LIVE ACTION: Turtleman on bobcats, bulls, his fans, meeting Colin Powell
Ernie Brown Jr., better known as Turtleman, is never too far away from yelling his calling card: “Yi, yi, yi, yi! Live action!” Although admittedly it’s difficult to reproduce the “yi, yi” section in print, the pacing comes so natural to Turtleman that he feels born to utter the phrase, substituting exclamation points for this enthusiastic call to arms. It’s as much an affirmation of life — and how his life has changed so drastically — as it is a way to blow off some enthusiasm.
Turtleman’s recent “Live action!” yell was thanks to a critter he tried to catch in West Virginia. It was shortly after his failed attempt to capture and release the animal that he took some time out of his busy schedule to talk with Hollywood Soapbox.
Unfortunately, the animal was one of the few to get away from Turtleman’s clutches. “He got away,” Brown said recently during a phone interview. “He got down in the honeysuckle thickets and … I couldn’t keep up with it. Me and the cops had to give up on it.”
Turtleman’s current life is fairly different than the one he led a few years ago. He still goes around his native Kentucky, helping distressed animals by capturing them with his bare hands. His Turtle Team, including right-hand man Neal James, still follows his travails, setting up appointments with the clients and assisting when possible. It’s the same business he’s been doing for years; the only difference is that his exploits are now broadcast on Animal Planet’s Call of the Wildman, which recently began its second season of episodes.
“Oh, I love it,” Brown said of the TV show. “I just can’t get enough of it. I get a little tired, worn out and sick every now and then. I swallowed some stagnant water last week. I got to get healed up a little bit. I had some strep throat. It gave me strep throat. I guess I lost my voice. I just got my voice back four days ago, or five. … But I’m healing up.”
And, yes, this “healing up” was followed by a cry of “Live action!”
This season, Animal Planet’s promos show Turtleman facing some stiff competition from the animal kingdom. There’s a deer in a consignment shop, some pesky skunks and snakes. The toughest one was an elusive bobcat.
“This season you’re going to be seeing me going up against a bobcat, and woo hoo! It was the most scariest one I’ve done, but we got him. Woo! I’ll tell you what, I got a little scrape in the ear. Good thing I had my chain-mail on. And the cameraman said, ‘What am I doing in here?’ That’s my cameraman Craig. … And he was even scared. Everybody outside that came, my producer came, they was even screaming. When I get my crew screaming, I know I did a good show. I know it’s going to be good because it’s live action. You can’t stop live action.”
The second scariest animal this season was a bull, which left Turtleman battered and bruised. “The bobcat only scraped my ear there, but the bull, that pinned me against the ground,” he said. “It was a bruise from my neck down to my ankle and my back. It twisted all the ligaments in my leg. I still got to wear a brace for two months to get my ligaments to heal back right. It was October the 22nd when that happened, and I did two more shows after that. … I got one day off to rest up to get my muscles back in shape.”
The battery pack that he wears left a perfect square imprint on his backside, a lasting memory of the bull’s power.
All of these adventures can be seen on Animal Planet’s Sunday night schedule. Call of the Wildman airs at 9 p.m. with back-to-back episodes. Interestingly, Turtleman will also be watching. He’s a big fan of himself.
“Oh, I love watching myself on TV. I can’t believe I do it. I like to see how it’s going to turn out. … They don’t even use what they tell me to say. It’s always live action, you know, like it’s right there at the spur of the moment — my wild lines. I just pop off some wild lines, make it funny and how I would really say it. So far we’ve been doing good with the show.”
Turtleman said his natural, conversational style is what makes the show so realistic. “It’s not fake. I’ve had people call me fake. I say, ‘Well, if it’s fake, come on down here and get you some.’ I’ll put you in the ring with it, or we’ll sit out in the building when it comes in. We’ll trap [it], and you can catch it. They always back out though.”
The success of the reality series has brought new fans to Turtleman’s universe, which now includes a museum in Lebanon, Ken., a clothing line, a series of knives and other merchandise. “I’m proud of all the people, everybody from USA to Australia to Canada, just all over the world,” Brown said. “Everybody just love me. I just got back from Washington, D.C., this weekend from the Capitol building, the U.S. Capitol building. I met Colin Powell this weekend; even he’s a big fan now.”
The fandom has become so extreme that it can take hours for him to buy groceries at a store. “I go to the Wal-Mart store, it takes me two hours to get through the door,” he said. “And it takes me another two hours to get past the checkout counter. And finally I get my stuff in my hand, and it take me another three hours to get to my truck.”
Turtleman takes it all in stride. He said he loves greeting fans and never turns down a person looking to say hello. The only time he needs to leave is for security reasons or if he’s filming an episode.
“I can’t just stop and smell the roses. … If I hurt anybody’s feelings by doing that, it’s not me. It’s just things we got to do to keep the time schedule correct.”
The fan mail is voluminous. He said his house is full, plus the houses of his mother (Turtle Mom) and his girlfriend, and his museum in Kentucky.
There seems to be almost no time for relaxation. When he does get away from rescuing animals and the TV cameras, he hangs out with his family and, of course, Lollydog. In these quieter moments, Turtleman does something that is less “live action” and more subdued. He goes for a walk and looks for arrowheads.
“That’s my favorite hobby when I’m off work,” he said. “I’ll walk a 200-acre field a day for four, five, six, seven arrowheads a day.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
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Call of the Wildman airs 9 p.m. on Sundays on Animal Planet.
I am writing to express my horror after watching a segment in which one of the men was attempting to catch a Bobcat! He was literally TERRORIZING THE ANIMAL and accomplishing NOTHING with his loud efforts!! I happen to be extremely fond of this species, after having learned MUCH ABOUT THEM & their behaviors over the years of working with the Wildlife Center at Crosstimbers Ranch in Terrell, TX. The executive Director of this Center, and also the Founder of the National Bobcat Recuse & Research organization could teach your fellows a great deal about Bobcats, and how intelligent and sensitive the amimals actually are!!! She would have been able to walk into that room, speaking softly to the Bobcat, and within a few minutes, would have had the animal approaching her!! I STRONGLY SUGGEST someone in your programming dept do some RESEARCH about the species you are featuring on your television shows. Just tonight, I have been watching a marvelous documentary on Raccoons on our local public television station in Tulsa, OK, where I live. It is informative, well directed, and provides a wealth of information to help people (including the homeowners who are finding them a nuisance) understand the species.
In your Bobcat segment, there were so many ERRORONEOUS STATEMENTS OF “fact????” that I was just heartsick! And you have now SADLY contributed STILL MORE MYTHS about Bobcats that will instigate more of them being shot or killed with poisons, from which they suffer painful awful deaths! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF HOW MUCH BOBCATS POSITIVELY IMPACT THE ENVIORNMENT?? And, if I recall correctly, the protagonist in your film was slamming away at a terrified Bobcat with a metal lid (trash cover?). Bobcats are rarely dangerous to humans or domestic pets or stock. It’s just all a “bad rap”!! And as far as a Bobcat actually pulling a grown goat over a fence is as ludicrous as the rest of your story!! I’m ashamed of you and of the “Wildmen”. You are spreading inaccurate information about a magnificent, intelligent and extremely sensitive creature!! I urge you to contact Valeri Marler on Facebook; and view the Wildlife Center@ crosstimbers ranch web site, before you do any more stories on Bobcats!!!