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What have you got there?
Researcher: Um, oh, a small adult alligator turtle.
Macrochelys is the genus.
It'll bite a little bit,
but the only reason he wants to bite me is because I've got him tangled up in the net.
For the most part they're nothing to worry about;
you can swim with them, fish with them, and all that and they're nothing to worry about.
But when you get one like this where you wants to bite you,
you've got to be careful.
There we go.
(chomping sound) Researcher: (yells out)
Oh, he got me. Okay. He's got me.
What do you want us to do?
Researcher: Um... Oh...
Want to help him? Somebody want to help him?
Researcher: No, don't touch the turtle.
No, he's going to have to do it. He's got to release it.
You can't pull on him or anything; that will just make it worse.
Researcher: (breathing heavily) Somebody get the pliers out of my bag, quick.
You need pliers? Researcher: No, I don't need 'em any more.
Hmmm.
Are you okay? Researcher: Yeah, I'm fine. I can't believe this.
You need stitches? Researcher: I don't know.
No, it's okay I don't need a bandage on it, I mean I don't want one on it; it's throbbing too much.
You need to stop the bleeding and that's how you're going to stop it.
Researcher: It's stopped. Look, it's stopped.
Yeah, he didn't crunch down on it -- he crunched down on it twice.
You saw him, he was holding on to too much to where I couldn't pull out.
I didn't want to move.
None of us wanted to do anything because you could feel what's going on.
Researcher: Yeah, yeah.
A fisherman could probably sit on a bank every summer afternoon for a year,
or two summers in a row, and probably never see one of these come out of the water,
or even surface to breathe.
Females lay eggs on land, other than that they're really rarely ever found.