#chonkosaurus

Meet Chonkosaurus, the internet’s famous snapping turtle

Though some news reports have labeled Chonkosaurus a pregnant female, the reptile is an old male experiencing bloating, either from eating too much or being ill.

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Excerpt from this Chicago Tribune story:

Scoot over Chance the Snapper: There’s a new famous critter in town. Its name is “Chonkosaurus” and it likes to bask in the sun.

The massive snapping turtle was caught on camera by botanist Joey Santore as it lorded over a Chicago River pylon Saturday. In a widely shared video, the turtle suns itself as its fat, leathery legs burst beyond its shell.

The Chonkosaurus moniker came quickly to Santore’s friend upon seeing the “fat and chonky” animal while kayaking near the Division Street Eastern Bridge in the river’s North Branch Canal. The contented turtle appeared to be a pregnant female, Santore told the Tribune on Thursday.

A big but smaller male turtle had been resting with the large lady when Santore first saw it, but scurried away as he got close, he said. Chonkosaurus eventually scampered into the water too, though it took five seconds for the rotund reptile to waddle off the pylon, Santore said.

The botanist, who was filming a video on the river’s plant life for his “Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t” YouTube channel when he saw the turtle, at first thought the animal was a sandbag. The YouTuber publishes his videos under the Santore pseudonym for privacy reasons.

The Chicago River has long been viewed as a dump, “a blight on the city, rather than an asset,” Wesley said. But the beastly turtle is yet another signal of success with efforts to clean the river, including Urban Rivers’ recent work to establish a Wild Mile sanctuary park around Goose Island through cleaning and setting up floating gardens, he said.

“It definitely to me is a good sign,” Wesley said. “The fact that that thing is so fat leads one to believe it has a lot of food to eat.”