NATURE lovers who are on an environmental mission to win a business competition have enlisted the help of a booty-shaking turtle to entertain votes.

Botley-based organisation Voices for Nature hoped the Amazonian creature's twerking routine would help them in Richard Branson's Pitch to Rich 'Voom' contest, which challenges groups to sell themselves to the business magnate to bag a share of £1 million worth of prizes.

The not-for-profit group, which uses books, acting and debate to engage people with sustainable development thinking, submitted a film about Brazil's rainforests called 'Jabujicaba' as its entry.

Co-founder Sigrid Shreeve, 55, bribed her 26-year-old son with birthday cake to cut the turtle sequence from footage, which was shot in the Amazon rainforest.

The Botley resident, who lives in Helen Road, said: "My son was visiting from London for his birthday so I made him do it and said he wouldn't get his birthday cake otherwise. It was my birthday yesterday so it was also an early birthday present for myself.

"It's about engaging people with nature in a positive way. We wanted to do something fun for ourselves and thought he would help us get votes. The whole shot was of turtles dancing on a log in the sunshine and knocking each other, but you can only see one of them in this. It's hysterical.

"We just thought "that's made for us". We are making humans notice animals by drawing attention to them and showing that they so things for pleasure and joy too - this is a happy turtle.

"The turtle was dancing and we are all about voices for nature - his dancing gave him a voice. It was just a bit of fun, we couldn't believe the reaction. It was amazing - I wish there was that number of votes."

The 22-second long video has since built up more than 22,000 views on the Jabujicaba Facebook page, which itself only has 506 likes.

It shows a turtle rivalling the bottom-shimmying move made famous by Miley Cyrus, set to Reel 2 Real's dance hit 'I like to move it'. 

Though the video wasn't shot by the group, they own the rights to use it as part of their campaign.

As part of the competition they have to crowdfund money, which they have excelled at so far having raised £6,000 and ranking second in the fundraising chart. 

Anyone who wishes to vote can click here.