CHICAGO (WFLA) — Two kayakers stumbled upon “the most beautiful sight” while cruising the Chicago River – a giant snapping turtle they nicknamed “Chonkosaurus” in a social media video that has since gone viral.
Joey Santore and Al Scorch, hosts of an educational comedy podcast called Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, told Nexstar’s WGN they were out looking for plants when they stumbled upon the massive turtle. It was splayed out over a pile of large chains on a crumbling pylon in the middle of the river.
“In a way, it was posed so elegantly with the rusty chains. It was like an art piece,” Santore told WGN.
In the viral clip, Santore and Scorch express their profanity-laden appreciation for the giant reptile.
“Look at that beast!” Santore said. “Hey, how you doin’, guy? You look good.”
The amateur botanists said Chonkosaurus is likely not a guy at all. They believe the turtle is a pregnant female who was spotted in the area two years earlier.
“Great to see this beast thriving here on what was once such a toxic river, but is slowly getting cleaned up and restored,” Santore wrote on Twitter. “Somebody planted a bunch of native plants up the river from here, too. I can only wonder this things been eating.”
