Gamera showing off his new front "leg" (AP)

Meet Gamera, a 12-year-old, African spur-thighed tortoise whose leg had suffered a severe thermal injury and tissue damage. So doctors from Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine amputated his left front leg, and gave him a prosthetic wheel, making him the world's second bionic turtle. And this morning, he made his television debut on the Today show. Watch the little guy wheel around below:

Gamera's named after the fictional giant, flying turtle from a popular series of Japanese giant monster films produced in 1965. He's three pounds heavier than he was before the operation, but the tortoise now has a chance to outlive us all! But as Dr. Nickol Finch notes in the video, just because you've been through a traumatic experience doesn't mean that other tortoises are going to like you. It's a tough world out there for a bionic reptile, so Gamera better learn not to give a hoot, just like this bird did.