Youtuber Southern Pirate Outdoors (SPO) shared an incredible video of himself jumping into a lake and capturing what he says is a 200-year-old alligator snapping turtle.
“Southern Pirate Outdoors takes you into the Fury!” SPO wrote on his Facebook. “Join us while we provide a window into the wild unknown. We prove that monsters still roam this planet!”
The video shows him walking around in the lake feeling for the turtle at the bottom with his feet. The water is very murky but SPO finds the reptile and reaches down to pick it up while his cameraman films.
He tells the cameraman that he can’t find where his head is as he lifts it to the surface. His head emerges from the murk and SPO does his best to hold him up, but the turtle goes back down into the water and proceeds to pull SPO with him.
“That’s the big one right here,” he says in the video.“He’s pulling me. And it’s an over 200 pounder right here. It’s a beast. That’s a 200-year-old animal right there.”
SPO says he’s 6’6” and weighs 230 pounds and by the looks of it, the turtle’s shell was as big as SPO’s chest. He filmed the turtle for a little while longer and released it back into the lake. You can see the footage below.