Brave Turtle - Australian Green Sea Turtle's Life Journey | Documentary

an ancient tale foretells that our planet and its future rest on a turtle's back if we lose the total there would be no earth no us today the story of a sea turtles life is just as profound on Australia's Great Barrier Reef there's a tropical beach where one tiny Turtles big adventure is about to begin this is bungee she's a green sea turtle and today is her birthday out of the hundred eggs she shared a nest with she's the very last hatchling to emerge it will take Bungie a few days to make it above ground and join the other newborns making their way to the water [Music] and when Bungie finally breaks free [Music] she too has to make a run for the ocean up where she comes from Bungie is an indigenous Australian word for friend and she needs one because the first thing a baby turtle sees is something that wants to eat it bungees parents arrive in the ocean meaning she'll have to fend for her size [Music] the odds are against her and as if the birds weren't enough ghost crabs haunt the water's edge bungees going to need all the luck she can get [Music] [Music] [Music] but it's not much safer in the water just one in every thousand hatchlings will survive to maturity it will take all of bungees turtle instincts to make it through in one piece sea turtles have an amazing ability to feel at all that in just the first 5 minutes if Bungie makes the day adulthood she could live to be over 100 years old and in that lifetime she will swim many thousands of miles meet incredible creatures and have some really wild encounters welcome to turtle Odyssey [Music] it's bungees first night in the vast ocean she is small at all alone it's all of it spooky she must learn where danger lurks unlike this cuttlefish Bungie isn't as easily camouflaged she must discover whose friend whose foe and who's just passing through let's hope she gets it right Bungie is following her instincts to swim out to open water just like marine turtles have for millions of years sea turtle highways criss cross the oceans tracking the seven different species reveals its a turtle planet in their lifetime some turtles like the leatherback will travel over half a million miles that's like swimming to the moon and back little bungee is now 300 miles off the east coast of Australia a long way from where she was born for years no one knew where baby turtles went or how they traveled across the great oceans until now it turns out they were hitching rides on rafts of seaweed and bungees found one [Music] below reef sharks and other large fish prowl all hungry for a tasty turtle traitor but Bungie is happy in her floating fortress it's safe and warm and if she's hungry she can even take a bite [Music] Bunji will catch many of these free rides [Music] as the years go by she'll be carried along by the ocean currents she'll get bigger and bigger and bigger until she's so big she's large enough to leave her seaweed sanctuary and continue her journey swimming out across the open sea [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Bunji is now a teenager with attitude because of her biggest size and hard shell she's tough enough to head back to the shallows Bungie is now over 600 miles south from where she was born and has found the Pacific island paradise this is the remote Lord Howe Island [Music] here the rich East Australian current lives cool waters from a seafloor packed with nutrients they mix and collect in the lagoon it's teeming with life [Music] coral reefs support millions of species this is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet the perfect place for bungie to take a bit of a break and have a snack although she has no teeth a beak is perfect for pecking tiny algae off the coral keeping the coral clean makes turtles a keystone species as countless other species depend on healthy coral for their survival she also eats seagrass lots of it [Music] unlike some teenagers done she loves her greens she's got a big appetite luckily all this turtle trimming allows fresh shoots to grow it's just another way she keeps the ocean healthy and creates a perfect pasture for one of the oceans most mysterious creatures the lives of dugongs and turtles are intimately linked part of a much larger ecosystem where one species depends on another these dugongs or sea cows are fortunate they love eating the roots exposed by the turtle trimming [Music] [Music] as the years pass Bungie loves to munch on something else in the specific anon Lagoon it's a sea salt sea salps look like blobs of jellyfish but they're not they're one of the oldest creatures in the sea one of the first to develop a central nervous system they're an ancient ancestor of almost all complex life on the earth including us and Bungie finds them rather tasty Bungie has been feeding up for her long journey ahead now an adult she's feeling the call to leave her island paradise and head toward the mainland across the vast open sea [Music] it's an incredible journey of over 500 miles the ocean covers over 70% of our planet it's the world's richest environment yet in places seems completely devoid of life Bungie will swim through these watery deserts alone [Music] when she does meet other creatures they'll be traveling in groups it's a smart evolutionary survival strategy after all there's safety in numbers traveling the ocean solo is a risk she'll have to take [Music] [Music] an ancient instinct is calling bungee there's still a long way to go but she is exquisitely evolved for undersea travel the buoyancy is so fine-tuned she moves for the absolute minimum effort [Music] perfectly balanced she is weightless in her water world [Music] sea turtles cruised the ancient oceans over a hundred million years ago since then they have remained anatomically unchanged Bunji is prehistoric perfection on a mission strangely for such an ancient creature the biggest threat to her survival is a relative newcomer humans from traditional fishermen catching them with their hands to commercial fishing vessels often catching them as unintended bycatch in their thousands a quick getaway speed is her only defense there's still much work to be done to protect turtles from humans in the last four decades the number of turtles injured by birds has tripled and one new threat is looming ever larger in the stomach's of half of all sea turtles is plastic waste and it's really hurting them turtles have a problem telling the difference between plastic and one of their major food sources jellyfish don't eat it bungee if no action is taken soon there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish thankfully some people have dedicated their lives to protecting sea turtles [Music] dr. Ian Bell is a turtle hero he leads a special taskforce for the Queensland Government is called the threatened species unit and today they're catching and tagging turtles to find out more about them combining data from government agencies and thousands of volunteers from around the world they've discovered a staggering fact there are now only half as many sea turtles in the ocean as there were a hundred years ago this small tag will be a big help providing data to scientists and volunteers trying to save her species dr. Bell has discovered that as earth warms it's changing the temperatures of the beaches where turtles nest and that has him concerned because if turtle eggs are laid in extra warm sand all the hatchlings will be girls less male partners puts the entire turtle species at risk [Music] bungees ocean home is where complex life began and on which most life still depends now fully grown this truly is her world [Music] a world we have barely explored filled with wild creatures that are both weird and wonderful [Music] whose complex relationships to each other we're only beginning to understand we know more about the surface of Mars than what's hiding out on our ocean floors [Music] who knows what biological wonders are yet to be discovered [Music] the ocean is our greatest treasure and our greatest responsibility and the remarkable recovery of one species provides hope for the continued survival of the turtle from the deep a behemoth arises [Music] migrating south is humpback whale mother and calf cross bungees path they're heading to the rich feeding grounds of the Antarctic [Music] this big baby weighs in at over 3,000 pounds so Bungie would be wise to keep her distance these whales were once critically endangered hunted almost to extinction but then humans heard their cry for help along the east coast of Australia humpback whale populations have made a full recovery [Music] if we did it for these whales maybe we can still do it for the sea turtles let's hope so because entire ecosystems rests on a turtle's back and that means an ocean without turtles would be a very empty place as the whales travel south other animals like bungee are heading north to warn the waters dolphins whales and Turtles have been traveling these water highways long before humans walked the earth catching her breath of the surface is where bungy is in most danger from below she stands out like a turtle target this could be a bad day for bungee sharks eat Turtles this great white shock is over 16 feet long and could easily make a meal out of a fully grown turtle [Music] Bunji is in real danger but she has a plan she takes the vasive action turning her tough shell towards her attacker diving deep to the seabed down here she's camouflaged against the coral to limit their time at the surface turtles have evolved the ability to reduce the amount of oxygen they need they do this by slowing their heartbeat down to one beat every minute and that means a green Seto can stay underwater for over six hours but Bungie can't stay here forever as a cold-blooded reptile she needs to return to the surface and warmer waters it's time to catch some early morning rays some turtles even leave the water for a spot of sunbathing it's often the larger males that are the Sun Loungers this beach boy will catch rays all day long he's not aware that soon he'll play an important part in bungees epic Odyssey as for bungie time is ticking she must get ready for her big day but first she has to make a quick stop over 100 different species can be found living on green sea turtles the parasites help keep her camouflaged but they also slow her down and can be quite edgy it's time to get some off but how do you do that with flippers for fingers she's looking for something special the right spot with the right sort of fish these parrotfish are too big and these chromis fish are too small ah but these tangs are just right Bungie has found a training station it's a place with smaller fish feed off the creatures living on large animals this is known as a symbiotic relationship it's win-win the little fish get fed and the larger animals like Bungie get cleaned everybody's happy and with a shell as sensitive as a human fingertip she also likes a good scratch and a scratch and a scratch that bond she's not the only one who likes a good scrub a squadron of rays is about to hit the station [Music] these bad boys can have a wingspan of over 20 feet and weigh up to 3,000 pounds that's the same as an average family car so when these guys arrive they go right to the front of the line [Music] and that means smaller fish like this bad fish get bumped to the back because in nature size really does matter [Music] but Bungie doesn't have time to wait as the currents pick up she's being called to her final destination but forces of nature are rising against her [Music] Bunji struggles [Music] even below the waves the currents swirl around with low visibility Bungie is using an invisible force to guide her to a very special place [Music] bungees Brian can actually detect the magnetic fields of the earth every place on the globe has a unique magnetic fingerprint Bungie uses this information like a map as she gets close a map matches that of her current location at last she's reached her destination she's home after 25 years at sea she's come back to the very Beach she was born on [Music] and she's not alone [Music] the Great Barrier Reef is host to the biggest green sea turtle rookery in the world [Music] bungees big adventure his once shared by thousands of other Turtles all around the world green sea turtles are making similar great migrations to the beaches where they were born so this family of turtles may have been coming back to this very Beach generation after generation for thousands of years it's one of nature's most astonishing family reunions now it's bungees turn to play her part in that larger turtle story it's time for Bungie to find a boyfriend [Music] once Bungie has made it she will remain close to shore for over a month [Music] then when the time is right she'll undertake her most important task it's time for Bungie to leave her Waterworld it will be the toughest total trial after a lifetime of weightlessness in the ocean gravity really sucks [Music] weighing in at 250 pounds Bungie has to struggle up the same strip of beach that decades before she scurried down [Music] she'll spend the next few hours digging herself into the sand and scooping out a chamber for her eggs it's exhausting work for this soon-to-be mother but her instinct is unflagging [Music] she'll bury her eggs in the same sand a mother did over 25 years ago [Music] the warm sand will keep them safe for the next two or three months [Music] finally she covers her nests with the gentle care that only a mother can give [Music] laying five or so clutches every few years she will produce thousands of offspring in her lifetime after alumni she'll return to the comfort of the sea she'll be back but for now our Odyssey is complete [Music] three months later another chapter in the turkey tail begins [Music] a new generation of tiny turtle toddlers are popping up it's time for bungees little babies to take on the challenges of the turtle Odyssey [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Docu Heart

Views: 536,952

Rating: 4.7086091 out of 5

Keywords: turtle, documentary, australia, australian green sea turtle, sea turtle, reptiles, animals, sea animals, nature, ocean, sea, pet, amazing animals, cute animals, turtle documentary, tortoise, fish, shark, whale, dolphin, environment, climate change, trending animals, pets, turtles, sea creatures, rare animals, turtle eggs hatching, Endangered Species, conservation, wildlife, reptile documentary, marine biology, reptiles for kids, reptiles animals, marine wildlife, Docu Heart, coral reef

Id: HY1lrK8BsAI

Length: 41min 11sec (2471 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 29 2020