Alani the Fly River Turtle| Part 1

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello friends, it's mister Jim and welcome back to Kids
Animal Stories. If you haven't yet, you need to make
sure that you have smashed the follow buttons so you
don't miss out on any of our awesome stories. Well, friends,
I'm pretty excited about today's turtle. Today's turtle is called
a fly river turtle. What do you think Do you

(00:24):
think this turtle can fly? Or does it live in
the river? Well, those questions and more will be answered.
Are you ready for today's adventure? Me too, Let's go.
It was a beautiful day as Alani was swimming through

(00:46):
the rivers of Papua New Guinea. Yes, Alani is our
very special fly river turtle. And in case you were
wondering if Alani could fly like in the air like
a bird, Ah, the answers. Actually no, fly river turtles
cannot fly in the air, but they do look like

(01:08):
they can fly underwater. You see fly river turtles. They
are very special and very unique. Do you know why?
I want you to close your eyes and picture a
sea turtle, like a leather back sea turtle or a
green sea turtle. Do you know what those big ocean
turtles look like. Yeah, they have a big almost like

(01:32):
leathery shell and big flippers to help them fly underwater,
and a pretty cool looking face. You got that picture
in your mind, Well, that is almost exactly what a
lani looks like. You see fly river turtles. They look
like ocean turtles, but they don't live in saltwater. They

(01:53):
live in the fresh water in the rivers of Papua
New Guinea. Alani is very special and to is a
very big day. You see, she has been preparing in
her belly a whole bunch of eggs that she needs
to find a good nesting place for. She was a
little bit nervous because this was her very first time

(02:15):
laying eggs and she had done a lot of learning
along the way. But she still feels a little nervous.
I don't even think I have to ask, because I
know for myself, if it was my first time really
doing anything, I could be a little bit nervous. But
have you ever felt like me before? Yes, doing something

(02:38):
for the very first time, whether getting on a bike
and trying to learn or trying to learn how to read,
those can all be really like scary, nervous, exciting, But uh,
there's just a lot of feelings right yes, that's exactly
how Alanie is feeling. She had been swimming up and

(02:59):
down the river for weeks trying to find the best
place to lay her eggs. What do you think is
an important thing for a turtle to think about when
picking a nesting spot. Hmm, Well, you see fly turtles,
they usually avoid areas where there's low elevation or submerged vegetation.

(03:23):
What does that mean low elevation, Well, that kind of
means like it's low to the water and it could
flood really easily. So if it rained a lot, then
the river would spill over the side of the banks
and that water would run right into the nest with
the eggs. You don't want turtle eggs underwater, all right.

(03:46):
If you ever are laying turtle eggs, make sure that
you are far away from where it's gonna be flooding.
But then on the other side of the equation, you
have to make sure that it's easy enough for the
babies when they hatch, so that they can get back
to the water. Because Alani she could, you know, she
could pick a desert to lay her eggs. The desert's

(04:06):
never gonna flood, but then her babies will never make
it to the river. You see, there's a lot of
really hard decisions that Alani is in the middle of making. Huh,
I've never noticed that spot over there before. I've even
swam here a thousand times, said Alani. She pulled her
way out of the river using her fins. Her fins

(04:28):
were really good at crawling around on the sand and
walking around on the land. They weren't like as great
as maybe a tortoise or a box turtle, but she
was still pretty good at walking around outside of the water.
This actually does look like a really good spot, said Alani.
And I'm running out of time. Tonight is gonna be

(04:51):
a full moon. It's gonna make it a lot easier
to walk around back here and see where I'm digging. Unfortunately,
she couldn't start digging that hole quite yet, because if
she started digging the hole and then left, by the
time she got back, a predator would have smelled it
by then, and it would not be good for her

(05:11):
little eggs. She walked back to the river and swam
off to find something to eat. She wanted to have
a full tummy of food for the big night tonight.
For a turtle like Alani, what kind of food do
you think they eat? Do you think they liked to
eat apples or salads? Yeah, they actually do like salads.

(05:36):
They eat a lot of underwater plants that they love
to fill their bellies with. And then they also eat
things like shrimp and small fish and snails to give
them an extra boost of energy. As Alani filled her
belly with a nice, delicious fish salad, she looked up

(05:56):
at the sky and saw that the sun was setting.
It was it's getting darker, and it was time for
the big job. Her big job was gonna take many,
many hours. You see, she doesn't just lay her eggs
on the ground. She remembers, she has to dig a
hole to bury those eggs underground. Why do you think

(06:17):
she has to bury her eggs? Do you think it's
because her babies like to play in the dirt or
to protect it from predators? Yes, protected from predators. If
she just laid her eggs on the top of the
ground and just lay it there, they would certainly get eaten.
You see, flyerriver turtles, they don't stay with their eggs.

(06:40):
The mom does the job of laying the eggs underground
and then goes back to the river. It's not like
a bird where the bird sits on the egg to
keep it warm. Wait, hold on a second. That makes
me think of another question. How does the fly river
turtle keep their eggs warm if they're not sitting on
it like a bird. Hold on, let me check. Uh oh,

(07:03):
it says they. Oh, that's another reason why they bury
the eggs underground. You see, they they find the perfect
spot which has the perfect temperature. Holy smokes, she's got
a lot of decisions to make. Not only has she
got to find the perfect place so that the eggs
don't flood from the river, but also to find a

(07:23):
spot in the ground that's the perfect temperature. Wow. Lannie
has a lot of planning to do, but she has
found the perfect spot. As she starts to dig this
very special hole in the ground with her back legs,
she's focused. She is locked in on the job because

(07:44):
she knows she does not have much time. But then,
all of a sudden, she heard a sound. She heard
something in the branches and in the leaves around her.
Who's there, shouted Alani, I have a big shopper in
my mouth. If you get too close, you are gonna
get chomped. She had to act big and scary to

(08:08):
scare away any kind of predator, but inside she was
feeling really scared. Who in the world is circling her
and her nest and why are they trying to sneak in?
Are they trying to steal the eggs? I don't know,
but we'll have to wait and see what happens on
the next episode of Kids Animal Stories. Great job, you

(08:36):
listened all the way to the end. And who remember
some really cool facts about five river turtles. Yeah, they
look like ocean turtles that live in the freshwater river
of Papua New Guinea. That's pretty awesome. And do you
remember any of the reasons why they bury their eggs underground? Yes,

(08:57):
to hide them from their predators. To keep him at
the perfect temperature for those cute little baby turtles. Wow. Well,
I can't wait to see what happens with the Lani
on her next adventure. Well you have a super duper
day and I will see you next time. Bye.