A video shared on social media claims to show “the world’s biggest turtle” moving slowly along a beach.

The video actually featured a leatherback turtle, the largest of its kind. However, it was filmed from a low angle, creating an exaggerated impression of its size. This visual effect is a common photographic technique called forced perspective.

The video in question actually shows a leatherback turtle, the largest known species of turtle in the world. However, it was filmed from a low angle, which made the turtle appear larger than its true size – a photography technique called forced perspective. This is a visual trick that distorts the scale of objects in ways that change their perceived size.

The authenticity of the video has been confirmed, with no signs of artificial intelligence (AI) generation or deepfake manipulation. Hive Moderation, a tool for detecting AI-generated content, confirmed that there was almost no chance that the images were artificially created. Therefore, even if the claim that the turtle featured in the video is the largest species is true, the perceived size was artificially amplified by the camera angle.