’Tis the season for giving thanks and savoring pumpkin spice. And both fit the recent release of a short film highlighting a unique Georgia wildlife story.
“A Tortoise Called Pumpkin Spice” tells how an orange-tinted gopher tortoise (thus the nickname) has become an ambassador for conserving the species, which also happens to be Georgia’s state reptile.
A number of film festivals have included the film. (photo: Berkeley Boone/DNR; poster: Magic Kumquat Productions)
The 11-minute documentary by Magic Kumquat Productions digs into the young turtle’s history – hatched by the Georgia Sea Turtle Center and raised at the University of Georgia’s Coastal Ecology Lab, the only viable egg of eight from a mom fatally hit by a car. The video also shows how Pumpkin Spice’s role as an outreach animal at DNR’s Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center highlights the importance of gopher tortoises and work to conserve them and their longleaf pine and sandhill habitats.
Pumpkin Spice when younger and more orange (Berkeley Boone/DNR)
Directed by Laura Albritton with videography by Zickie Allgrove, the video was supported by The Environmental Resources Network (friends group of DNR’s Wildlife Conservation Section), DNR and The Longleaf Alliance. Clips include DNR’s Berkeley Boone, James Hunt and Shan Cammack – who also helped produce the film – and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Jessica Radich, who coordinates raising tortoises at Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery for release into the wild.
The latest documentary by the conservation-focused south Georgia company, “Pumpkin Spice” has been shown at or accepted by a number of film festivals. The public debut follows the Georgia Gopher Tortoise Initiative announcement that 65 viable populations have been permanently protected in the state, a long-sought goal to help conserve tortoises and keep them off the Endangered Species List in the eastern part of their range (“Gopher goal reached,” Sept. 30).
ALSO SEE: SAVING ‘DEVOURERS’
Another new film from Magic Kumquat Productions titled “Devouring Beauties” explores the carnivorous side of pitcherplants and a partner-powered project to rescue and relocate scores of them threatened by roadwork in Georgia. Watch.