{"id":220368,"date":"2025-12-31T18:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T18:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/220368\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T18:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T18:58:07","slug":"watch-mesmerising-heart-stopping-bbc-footage-narrated-by-david-attenborough-showing-baby-turtles-freezing-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/220368\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch mesmerising, heart-stopping BBC footage \u2013 narrated by David Attenborough \u2013\u00a0showing baby turtles freezing alive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) are small <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/reptiles\/northwestern-pond-turtle-yosemite-national-park\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">freshwater turtles<\/a>, found from south Canada to north Mexico, and known for their colourful shell markings. They can hibernate in the ground during winter, emerging in spring to feed and reproduce.<\/p>\n<p>In this compelling BBC footage narrated by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/people\/david-attenborough-facts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Attenborough<\/a>, filmed as the chill of winter sets in, turtle hatchlings stay put in their hole, rather than embark on a fruitless search for food above ground.<\/p>\n<p>Over time, the temperature falls to -10\u00b0C. Ice crystals grow around their bodies, and even inside them. This would kill a mammal or bird. However, the tissues inside the tiny turtles\u2019 bodies are protected by a kind of antifreeze.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It means the hatchlings can remain in this deep-freeze for up to six months. When spring comes, the ice melts around and within them, and they slowly begin to come back to life.<\/p>\n<p>After a while, they become fully functional and are ready to emerge into the outside world.<\/p>\n<p>Watch baby painted turtles freeze alive<\/p>\n<p>This clip is taken from the BBC&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/b008w0qh\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Life in Cold Blood<\/a>, which reveals the\u00a0surprising truth about the cold-blooded lives of reptiles and amphibians.<\/p>\n<p>Main image: A baby painted turtle. Credit: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) are small freshwater turtles, found from south Canada to north Mexico, and known for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-220368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}