Catching pre-historic turtle in Los Llanos, Venezuela

See how the locals of Los Llanos, Venezuela catch a pre-historic turtle called Mata-Mata

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Travel & Events

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• Venezuela

[GoogooTer]

if u eat that animal i will tell the authority to fine u and put u to jail dude do u know those things a rare as fcuk?

[yanever]

Excactly! Who would even think of harming an animal like that. Its our job to protect it an sometimes show one to the tourists. So get a life jerk...like we don't know what we are doing!!

[XxnicotANExX]

why.. your a god damn idiot..

[ReptilesRock2007]

awesome, matamatas my favorite turtle!

[vasanjibharatpatel]

whoa thats a mata mata

[S8forenjoyment]

meta meta turtle you idiots

[NovAnthony]

That's the biggest matamata I've ever seen.

[Delticola]

They say that his turtle is not good for soup. It has a really really strange odor that comes from the skin. I imagine it's possible that the meat might taste similar to the smell. It's also too ugly. Most indigenous people never eat it and I haven't heard of it being sold in the markets for food........good thing for the survival of this species.

[tonytkokelly]

the turtle isnt realy rare but they refer to this turtle as "prehistoric" just because of the way it looks and by its feeding habits , its a under water living turtle that suns rarely

[jupiterfreak88]

good video. great description of the animal.

[BrickMuffin]

dope turtle

[samdon815]

soup

[Delticola]

Once in Arkansas I jumped out of my boat like that for a 5 inch alligator snapping turtle. It was broad daylight, a very rare find to see an alligator snapping turtle moving around. I guess he was moving around because he had his lure removed somehow, like from a crayfish or from another turtle, bitten clean off. Maybe only a little grey nub in that camoflauged mouth.

[Delticola]

I don't think this species is necessarily rare. I think it's probably pretty common in the right habitat. It's very wide spread, most of the amazon and most of the Orinocco and some of the drainages between the two in the countries between Brazil and Venezuela on the Atlantic.