You know my favorites are maniac. You know maniac is such a huge giant
crocodile and I love working with that animal. He's so intelligent he's so
charismatic he's just a treasure to work with.
Hi my name is Terry Philip I'm the
curator of reptiles here at the Black Hills reptile gardens in Rapid City
South Dakota. Now we're the Guinness world record holder for the largest
reptile zoo in the world. You can find hundreds of species of reptiles here we
have giant crocodiles giant tortoises giant snakes we have little tiny snakes
they're little tiny lizards we have amphibians and bugs it's an
amazing place. We have a huge number of some of the Guinness World Records
breakers here at the reptile gardens.
I'm Chelsea this is Tank he's a giant
Aldabra tortoise and he's 52 years old I worked at reptile gardens for about five
years and I take care of these guys every day. They cover about 14 feet in 45
seconds as far as working with them goes them being slow actually helps us out a
lot we can get a lot done around them in the amount of time but when it comes to
moving them around it's very hard to get them to do what we want them to do but
we do have a lot of time in the mean time to take care of other business
their favorite food is anything sweet specifically watermelon they haven't
gotten watermelon all year this is exactly how we got them to sit still for
this whole interview process is by bribing them with sweet food their
temperaments are very different from one another actually Tank is kind of the
more social whereas Quasimodo and Orvill tend to
keep to themselves a little bit more so as a species these guys live to be
usually around 130 years old the oldest ever for an Aldabra tortoise was
152 any child that's about five to 12 years old will be able to come back
later in life and see the same tortoises with their children as well in the wild
these guys are a threatened species not endangered which is really good and they
are definitely becoming more populated every day and I feel like places like
this in places with giant Aldabra tortoises in general really help people
become aware and focus on repopulation and not just of their species of other
species there's something beautiful about every species that we work with
here you know everyone thinks that snakes are so scary and so misaligned
and but honestly they're just misunderstood okay so now we're gonna
talk about the most venomous snake in the world
this snake right here the snake is what we call an inland Taipan also known as a
fierce snake that are found in the remote central parts of Australia and
this snake has the single most toxic snake venom in the world record venom
yields of 110 milligrams of venom and it's estimated only one milligram of
this snake's venom to cause a human fatality frequently when people are
bitten by inland Taipans they will bleed from every hole in their entire body
from their eyes their ears or nose the other end you know and in fact you'll
start to bleed from your gumline and it also is followed up by a neurotoxic
venom and that venom is going to stop your ability to breathe it paralyzes
your chest cavity and so you'll suffocate it also has a powerful cardio
toxin in there that rapidly stops your heart
the simplicity of it is every single one of those animals in nature
snakes included are beautiful animals that have their own little niche in the
environment and they belong there we just need to learn how to appreciate
it hi buddy come out and say hello I
come on that's a good boy Guinness World Records longest venomous
snake the Hamadryad also known as the King Cobra specimens of 12 to 15 feet
are fairly common however the record back in the 1930s was an eighteen and a
half foot specimen that's enormous this particular guy right here is right about
13 feet so she's got a little bit of growing to do yet now king cobras are
found throughout Southeast Asia all the way down into Indonesia this particular
guy was found in mainland Malaysia The hood of the king cobra is an elaborate
defense display it makes the the snake look much larger much meaner than what
he really is so that's the beauty of coming to a facility like the reptile
gardens is we give you an up close and personal tour of some of the world's
most dangerous misunderstood and misaligned animals and it's a great
place to get over that little fear all right so now we're gonna be looking at
the Guinness World Records fastest land snake course that's gonna be the African
black mamba the African Black Mamba has reached speeds of 16 to 19 miles per
hour over flat level surface however fortunately I have assured our cameraman
6 feet away that he won't cover that distance before I can stop it Saul
hey buddy how you doing hey honey you gonna come on out I see you looking at
me hi well come on out oh wait you don't have any ears you can't even hear me
calling me come on over here now this here is the African of Black Mamba
Guinness world record for fastest land snake
this guy's also quite likely have the record for the fastest human fatality
from their snakebite I saw a fairly reliable report of a
human fatality in two and a half minutes that's an extraordinarily fast
now this beautiful guy is the Guinness world record titled for the slimmest
lizard it's called the burton's legless lizard found in Australia and New Guinea
and unlike a snake these guys have fleshy tongues they have
ear openings and also an eyelid or a retractable eye neither of which the
snakes have this is the Gila monster this is the Guinness World Records title
holder of the most dangerous lizard in the world now the Gila monster is found
in the desert southwest of the United States and they are one of two lizards
in the world that have a clinically significant venom the venom of the Gila
monster it's very similar to that of a rattlesnake and in fact causes
tremendous pain swelling and a drop in blood pressure however their there are
no true human fatalities recorded from the Gila monster and they're a very
timid lizard they're found only for a few months out of the year so properly
left alone there are wonderful little desert inhabitant good little neighbor
to have people think that this job is so tremendously dangerous but realistically
as long as I pay attention to what I'm doing I don't do anything that I'm not
supposed to do I don't show off and try to pick up girls or something silly like
that you know there really is very little
risk in my job the mistakes that are made here are just that mistake there's
no such thing as an accident in our profession in fact throughout the world
there is no such thing as an accident all those incidents for injury are
mistakes someone made them so my job is a job of
perfection I know the snake is there right I know how to handle that snake
and as long as I do my job right and well I have very little to worry about
any given week I average between 800 and 1,000 interactions with venomous snakes
do that every week been doing it for 20 years
this can be the Guinness world record for the largest toad in the world it's
called the marine toad it's also known as a cane toad in parts of its range
these guys naturally range throughout Central America the Caribbean and down
into South America interestingly enough this is probably the world's most image
oh really this is probably the the world's most injurious species of toad
these guys have been transplanted both intentionally and unintentionally
throughout most of the world so unfortunately it was introduced into
Australia now it's everything in its path
these guys need venomous snakes they eat little crocodiles they bugs they can eat
other frogs it's really one of the most one of the saddest stories that we have
of introduced species into other parts of the world an interesting thing about
them is this little lump right here is called a territory gland and when these
guys are agitated and threatened they will emit a little mucousy substance out
of that gland and in the way back olden days people used to lick that secretion
for a hallucinogenic effect it's definitely not something I recommend in
fact it can make you really really sick and will actually kill any mammal
species I'm actually very excited to get my edition of the Guinness World Records
it's really gonna be neat to crack open that book and see my ugly mug staring in
there with a with a bunch of animals but really I'm excited for all of our staff
here this is a great opportunity for all of my staff to get their faces known
their passions out there and show these wonderful reptiles to the entire world I
absolutely love every day that I come here and it's honestly the happiest part
of my day when I get to spend time here especially with the giant tortoises and
the other animals and helping people understand them
It's really cool
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