Turtle v. Snake

Undiscovered

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Wnyc, Society & Culture, 805813, Science, History, Friday, Studios

4.6 • 768 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2018

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Travis Thomas is a rookie turtle researcher in Florida. He was on the verge of publishing his first big paper and naming two new species of turtle when he found out he’d been scooped by a stranger in Australia: Raymond Hoser, a.k.a. the Snake Man. Raymond is a reptile wrangler and amateur herpetologist who’s managed to name hundreds of animals—and has made a lot of enemies in the process. In this episode of Undiscovered, Travis sets out to get his turtles back, and Annie and Elah set out to find out how and why the Snake Man does what he does.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Listener supported WNYC Studios.
0:10.2	This is undiscovered.
0:15.2	Just a heads up, this week's episode includes some salty language that you would not usually hear on the radio.
0:21.9	Sensitive listeners, young listeners, you've been warned.
0:27.3	Why turtles? Why were you into turtles?
0:30.5	I don't know. They're just really cool. They're kind of neat animals.
0:34.4	So, Annie, I was in Florida a few months ago.
0:36.7	Yeah. And that was me on a boat out on the Suwannee River, trying to get Travis Thomas to explain to me
0:42.3	what is so special about turtles.
0:45.3	Travis is doing a PhD on turtles.
0:47.3	He's been chasing them since he was a kid.
0:49.3	And I just wanted to know, like, why did you choose these animals?
0:52.3	They have shells, which is kind of cool, you know, for vertebrates to have shells.
0:59.8	But I wasn't really satisfied with this answer, so eventually I try this.
1:04.9	Do you think you connect to turtles because they too are mellow?
1:08.6	You think I'm just mellow?
1:10.7	I don't think Travis really likes being called mellow.
1:13.4	Sorry, Travis.
1:14.2	But it was his ability to keep his school that really struck me talking to him about this
1:18.6	thing that happened to him a few years ago.
1:20.9	So it started in 2013.
1:23.1	Travis was a grad student at the University of Florida studying. Turtles?
	...

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