Mother Nature is truly the most beautiful thing that humans will ever encounter. From the intense feeling of joy one can experience by looking over a vast rainforest or up at a colossal waterfall, to a parent simply seeing their child smile for the first time - it is nature that makes us truly humble in this beautiful world we live in.
Mother Nature can also be a total b***h and not give a single damn about your feelings.
Case in point, viewers of the BBC's Blue Planet Live were left stunned after a seagull was shown swooping in and eating a baby turtle literally SECONDS after it was released into the wild by the show's presenter Liz Bonnin.
This is the moment viewers discovered that life doesn't always go the way you may want it to:In the video, Bonnin explains: "They have no mothers to look after them, they are left to their own devices, to the elements, to the predators that await them and also to ever-increasing man-made threats."
The moment was made even more painful as Liz can be seen using her finger to gently nudge the baby turtles in the right direction towards the sea, saying to the nearby expert: "I hope I was allowed to help it there".
Sadly, the presenter's good intentions were quickly thwarted by the opportunistic seagull, who can be seen walking over to the release and seizing one of the turtles for its dinner.
But Bonnin was either completely oblivious to what had just happened or trying her best to divert the viewers' attention away from the greedy gull, as she continued: "These hatchlings are going to spend at least 100 years in our oceans if all goes well, surely it is our responsibility to safeguard their future.
"This is our blue planet to fiercely protect through our actions and through making our voices heard."
Naturally, heartbroken viewers flooded to Twitter to comment on the shocking scene, with some going as far as to blame Bonnin for not stepping in and protecting the baby turtles:
In response to the unsettling scene, a BBC spokesperson released a very honest statement as to why Bonnin could not have intervened:
"We’ve been working with scientists from the Heron Island Research Station to explore their lives, from hatching to returning to the beaches to nest. Green sea turtle populations, like sea turtles across the world, are in trouble so the work being done here is crucial to the future survival of the species.
"As part of their ongoing studies, researchers on Heron Island check nests for any hatchlings left behind, 48 hours after the others naturally emerge. Those turtles still alive are carried out at either dawn or dusk for release, as we saw last night on #BluePlanetLive.
"They can’t be released directly into the ocean as the turtles need to “imprint” the beach by walking across the sand to the water.
"In this case, as with the turtles that emerge naturally, some opportunistic predation occurs by other species either looking to feed themselves or their own young. If this happens we are unable to intervene and have to let nature take its course.
"The survival rates of turtles are extremely low, as explained in the first episode of Blue Planet Live last Sunday, with only roughly 1 in 1000 turtles making it to adulthood. Making it safely into the depths of the ocean is a tough, but crucial, first test for these captivating creatures if those that survive to adulthood are going to return to breed on these beaches."
