Join biologist Kim on her otterly awesome adventure learning about river otters in the Yukon! During her time working with the Wildlife Conservation Society, she was able to sniff out some interesting behaviours of this adorable animal, including the way they literally dance around to communicate to each other using their scents while doing their on-land business! She even shows us how she sets up her cameras to document their unique behaviours in order to study them better.
Access the video here and use password “otterly” to unlock this free resource.
How many other animals are you able to spot in her footage? Keep a list of animal sightings to get an idea of the biodiversity in the Canadian boreal forests. Compete with other family members to see who can write down the most animals spotted.
Having trouble identifying the animals you saw? Work together to write down a description and try looking up their features on an animal identifying website or app like iNaturalist to figure out what’s what!
Don’t forget to keep a list of your favourite otter facts! These will help you think up some thoughtful questions to ask a REAL LIFE otter researcher… That’s right! Tomorrow at 2pm EST you’ll be able to chat with biologist Don Reid on Facebook Live. Mark your calendars, otter enthusiasts!!
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!
Today, people in Ontario are celebrating the FIRST official Day of Action on Litter! But we think it’s a great day for all of us across Canada to recognize misplaced waste and get it where it needs to be: out of important animal habitats! When waste and recycling isn’t disposed of properly at home, it can end up in our greenspaces as litter – and once it’s there, it’s a big problem. Take the Ontario Greenbelt for example: With its 2 million acres of protected land, it was created to help preserve important greenspace around growing cities. When litter makes its way into these green areas, it can contaminate the soil and drinking water while also destroying their natural beauty. But litter can also end up in wildlife habitat, where animals might mistake it for food or be exposed to dangers like toxic chemicals or sharp items.
Up your waste disposal game! Make a helpful reminder chart of things that are commonly tossed at your house.
1. Write out a list of things that you commonly throw out in your home. Both trash and recyclables! This will be your draft copy.
2. Visit your municipality’s website to get the full scoop on what actually is and isn’t recyclable in your neighbourhood.
3. Try to find each item on your household list. Using your draft copy, mark each item as either recyclable, trash, or organic.
4. To make your final copy, make three columns: Recycle It! Trash it! & Compost It! Add each of your household items in the proper category.
5. Decorate your final copy so it is eye-catching and add some flair to your trash cans or trash sorting stations at home.
6. Put it up in the trash-collecting areas in your home to help your family remember what goes where when they toss out their waste
7. Accept the RAWR Mission to learn about how you can up your waste disposal game even further to save even more animals. This is just a step in the right direction of your journey to Respect Animals While Recycling!
Work on reducing waste in your home, minimize any need for single-use plastics, or maybe even tidy up the great outdoors in your neighbourhood with a trash pickup adventure with your family! No action is too small to make a big difference! Whether you live near Ontario’s Greenbelt, over near the Canadian Rockies, or anywhere between and beyond, it is our job as humans to make sure we disturb important habitats as little as possible.
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!
The river otter is scarce throughout Canada, with the marked exception of the BC coast. This adorable member of the weasel family is amphibious, with a streamlined body and tail, short legs, webbed feet, and dense waterproof fur equipping it to hunt in water. Unlike other fish-eating mammals like seals and whales, otters do not have thick blubber but only a thin layer of fat under its skin. This requires them to get out of frigid waters to rest, find shelter, and travel between different lakes and streams to find food. All of these challenges for an otter are greater during the winter. Otters can only swim for about 100 m from a source of air, and when traveling above ground and across snow-covered land or ice, they must be as efficient as possible to reduce exposure to cold and predators.
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 Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada as they work to investigate the crucial areas of open water and cavities along the Yukon’s lake shore, which provide access beneath the ice. These areas support the majority of the Yukon’s species, but are also where most human development and recreational activities are focused and where there are very few protected areas. By identifying the routes that river otters take between waterways, researchers will be able to produce best management practices for the conservation of otter habitats as well as conserving and connecting wetland ecosystems.
Today’s Activity: One Way, Or an Otter… You’re Gonna Find These Words!
Can you find all the words hidden in the puzzle below? For added challenge, try doing it while you float on your back in the bathtub, just like an otter! You can put it in a page protector, tape it shut and circle the words you find with a whiteboard marker! Getting wet isn’t your style? Try doing it holding hands with a family member on the floor in the living room. Get creative with how you chill out otter style while doing this weaselly word search.
Find word #12 (Otter), move one column to the left and read from top to bottom – this is your code for a special Bonus in the App.
Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook Live today at 2pm!
Which animal ambassador will be get to learn about? Tune in to find out!
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!
Wolverines might not be the cuddliest creatures in the world, but they sure are interesting! If Wolverine week has gotten you excited to learn more about an animal also referred to as ‘glutton’ and ‘skunk-bear’ – this BRAND NEW episode of the Earth Rangers podcast is for you!
If Wolverine week has gotten you excited to learn more about an animal also referred to as ‘glutton’ and ‘skunk-bear’ – this BRAND NEW episode of the Earth Rangers podcast is for you!
Do you want to know who would win in a fight between a wolf and a wolverine? Earth Ranger Emma talked to a real-life wolverine expert to find out!
Think you’re a wolverine expert after listening? Take the quiz to find out! If you score high enough, you’ll even get a bonus code for the Earth Rangers App!
Listen and subscribe to the Earth Rangers Podcast through your favourite podcast services to hear new episodes as they’re released! There are already 33 excellent episodes, and even more coming soon!
Wishing you had your very own Wolverine? Would you like to help researchers to protect this unique animal species? The great news is that you can do both through our Wildlife Adoptions Program! It educates kids and families about the importance of protecting biodiversity, highlights different species and conservation projects across Canada, and raises funds for research, species monitoring, and habitat conservation, and more! Don’t forget digital adoptions are only $5 CAD for a limited time through the Earth Rangers App!
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!
It’s almost May 9th, and you know what that means, right? Wild Migratory Bird Day is approaching, one of our favourite days of the year here at Earth Rangers!
That’s because on this day, several projects around the world occur to help connect people to bird conservation, something that’s very important to us. This year at Earth Rangers, we decided to focus on the Red Knot– a sandpiper bird that is known for its amazingly long migratory journeys around the world. Unfortunately, they’ve declined a great amount in the Americas mainly due to human activity, but we’re hoping to fix that – and we’ll show you how.
You see, these
spectacular creatures start their lives off up north when it’s nice and sunny during
the summer months. They nest up there until their little hatchlings break out
of their eggs, and then begin the preparations for their migratory journey! The
chicks are taught how to fly as they are fueled up by the great food supply up
north. Red Knots are omnivores, which means they like to eat many different
kinds of plants and animals. They prefer, however, things like mussels, crabs,
spiders, berries, and whatever else they have easy access to in their habitats.
They need to be nice and energized for their long voyages.
But what makes
the Red Knot so special is the fact that they have one of the longest migration
journeys than any other bird! That’s right, every year they travel around 15
000 km from the Arctic all the way to South America (Canadian Geographic:
2013). How amazing is that? Of course, they do make stops along the way, and one
very popular spot is Delaware Bay. In fact, nearly 90% of the entire Red Knot
subspecies Rufa can be found in Delaware Bay in a single day (The Cornell Lab)!
That’s because there is a rich population of horseshoe crabs, and one treat the
Red Knots adore are Horseshoe crab eggs. But unfortunately, heavy harvesting of
these crabs have made this site see a great decline in Red Knot visitors, as
their main food source is no longer available.
Overharvesting
isn’t the only problem that migratory birds face. Climate change has one of the
biggest impacts on bird migration journeys because it triggers all the wrong
environmental cues. Birds rely heavily on their physical environment to
determine when they should begin their journey, particularly seasons. With climate
change getting worse and worse, the birds don’t know how to distinguish between
the seasons. And therefore, begin migrating at the wrong times. When this
happens, they arrive at their stopovers with an insufficient amount of food to
sustain them for the rest of their journey. Since animals and plants make an
appearance seasonally, the birds aren’t catching them on time and become at
risk of starvation. They also must face new predators, parasites, and
competitors that they are not adapted to, making the odds not very much in
their favour.
Deforestation is also one of the biggest challenges the migratory birds face. Despite them already losing much of their resources throughout their journey, they rely on the forests of South America to settle down and reenergize them. But what if they have traveled thousands of kilometers only to find that their winter grounds are no longer their? Deforestation happens for several reasons, usually because humans need the land for its resources or to make room for human activities. But birds need the complex ecosystems of these forests to sustain themselves for the entire winter before they migrate up north again. By then, they would have used up all of their energy, lost a decent amount of their body weight, and are now left in an environment where they can’t get any of that back. It’s a sad story. But luckily, the Earth Rangers are here to help. We have partnered with the International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC) to understand how we can better protect the stopover grounds of migratory birds. We are focusing on one very popular stopover for the Rufa Red knot, which is the Bahia San Antonio habitat in Argentina. With the help of Argentinean researcher Patricia Gonzalez along with Fundación Inalafquen and the Provincial Environmental Rangers, we are working to remarkably reduce the impacts of disturbance in that site, while increasing public awareness of this habitat. Shorebird conservation needs are being classified as a priority to the province now, while we continue to promote their importance to the population! In fact, there is even an annual shorebird festival that happens during the peak migration period that involves the whole community!
With these efforts, we hope to see a big part of the Red Knots population making their way back to the Bahia San Antonio stopovers, in hopes that the other provinces with popular stopovers will follow.
But what can
you do to help, you ask? Well, this project can use your support by adopting
one of our plushies!
These adoptions can help protect this important habitat and reduce much of the human impact going on there. You can either adopt a Red Knot plushy, or even a Sea Lion plushy, since Sea lions equally use that habitat to bask in the sun, rest, and have their babies. So why not celebrate this World Migratory Bird Day by adopting a plushy and making a difference? All of the migratory birds and sea lions would really appreciate it. Help support this project and earn points to level up on your Earth Rangers Journey by visiting the Adoptions page in the App today!
This Mother’s Day let’s not forget about the original mama: Mother Earth! This Mother’s Day while we recognize our amazing moms and caregivers at home, we challenge you to use recycled materials to create some lovely DIY gifts!
Did you know that Canada has more trees than almost any other country? Only Russia and Brazil have more! Not only are they pretty to look at and fun to explore, but they also have magical powers to keep the planet healthy. Forests help us fight climate change by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide. They also clean our water, stop soil from washing away, and are home to countless animals like deer, bears, raccoons, owls, moose, foxes, and so many more! It is so important to try to use recycled materials as much as possible so that we can try to limit the use of our paper products. This can help save trees!!
Here’s a couple ideas to get you started on some Mother Earth-friendly Mother’s Day crafts:
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!
Wondering about wolverines just like wolverines wander the boreal forests in the North? We’ve got some Wednesday word challenges to feed you the facts faster than you can say, “wily wolverines won’t waddle where woods will weaken!” Can you unscramble these word jumbles? Bonus! Solve the scrambled words below to reveal a code you can redeem for 10 bonus points in the app!
Have you cracked the code? Enter the answer to #12 in the Code Vault for 10 points!
By now you probably know that wolverine habitats are really important for us to protect. A great way to help out is through our Wildlife Adoptions Program. Learn more about it in the Earth Rangers App!
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!
Did you know there are some serious water-wasting offenders hiding in your home? This is bad news for the planet since water is a limited resource needed for all plants, animals, and humans. Canada is lucky to have amazing freshwater resources—our rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands hold 20% of all freshwater in the world! This freshwater provides drinking water for millions of people and is also the foundation for many of our country’s ecosystems, providing important habitat for fish, shorebirds, frogs, crustaceans, and many other creatures. By making sure we don’t waste water, we’re helping to conserve and protect these habitats and making sure there’s plenty of clean and healthy water for all!
Who are we looking to catch in the act of wasting water?
The Terrible Tap has an evil master plan. It wants to use up all of the water you have in your home. The more often you leave your taps running, the more powerful it becomes!
Stop it by: Turning off the tap while you brush your teeth, wash your clothes in cold water, and take shorter showers or shallower baths!
The Lousy Leak is on the run, escaping through cracks in your pipes and toilet. If the Lousy Leak gets into your pipes or sink, you can lose up to 261 litres of water a year. If it gets into your toilet, you can lose up to 200 litres of water a day!
Stop it by: Listening for any dripping sounds around your sinks, showers, hoses… even very small drips add up! Next, drop some food colouring into your toilet tanks… if it shows up in the toilet bowls in about 15 minutes, you’ve caught the leak red-handed! Get it fixed!
The H2O Hog is greedily gobbling up more water than necessary every time you flush! With each flush, it can eat up to 26.5 litres of water!
Stop it by: Making any old toilets more efficient by using something large and heavy enough (like a brick or bag of rocks) to take up some extra space in big toilet tanks. This way, the toilet will need less water to work!
The Sinister Suds grow bigger and bigger the more water they absorb. With each load, these soapy villains can absorb up to 57 litres of water from the dishwasher and up to 170 litres from the washing machine.
Stop it by: Only running the dishwasher and washing machine when you have a full load.
Want to learn more about protecting Canada’s amazing waterways and aquatic species? Check out Missions like Toxic Takedown, Water Taste Challenge, and Shoreline Saver in the Earth Rangers App today!!
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!
Meet the wolverine, the largest land-dwelling member of the weasel family. Wolverines have a fierce reputation – with strong teeth, extremely sharp claws and a good sense of smell, they are excellent hunters. Wolverines are solitary animals and they like to have a LOT of territory to call their own. Not only will they fiercely defend their territory from other wolverines, they’re also sensitive to people and will abandon their dens if they sense humans close by.
Earth Rangers has teamed up with University of Calgary researcher Mirjam Barrueto to learn more about the habitat needs of wolverines in western Canada. By using motion sensor cameras and hair traps, she’ll collect information about wolverine populations, habitat quality, and how human activities are impacting wolverines. This information will be used to help manage how land is used so we can make sure they have the habitat they need for years to come!
Today’s Activity: Name these wolverines!
Calling all Earth Rangers, animal experts, and wolverine watchers—have we got a unique job for you!
Wildlife Biologist and University of Calgary researcher Mirjam has been observing a mating pair of wolverines since 2018 and wanted our help to name them! Right now they’re named Female #12 and Male #8… what a snore!! We know that our creative Earth Rangers across Canada and around the world can dream up some much more exciting and unique names to reflect these wonderful wolverines.
Read more about them here, then head to the comments section in the app and give us your best suggestion for what to name this dynamic duo! Mirjam and the Earth Rangers Team will choose their favourite 5 suggestions, and then the Conservation Council will vote on the big winner!
“Wait, the what??”
The Conservation Council is an elite team of Earth Rangers who get to vote to make important decisions about our amazing conservation projects! Any Earth Ranger like YOU can join the Conservation Council by earning 10 stars through the Wildlife Adoptions Program.
Want to adopt your own Wolverine?
Our Wildlife Adoptions Program educates kids and families about the importance of protecting biodiversity, highlights different species and conservation projects across Canada, and raises funds for research, species monitoring, and habitat conservation, and more!
Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook Live today at 2pm!
Which animal ambassador will be get to learn about? Tune in to find out!
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!
Calling all Earth Rangers, animal experts, and wolverine watchers—have we got a job for you!
Have you ever met a wolverine? Since these wily creatures live in some of the most remote and inhospitable terrain on Earth, we’re going to guess that the answer is no. So we’d like to introduce you to Willow!
Willow’s home is in the Monashee Mountains, an enormous and untouched mountain wilderness in southern British Columbia. Willow is also one of the wolverines that University of Calgary researcher Mirjam Baruetto is studying, watching all of her movements and behaviours as she works to understand the best way to help conserve the species. Over the years, she’s really gotten to know Willow’s unique personality! Willow is happy-go-lucky but also very attentive of her surroundings, always watching for any signs of danger. But that doesn’t mean she can’t have fun when no one’s looking!
Mirjam Baruetto
Mirjam can always tell Willow apart from the other wolverines by her distinct markings—white fur on her chest, a stripe on her chin, and an exceptionally furry belly. Willow is one of several wolverines that Mirjam can recognize at her study sites, and that you can help protect with a wolverine adoption.
Female #12 and Male #8
Now meet two more wolverines: Female
#12 and Male #8. These cuties are Willow’s neighbours, living in
the nearby Selkirk Mountains. Mirjam has known them since 2018—but
hasn’t been able to think of names for this mating pair.
Female #12
Markings: Extra fluffy with a strip on her chin, just like Willow
Fun fact: Had a baby in 2019!
Male #8
Fun fact: Loves porcupines, probably a little too much—Mirjam saw him with quills in his face two different times!
This is where you come in, Earth
Rangers!
Head to the comments section and give
us your best suggestion for what to name this dynamic duo! The Earth
Rangers team and Mirjam will choose their favourite 5 suggestions,
and then the Conservation Council will vote on the big winner!
What is the Conservation Council?
The Conservation Council is an elite team of Earth Rangers who get to vote to make decisions about our amazing conservation projects! Any Earth Ranger can join the Conservation Council by earning at least 10 stars through the Wildlife Adoptions Program. Download the Earth Rangers App to learn more about the Conservation Council.
Leave your name suggestions in the comments below!
Note: you must be in the Earth Rangers App in order to comment.
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!
