon and, from Saibai,
Saibai Island iguana.
These guys are about two years old now,
so they're not mature.
They start off green, they look totally green,
and then the colors start coming through.
And right now they get that pink lip.
They get that white head and everything.
So it's really, really neat.
And, what's interesting is that this particular species
is not controlled by Florida.
Doesn't, it's not covered by that law.
- [Brian] It's still gen, the genus is still iguana?
- No, no, actually they've changed it now.
So, it's malasterna.
Yeah.
- [Brian] And that's why it's not covered under-
- Right, right, right.
- Baby Aldabra hatchlings.
- [Brian] Oh my goodness.
Are you kidding me right now?
- [Sam] Nope.
- [Brian] Oh my gosh.
Look at these.
- [Sam] I thought I had a couple left.
- [Brian] Oh my gosh, yeah.
You do have a couple left.
Now, do you sell these then, or is it?
- Yeah. - [Brian] Really.
- [Sam] They grow 10, between five and 10 grams a day.
- [Brian] Five and 10 grams
a day. - [Sam] A day.
That's why I say you should measure,
you should weigh your tortoises to know their health.
- [Brian] Right.
- You know, you, they never go backwards.
So you'll always see that.
They're going to start losing weight
long before you recognize they're sick.
So it really gives you a chance to jump ahead of everything
and see, hey, my tortoise is not doing well
and then start checking things out.
- So it's been great spending time,
obviously with Sam and Adolf,
and all the amazing animals here.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this as much as I did.
What a wealth of knowledge.
And I've learned so much on this adventure already.
It's gonna be amazing,
but we still have a bunch of places we're gonna be going.
It's gonna be great.
If you enjoyed this adventure so far,
here's a playlist of a bunch of travel stuff
that we've done.
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hit that subscription button.
Have an absolutely wonderful day, Reptile Army.
Remember, be kind to someone,
and I promise, we'll see you tomorrow.