Video of massive snapping turtle dubbed 'Chonkosaurus' goes viral

WASHINGTON (TND) — A video of a huge snapping turtle that was recently spotted in a Chicago waterway has gone viral -- not only due to the large size of the reptile, but for the colorful commentary in the footage.

JoeySantore, the man who recorded the video, nicknamed the chubby reptile “Chonkosaurus." He came across the portly turtle when he was kayaking.

Look at this guy," Santore says in the video. "Look at this. We got a picture of this most beautiful sight. Look at this (expletive) thing! Oh, my God. That's a massive turtle. Is that a snapping turtle? He's a snapper."

Another person heard speaking in the video says it's a Chicago River snapper.

"Look at that beast!" Santore says. "Hey! How you doing, guy?"

Santore goes on to compliment the turtle -- and even contemplates taking the turtle out to eat.

"You look good! I'm real proud of you," Santore says. "You been eating healthy? you ever heard of liquid salad? We've been doing that ... We should take him out to eat."

Santore shared the footage on Twitter Saturday morning. As of Thursday afternoon, it garnered nearly 550,000 views.

Great to see this beast thriving here on what was once such a toxic river, but is slowly getting cleaned up & restored. Somebody planted a bunch of native plants up the river from here, too. I can only wonder this things been eating," Santore noted on social media.

Chris Anchor, a wildlife biologist with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, said the snapping turtle Santore filmed is quite rare, considering its apparent size. He said it's also unusual for the reptiles to be seen basking along rivers, but it probably recently emerged from hibernation.

“So, my guess is that this animal had crawled out of the river to try and gather as much heat as it could in the sunshine,” Anchor told WMAQ-TV.

While it's difficult to determine exactly how large the turtle is from the video alone, Anchor called it "a very large individual" and noted that snapping turtles are not picky eaters.

“Turtles this big will consume anything they can get their mouth around,” he said, adding that anyone encountering a snapping turtle should not disturb it or try to catch it.

“Enjoy it. Leave it alone,” Anchor said.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.