The glopagos tortoise is the largest turtle in the world. While curtles can reach two thousand pounds, the biggest tortoise ever recorded was a fellow named goliath who weighed over 900 pounds. The last of his species, lonesome george, despite trying, sadly, never produced any offspring, passed away in two and 12 of natural causes.
We're bringing back one shell of an episode with today's encore. What's a tortoise? What's a turtle? Why do they live so dang long? What's up with their junk? Wildlife biologist and testudinologist Amanda Hipps studies gopher tortoises and dishes about turtle nomenclature, cliques, dicks, behavior, burrows, evolution, habitats and more. If you don't dig tortoises yet, you're about to fall deep into a turtle tunnel in love with them.
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Sound editing by Steven Ray Morris & Jarrett Sleeper
Transcripts by Emily White of The Wordary
Website by Kelly R. Dwyer
Theme song by Nick Thorburn