Guests at the Museum of Science History at 1:30 p.m. Saturday will have the opportunity to witness an event that happens once a year.
That will be when Tonca, the museum's resident alligator snapping turtle, will be lifted out of the pond in the Hixon Native Plant Courtyard for his annual weigh-in and physical examination.
"It's the only day of the year you can see Tonca in all of his angry glory. It's pretty dramatic when they pull him out of the water," said Susanne Coyle, museum naturalist.
The turtle arrived at the museum in 1994 after being discovered in a ditch by a resident along Losco Road, said Coyle.
Tonca weighed about 50 pounds at the time and was estimated to be 27 years old. When he was examined last year, he weighed 160 pounds.
Alligator snapping turtles are found in freshwater lakes and ponds east of the Mississippi River from Florida to Illinois, Coyle said.
The turtles can live as long as 80 years and weigh as much as 200 pounds.
Coyle said they are shy and reclusive and never leave the water.
"They are a lie-in-wait hunter," she said.
In the wild, an alligator snapping turtle can remain submerged for almost an hour with its mouth open, waving a worm-like appendage on its tongue to attract fish. When food swims within its jaws, the turtle strikes.
At the museum, Tonca is fed 3 pounds of fish three times each week.
Alligator snapping turtles have the second-strongest snap in the animal kingdom, only second to the alligator, which is how the species received its common name, said Coyle. "They bite down with 1,500 pounds per square inch of pressure. They could snap a (human) thigh bone," she said.
Coyle said the weigh-in is the highlight of the 10 a.m.-4 p.m. birthday party.
For more details about Tonca's 47th birthday party, visit themosh.org.
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