Dan Roselli shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Dan, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
The first 90 minutes of my day are interesting, I get up and immediately check my cameras to make sure my animals aren’t getting into any trouble. Once I confirm that, I can get dressed and make a tall glass of ice water waiting for me after I finish feeding the animals! By the time I feed them, it will reach the perfect temperature and the ice all melts. I go outside and unlock the turtle room and check on the hatchling turtles, where I have a small container I used to feed them in so they don’t make a mess in their home. I will usually do water changes at this point, cleaning the containers and siphoning waste from their enclosures. Each tub of turtles takes 10-20min to eat, and I wait patiently for them to finish before moving onto the next tub. Then I health check and feed the adults, all in 2 separate ponds outside, and then come inside to edit and plan the rest of my day!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Daniel Roselli, or “DanTheTurtleMan” online, where I use my platform to educate people about various species of turtle and tortoise in order to better preserve and protect them. Chelonians (turtles) are one of the MOST at risk species on the planet, with over half either extinct or threatened. Habitat loss, pollution, poaching for the pet trade, roadside mortality, and pesticides are a few of the many reasons turtle species are so rapidly declining. It is imperative to teach people about these incredibly resilient species, which I use my platform on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to do. I particularly focus on Diamondback Terrapins, America’s only brackish (half saltwater) species of turtle, and in my opinion the most beautiful on the planet! Additionally, I teach people about proper care for their pet turtles as well, as turtles are one of the most neglected pet species. I also embark on large scale projects to build the most naturalistic habitats for my animals as well.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
This questions assumes I am different from how I was before the “world told me who to be”, but that isn’t true. I have always, and will always be, myself, and I am extraordinarily confident in who I am. I have always had an absolute passion for wildlife and animals, I would always be in nature and obsessed with learning more about every creature I could find. At the age of 10 I had my own wildlife pond with a few fish and tadpoles I would raise every year. I would come home from school and see how they’d grow and progress, I would clean it, and maintain the water quality. To anyone that would listen I would talk their ears off about animals, particularly tropical fish, reading books from the library and always wanting to make them laugh too. To this day, nothing has changed. My life is dedicated to caring for these incredible animals, teaching people about them, and laughing all through it. The crushing weight of the world cannot possibly deter me, as I believe nothing can, from my mission of education and conservation.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
When working with animals, the successes and highs are intensely high, and the lows are extraordinarily low. I learned that success is fruitless without suffering. The more intense the hardship and suffering you go through, the sweeter the victory is. We are currently working to pioneer the hatching of the rarest subspecies of Diamondback Terrapin to proliferate them amongst various institutions with conservation through captivity, ensuring their survival in the hands of a few. Sea level rise threatens the habitat of the Mangrove Diamondback Terrapin, and in the next 100 years we may very well see their extirpation. For some reason, breeding these animals versus the other subspecies is leagues more difficult, and we are the pioneers attempting to figure it out. For example, out of 10 total eggs this year from only one female, 6 hatched, and 2 passed away shortly after hatching. A success rate of only 40% is abysmal, but WHEN we figure out the method to higher fertilization rates and hatching rates, the success will be intensely earned. For example…
One of my turtles, Pancake, drowned several years ago. He was under the water for hours through the night, and when I found him, limp and nearly lifeless, I considered humane euthanasia. He was so far gone, I wasn’t sure he’d even pull through or it was worth attempting CPR on what was essentially a lifeless body. Regardless, I pumped has arms and legs in and out, which pushes on the lugs and forces water up and out of the body. After water came dripping out of his nose, I continued for several minutes, intermittently blowing air into his nose. I kept him angled downward, and slowly water continued dripping out and his eyes blinked. He was back from the dead. It was another 2 months of recovery, keeping him dry and warm under a heat lamp, and throughout this process I realized that death is easy. Death is simple, but it’s TOO easy. The Buddhists say to live is to suffer, but suffering brings about such incredible euphoria when things go your way. The successes of Pancake surviving, hatching these rare terrapins, which previously has RARELY been done in captivity, it’s all progress towards a goal that, the more you endure, the sweeter the victory will be.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
I cannot hide myself, there is no part of my personality that I can obstruct, trust me, I’ve tried. My sister in law tells me I need to tone it down when I go on dates and try to be less…myself. But I absolutely can’t do it, and I refuse to as well. I am an off the walls chaotic conservationist with a burning passion for wildlife and turtles. I live carefree and make the best of every situation I find myself in! Life’s too short, don’t take things so seriously. Anyone that has met me knows the way I act on camera is exactly the way I am in life. There is no “show”, there is no “bit”, what you see is what you get!
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
I don’t believe I have ever been dissatisfied with the things I want in life. I am usually fairly certain to a precise level of EXACTLY what I want, as well as what I want to achieve in life. It has been my dream for years to have the animals I have today, and to build the life I have. I purchased my home a few months ago and have been developing the property to house my animals, and it’s quite literally everything I dreamed of. The only time I yearn for things and am dissatisfied when I get them is a bad batch of pancakes. There is nothing worse than hankering for a food, only to find it didn’t fill the craving. This isn’t even a metaphor, I mean that quite literally. The things I want in life, the animals, the house and property, the social media following, it’s everything I have wanted for so long now and it is AMAZING! Of course there is still yearning for more and more, but such is the human existence. It’s important to appreciate what you HAVE before it’s gone. “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them”. To me, this quote applies to everyday life! We romanticize the past, but your present WILL be your past and you’ll look back and yearn for the moment you have now. This is why practicing presentness and appreciating where you are in life and what you have is SO important!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dantheturtleman.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dan.theturtleman/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealDanTurtleMan/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/DanTheGuppyMan
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dantheturtleman
