Britain's Lost Turtle
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2020
- A huge thanks to Jack Perks (videography), Roman Muryn (videography), Malcolm Tweats (narration), Matt Lowe (Cambridge Zoological Collections), Peter Cooper, Steven Allain, Derek Gow and Staffordshire County Council.
A Celtic Reptile & Amphibian production - helping bring you closer to nature.
Want to continue following the journey of Britain's lost turtle? Watch together, every day, on our social media platforms:
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Imagine you could travel back through 6,000 years of history. Back to an ancient wildland somewhere in southern Britain. Here, the layers of human civilization have been removed, leaving a large patchwork of woodland, grassland, scrub and wetland. The ecosystem bears somewhat of a resemblance to remaining, wild areas of Britain today. Yet, within this pond in a woodland glade drenched in sunlight, you will notice a creature more fitting to the tropics than to Britain - a turtle.
The European pond turtle is the world's most northerly living turtle, with a range, in these times, as north as southern Sweden. This is a female. And she is a good size, she could be over 60 years old.
She stretches her legs far out, to catch as much warmth from the sun as possible. It is the breeding season, and a nearby male appears keen in the female and she is luckily receptive.They both enter the water. Within the water the male mounts the female, clamping his long claws to her shell. He seduces her by blowing water on to the back of her neck. He slowly moves backward, awaiting her approval. She approves, allowing them to mate, in a ballet motion, under the surface. After an ordeal underwater, a breath of air is much needed.
For generations, European pond turtles have layed their eggs on this south-facing sandy slope and our female will lay her clutch of 10 to 18 eggs through the night. The sandy slope is maintained by the movements of large herbivores, such as wild cattle known as aurochs. They rip up the earth during their breeding season, exposing sand. However, on this occasion, About 4 months since our female laid her eggs, the ground of the sandy slope is beginning to move for a different reason. A hatchling pond turtle emerges. Being about the size of a 50 pence piece, their first steps are tentative. Their instinct kicks in; head for water.
Although vulnerable to predation, young European pond turtles are predators themselves, feeding upon insects, carrion, fish and small amphibians. They forage in the pond, allowing their golden flecking to blend themselves into the murky water as well as using the water as a swallowing device.
It is unusual that pond turtles hatch this early this far north. However, this summer has been a scorcher, allowing the turtles to emerge from the nest chamber now rather than the following spring.
Over the past few weeks, the sun has baked the landscape to a crisp. This makes it unfortunately vulnerable to a rare visitor to these parts. Man.
Ever since the arrival of agriculture, man has cleared the land by axe. But the most deadly tool in his arsenal is fire. Systematically, man clears huge areas of forest at a time - this particular area leads straight to the woodland pond. Our female pond turtle is in grave danger, after venturing from the pond to bask. She must return immediately. Safe at last, in the cool retreat of the pool.
European pond turtles managed to cling on for another 1000 years in Britain, yet through habitat changes facilitated by man, and their already present vulnerability to northern climates, they only remain as fossils in museum collections. Like this one, housed at Cambridge universities zoological collections. These fossils act as a portal in which we all pass to a wilder place.
And if there is one thing that this story can teach us, it's that in every pond, pool or lake, or landscape, creatures we could only picture living in a far flung land now, abounded just a short while ago. Hopefully, that wilder kingdom may be recovered once more. As for our female pond turtle in the neolithic however, she sleeps peacefully through the winter, awaiting the drama of the following spring.
European pond turtle, emys orbicularis, britain's lost turtle, turtle documentary, nature
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Let us know what you thought of the video! Which is your favourite species of European reptiles and amphibians?
It is amazing how
That was amazing love turtle never now that they live in England
my favorite european amphibian is the green toad ( bufotes viridis )and tha balkan water frog ( pelophylax kurtmuelleri )
alexandra kefalidou two very great species! We keep green toads!
@@CelticRewilding here in Greece where I live there is the bigest green toad population, so I will build a pond for them to to help the population of my area. Emys orbicularis is also a great animal and your videos are all helpfull. Thank you very much!
Discovered you on a BBC Future article. It's certainly inspiring to see the things that you two lads are doing all from your own graft and desire. It makes me think that perhaps we need to start taking things into our own hands and acknowledging that we can do something to help, that we don't have to wait around for institutions or governments to move, if we're only brave enough.
I have finally found time to look at your video. We have reviewed other of your videos for peer review acceptance on AHH and Reptile lighting. All were good; this is excellent and a step further up the ladder. It is your first such venture and for a first attempt, it is remarkable. I know its a collaboration which you know I encourage and is all the better for it. Choosing Malcolm for the voiceover was inspired as he adds depth with timbre and accent. Of course, its not perfect; even Attenboroughs videos could be picked apart. I will comment privately as here is not the place. Having produced this, a natural follow-up would be a care video - one that deals with outdoor care and breeding. Indoors is not the place for these animals. Our hobby is now going into another phase where younger science based keepers are mixing with older experienced keepers and melding both into something new, something challenging. This bodes well for us in the hobby.
Thanks Roman! We also believe a coalition of old and new ideas/keepers is of great importance to the hobby and also to conservation. Hopefully, we can continue to bridge the gap between conservation and keepers!
A wonderful wildlife documentary!
Excellent video! Would love to see one on European tree frogs or western green lizards
Sure! We will have a good brainstorm for the next one soon.
great vid, loved the narrators voice! it makes me sad thinking that we used to have these great turtles native once upon a time, I have 5 myself I would love to be able to see them in the wild once again
Thanks Luke, you and me both! It seems to far fetched that turtles once roamed Britain -though of course it's not. How old are your 5?
@@CelticRewilding 2 years old now mate from a German breeder they are in a large planted up tank and will be moving into an outdoor heavily planted pond in my UK south facing garden this coming spring! I already have 1 turtle pond which is full of rescued American species of turtles, but these guys will have there own pond just for them!
Wow 🤩, we wish you the best of luck! Keep it up 👍
Brilliant documentary this well done all involved 🐢 🐸😍
at the fire part I found myself saying out loud, "Run, Turtle Run!"
We are glad you enjoyed it!!
Im thinking of how in Minnesota,snake discovery (an excellent reptile yt channel) have a colder climate to most of Britain,but they have north American snapping turtles,which are absolutely massive compared to European pond turtles...
Fantastic work well done
This is a fantastic video!
slightly depressing storytelling. but i enjoyed all the moments of my favorite animal
man, i feel bad because we have those in Romania
Super dokument! 👍
Great video love the sound effects and commentary could be next david Attenborough seriously though brilliant editing looking forward to more videos
We are glad you liked it!
I loved this!
Thanks Lori!
WOW I REALLY LIKE THIS
MANY GREETINGS FROM CELTIC ITALY
COME AND SEE MEEEEEEEEEE
Thank you!
My friend is reintroducing them to the uk
Really enjoyed this, honestly this is on par with the European documentaries on amazon
Thanks Liam!
It's a shame that music is almost drowning out the speakers voice:(
Are there any plans to re introduce them ?
I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't any already in some UK ponds. Some reptile owners tend to dump terrapins and other reptiles once they get fed up of them.
@@skycloud4802
Yeah invasive species.
Not a protected rarely kept in captivity by particuliar turtle.
Great and very interesting video 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 I don't have a favourite species of Eropean reptile I like them all :) 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I agree, they are all too good!
That is amazing how did you do it whow
We didn’t do anything, the turtles did it all!
Until this video I had no idea turtles used to be native to the UK.
There's an entire wikipedia page about all extinct species that were in UK.
That's depressing
Dozen of insects, bird from pelican to some owls, reptiles, bears, lynx, moose etc.
You guys barely have beaver/boar/pine marten while they are common accross all Europe.
Or quickly recovering territory for beaver
You are the ecological wasteland from Europe.
They’re still here. We have terrapins here in the canals of Gloucestershire or slider turtles as they’re called in the USA
@@kjdempsey which are an invasive specie in all Europe.
They were introduced illegaly and destroy rivers and pond ecosystem.
Same for racoon, lousiana crayfish, nutria etc.
I read this and thought somebody lost their pet turtle
Haha, no!
Can they be reintroduced?
Yes.
Will they be reintroduced that's the question.
Esa hembra no tiene 60 años ni remetilandola. This female is not 60 years old. Neonates with growth marks? Que manera de sacarle partido al vitelo.
Turtles are in Britain this wolf are not in Britain
Well yeah they were exterminated from UK.
And no there's no or nearly no wild turtle in UK (cause human activities).
But the narrative take place in Prehistoric time, so they use wolves footage for the narrative as they were in UK at the time