Documentary focuses on plight of desert tortoises

A new documentary called “Tortoise in Peril” will premiere Wednesday night.

The documentary highlights the plight of the desert tortoise. The species is threatened by habitat destruction, diseases, and attacks by ravens.

The Living Desert helped to fund the documentary and is currently working on a grant to educate the public on the state of the tortoise.

“The documentary that Tim Branning filmed is basically focusing on tortoises and the issues they’re facing in the wild, but it really emphasizes the raven aspect which is really new. A lot of people know tortoises are threatened they know they’re running out of habitat but the whole raven issue is new,” said Sarah Greely, desert tortoise conservation coordinator.

The Living Desert launched a campaign called ‘Time to Talk Trash’ which aims to make sure residents cover their trash. Less trash means less ravens and less ravens means less attacks on little tortoises.

You can watch the documentary tomorrow night on our local PBS station, KCET’s “Earth Focus” at 8:30 p.m.