The truth behind this viral animal video

This video of a shark saving a turtle was viewed millions of times ... Only it's fake. Here's what really happened.

Transcript

00:00Oh my God!

00:02Look! A shark is carrying a turtle on the sea.

00:05You might have seen this viral video of a shark saving a turtle.

00:08The shark worked hard to escort the turtle over.

00:11With the assistance of the shark, the turtle struggled to pounce on the steps of the ship.

00:15But that's not really what's happening here.

00:17In May 2023, this video was shared on social media in several languages and viewed millions of times.

00:24Quickly, the boy immediately took out the knife.

00:26Easily cut the first rope after a moment.

00:29The second one was also smoothly cut open.

00:31A large amount of fresh air rushed into the turtle's body in an instant.

00:34In reality, what's happening in this video is not one story, but two completely different stories.

00:40This shark is not helping a turtle strangled by ropes.

00:43It's a montage of two unrelated videos assembled back to back and connected with a fade effect.

00:49There is a particular clue that reveals this.

00:52While the boat is white in the first part of the video, it clearly appears blue in the second part.

00:57So where do the two original videos come from?

01:00The video from the second part was uploaded on August 12, 2016 by the Sea Turtle Biologist YouTube channel and amassed 33 million views.

01:09The scene took place off the coast of Costa Rica.

01:11At the beginning, we see biologists rescuing a turtle.

01:14They noticed that it was entangled in a large fishing net.

01:17This entire scene was cut from the viral video.

01:20After bringing it on board, they cut the net around its neck, disinfect its wounds, and then release it.

01:37The other video, the one from the first part, was originally posted on YouTube four years later and has amassed over 756,000 views.

01:46The scene was filmed more than 700 miles away from the first video, off the coast of the Bahamas.

01:51In the video, we see a group of friends out fishing.

02:07Suddenly, they see this tiger shark chasing a turtle.

02:10Turtles are very much part of a tiger shark's diet.

02:16Eventually, the shark gives up and the friends bring the turtle on board, keep it safe, and then release it.

02:32The sea turtles in these two videos aren't even the same species.

02:36The one with the shark is a loggerhead turtle and the other is an olive ridley turtle.

02:40Both species are classified as vulnerable.

02:43So both videos show a turtle rescue story, but the tiger shark has no role in it.