The Planet Earth 2 crew put every turtle hatchling it saw or filmed back in the sea

And it worked closely with conservationists trying to safeguard the turtles' future

Planet Earth II’s ‘Cities’ series finale included a difficult to watch but incredibly important scene last night, in which hosts of baby turtles, disorientated by city lights, mistakenly crawled from the Barbadian beach on which they hatched toward the urban sprawl where they met all manner of sad fates, including being run over by traffic and getting trapped down storm drains.

The camera crew found dozens of hatchlings crushed on the road and were right to film them, showing the urgent need for change. But if you were left worrying about the ones still alive, however, fear not, the team helped them out.

“Every turtle that was seen or filmed by the #PlanetEarth2 crew was collected and put back into the sea,” BBC Earth confirmed on Twitter.

The post was retweeted thousands of times, but one viewer questioned: “What about thereafter? Any local groups monitoring?”

The BBC had it covered, posting a video (excerpt above) paying tribute to local conservationists at the Barbados Sea Turtle Project, who helped the crew “enormously” and continue to rescue and fight for the turtles all year round.

The series finale was a remarkable and unprecedented look at wildlife in our cities, ending with a powerful message to camera from Sir David Attenborough himself; you can read our review of the episode here.

The ground-breaking second series of the nature documentary has been a huge hit, with more younger viewers watching it than The X Factor. A third series has not yet been commissioned but producer Mike Gunton said it would be "crazy to count it out".

Today, we published the names of everyone who worked on the show, in recognition of a terrific achievement.

Read more: We spoke to the editor of that incredible iguana vs. snake Planet Earth II scene