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Taylor Swift's Love Story is being used to help get a group of turtles in the mood for love.

It's helped that by playing the hit song in the turtle tank it will stir passions and kick-start the first breeding programme for the Fly River Turtles at Manchester's Sea Life Centre.

At first resident male Barry, and female Carrie, were playing it cool with each other but there have been some significant signs of friskiness in recent times - something the team put down to the mood created by their choice of tunes.

The pair were introduced as part of an ambitious plan to create the first breeding programme of its kind in Europe and curator Lucy Handel, who came up with the novel idea to play music in a bid to stir passions in the turtle tank, is hopeful they may see some new arrivals in the near future.

"We have been waiting for the two turtles to show an interest in each other for a while," she said. "And although they initially seemed quite active with each other, thus far they have been quite clumsy about the whole affair.

"We are hoping that the music and lighting will help them focus on each other and get the job done," she continued. "The team is really looking forward to welcoming some newcomers to the Sea Life Manchester family in the near future."

The team tried a number of tunes but Swift's fairytale inspired number seems to have the done the trick the best - whether she had turtle mating in mind when she first penned the track is unknown.