Venomous or Harmless? A Dangerous Game!

Are eastern milksnakes venomous? No, but they want you to think that they are! You see, eastern milksnakes are masters of disguise. Not only do they look a little like the venomous Massasauga rattlesnake, but they try to act like them too to trick predators into keeping their distance! Ssssssneaky!

When an eastern milksnake gets confronted by a potential predator, they put themselves in a strike position and vibrate their tail, just like a Massasauga rattlesnake would. Even though the eastern milksnake does not have a rattle, it can still make a very convincing rattling noise by striking dried leaves with its vibrating tail. This Massasauga rattlesnake mimicry is usually more than enough to make any potential predator think twice about bothering the eastern milksnake.

Now, the question is, can you tell the difference between an eastern milksnake and a Massasauga rattlesnake? Use the guide to learn how to tell the difference. When you think you know how to tell them apart, test you skills with our picture quiz above. Good luck!

You can help support important research to protect this unique species by purchasing an Eastern Milksnake Wildlife Adoption kit! 

Plushie adoption kits are only $40 and include this super friendly, larger-than-life snake plushie, a certificate and a poster, and when you make your purchase through the Earth Rangers App your child will also earn points to help them level up on their Earth Rangers journey—plus a set of virtual rewards they can show off!

Are Digital Adoption packages more your style? They’re only $10 and an Earth Rangers App exclusive! These include a virtual badge, a virtual animal to accompany your avatar on the home screen in the app, a cool avatar bonus item, and a virtual adoption certificate!

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!

Shoreline Selfie: Before & After!

Monday June 8 is World Oceans Day and tomorrow marks the start of Canadian Environment Week, so we think there’s no better time than now to get out and clean up our local shorelines! Every year, hundreds of thousands of kilograms worth of garbage and fishing refuse are found washed up on the shores of Canada’s oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds and creeks, polluting important animal habitat.

There’s nothing fun about swimming with water bottles, finding candy wrappers in the sand or seeing a chip bag blow by as you’re out enjoying nature. While you can choose to leave a litter-filled area, the animals living on these shores can’t just walk or swim away. For them, garbage isn’t just ruining a trip to the beach or park, it’s ruining their homes. Animals can get caught in trash or they might think that it’s food and choke. Invasive species can even get attached to litter and float to new places. We can work together to trade in habitat-ruining junk piles for clean shoreline habitats and unpolluted water!

Take a #ShorelineSelfie at shore before you start cleaning, and another one when you’re done to show off your family’s hard work! Make sure you tag this page and #EarthRangers so we can see your team in shoreline-saving action! Nothing inspires others like seeing their friends and family taking part in protecting our planet and the animals we love.

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!

Get the buzz on bee facts

Do you consider yourself to BEE an expert on pollinators? What about your favourite black and yellow super hero (no, not Batman), the Western Bumblebee? Once you’ve solved this sequence puzzle, you’ll get a secret code for the Earth Rangers App that you can redeem for a prize fit for a Queen (or King) Bee!!

Your task in this puzzle is to bring the different live stages of a bee into the correct order!

Download the activity here, cut out the 4 circles at the bottom and paste them in the proper spot. Check out this article to get your clues.

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!

Local Tree Guidebook

We all know that Canada’s national tree is the maple… it’s right on our super unique flag! But what about other local trees, the ones right in your very own neighbourhood? Can you identify any other native trees in your area?

As a family, put together an awesome identification guide of the branches on your block! Start by taking a stroll and looking for trees with different shapes, leaves, bark, and seeds.

Decide if you’re going to pick up some physical samples to compare to each other or simply take some photos to examine later. If you want to go the hands-on route, using crayons, you can do rubbings of your samples for each section of your guide in addition to photos or drawings of the different trees you encounter.

There are lots of awesome resources that you can use to help identify each tree, like apps on tablets and phones! You can try LeafSnap to help you examine leaves, flowers, fruits, seed, and bark! Using visual recognition software, it can even help you pine down the exact type of tree you are trying to identify.

Once you’ve collected all your samples and labeled your pages with the proper tree names, you can create a fun cover for your tree guide. Next time you take a walk around a new area, bring your tree guide with you and try to identify the trees you see! If you find a new one, add it to the book!

Did you know that trees play an incredibly important role in keeping our environment healthy? Trees and forests provide food and habitat for the animals we love, and they can also help us adapt to the effects of climate change by absorbing greenhouse gases, giving us fresh air to breathe, and providing shade to keep us cool. Having lots of protected areas, like the Ontario Greenbelt (the largest greenbelt in the world!), is important in fighting climate change and making sure cities don’t spread too far, but we can also make a difference by growing trees in our own backyards and communities. So why not add to the amazing tree-life in your neighbourhood (and your cool new tree guide!) by planting a tree? You can try out this awesome new app from the Government of Canada to help you with your TREE-search and learn exactly what tree species will be happiest and grow the best where you live. You can also learn more about how and why to plant trees by doing the Just 1 Tree Mission on the Earth Rangers App. TREE-rific!

Be sure to share your homemade guidebooks and newly-planted trees with us on social media by tagging this profile or #EarthRangers! Let’s inspire other families to help protect animals by taking care of our natural environments!

Fancy yourself a snake species scholar? Test your slithering knowledge with this quiz and get a bonus code for the free Earth Rangers App if you get a high score!

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!

Red Knot’s Secret Code

Like most birds, red knots make a variety of calls and songs. You can hear them make anything from a quick grunt to a complex yodel. Their calls are used to communicate, let others know if a predator is nearby, where there is good food to be found, or even help claim their territory! For example, male red knots use a repetitive song that sounds like ‘poor me’ to attract females to the nest and keep other males away. Here’s a sample song from some of our red knot friends!

Decoding these distinct sounds gives biologists a better understanding of the red knots’ life. Let’s see how good you are at decoding what the red knot is singing to us! Use the code key to figure out the secrets of the red knot!BONUS: the second word of song #2 is a secret code for the Earth Rangers app!

Wanna lend a helping wing to some red knots in need? You can help support important research to protect this unique species by purchasing a red knot Wildlife Adoption kit!

Plushie adoption kits are only $40 and include a certificate and a poster, and when you make your purchase through the Earth Rangers App your child will also earn points to help them level up on their Earth Rangers journey—plus a set of virtual rewards they can show off!

Are Digital Adoption packages more your style? They’re only $10 and an Earth Rangers App exclusive! These include a virtual badge, a virtual animal to accompany your avatar on the home screen in the app, a cool avatar bonus item, and a virtual adoption certificate!​

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!

What’s SUP?!?

Single Use Plastics, that’s what! Plastic things designed to be used once like cutlery, bags, and straws might be considered convenient at times, but they can cause SUPER inconvenient issues for our planet and the animals that live here with us! SUPs not only take a lot of resources to make — over time they can actually contribute to climate change.

We know what you’re thinking… “But what about recycling?” Unfortunately the answer is: not enough SUPs actually get recycled… 90% of plastic waste hasn’t been recycled or reused! YIKES!

That’s why Earth Rangers is challenging your family to CUT THE SUPS!

1. Choose 3 single-use plastics that you want to cut out of your life.
2. Download the SUP tracking sheet to record your family’s use of single-use plastics (try doing this challenge for a week)
3. Avoid the 3 chosen items each day, opting for reusable alternatives.
4. At the end of each day, write down the number of times you and your family members said NOPE to SUPs.
5. Add up your NOPEs to see who cut the highest number of single-use plastics from their daily life.
6. Sign the pledge​ to continue to cut SUPs at home and beyond!

Now is your mind on migratory birds? Head soaring with questions about conservation? Great news! We will be chatting with conservationists working to protect the red knot, Patrica Maria Gonzalez and Scott Hecker!

Tune into our Facebook Live TODAY at 2pm EST and ask your questions right in our comments section.

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!

Just Poking Around

The red knot is a shorebird that uses its long beak to poke into the sand to feel for delicious morsels of food. They carefully search the shore, never checking the same spot twice! 

Cut out the red knot’s food cards, and lay them face down on a surface. Take turns flipping two cards over. If the cards match, the player collects the cards and goes again! If they do not match, they are turned face down again and the play passes to the next player. The game ends when the last pair has been picked up and the winner is the player with the most pairs!

Click the image below to download this activity!

Wanna lend a helping wing to some red knots in need? You can help support important research to protect this unique species by purchasing a red knot Wildlife Adoption kit!

Plushie adoption kits are only $40 and include a certificate and a poster, and when you make your purchase through the Earth Rangers App your child will also earn points to help them level up on their Earth Rangers journey—plus a set of virtual rewards they can show off!

Are Digital Adoption packages more your style? They’re only $10 and an Earth Rangers App exclusive! These include a virtual badge, a virtual animal to accompany your avatar on the home screen in the app, a cool avatar bonus item, and a virtual adoption certificate!

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!

Red Knot Flight Plan

Red knots are known to have one of the longest migrations of any animal on Earth! Some birds have even travelled further than the distance to the moon! Every spring, they start their migration north to Canada where you can find them nesting along the shore. But once the temperature drops, they head back south. In total, they travel about 30,000 km every year!! 

All around the world, biologists keep track of the red knots’ migration. For today’s Eco Activity, you get to be a Red Knot flight plan analyst, like a real-life migratory bird researcher! ​

Click the image below to download your flight plan!

As you can see, these birds make some truly incredible journeys across the world! Earth Rangers is working to protect the red knots’ stopover habitat at Bahía de San Antonio in Argentina. By making sure they have enough food, water, and rest when they make their way down south, we can help the red knots complete their long journey home!

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!

Click here to learn more about how Earth Rangers is helping the Red Knot.

It might be in South America, but did you know that Bahía de San Antonio is an important site for Canadian migratory birds and other amazing animals? This Argentinian beach provides critical habitat for a number of wildlife species and although it is already protected as a coastal marine area, it’s facing increased development and human traffic that are putting the animals that rely on it at risk.

Red knots are colourful sandpipers that sport brilliant terracotta-orange underparts and intricate gold, buff, rufous, and black upperparts. They have some of the longest migrations of any bird, travelling from nesting areas in Baffin Island, Nunavut, North Hudson Bay and the central Arctic to wintering spots in southern South America. Sadly their populations have declined in recent decades, and they’re now listed as Endangered in Canada. But why? Making the long journey home requires a stopover in Bahía de San Antonio, where the red knot can refuel, rest, and moult. Unfortunately as this important habitat continues to face increased disturbance, fewer red knots are stopping there, which means fewer are able to complete the journey home.

Kids who sign up to be Earth Rangers do so because they care about animals and the environment. Your adoption will help Earth Rangers support International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC), Argentinean researcher Patricia Gonzalez and her Fundación Inalafquen, and the Provincial Environmental Rangers, who are working to enforce protection of the red knot at Bahía de San Antonio. Patricia will be working with local rangers and the community to protect the site and reduce the impacts of human disturbance during the annual migration season, which is critical as we work to protect this important link in the migratory chain.

Today’s EcoActivity: ​Connect the Knot! 

Just a bit bigger than a robin, red knots are tough shorebirds that travel super long distances to get to their nesting grounds in northern Canada. Do you love going to the beach? So do red knots! They will carefully construct their nests near the water. To make sure the eggs stay warm and comfortable, the nests are lined with leaves, lichen, and moss. Since red knots nest on the ground, the eggs are green and speckled to help them camouflage well with their surroundings. 

Connect the dots, starting with #1 for the bird. Then work on the nest by starting with #1 there too. When you are finished, have fun colouring in the picture! Don’t forget to add some eggs in the nest!​

Click the image below to download this activity!

The Earth Rangers App is where kids go to save animals! It’s free to join and you’ll have access to real-world Missions like this one. Plus, you can adopt an animal to support conservation projects, and learn all about animals in the Wild Wire Blog. Find activities like this, and so much more in the App!