Decode These Riddles
Time:15 min
Difficulty:Hard
We’ve got some punny animal jokes for you! Can you decode the punchline? Use our decoder key below!
What do you call a sleeping bull?
What kind of math do owls like?
Where do orcas hear music?
Ocean’s Secret Spa
Have you ever wondered how marine animals keep clean? Cats use their tongues to clean themselves, and monkeys groom each other as a family, but what about underwater creatures?
Well, it turns out that they enjoy a nice day at the spa. You heard that right: A SPA!
Okay, okay, not a spa exactly. These places are actually more like cleaning stations. Marine animals of all shapes and sizes visit these stations to receive care. Tiny shrimp or fish will clean bigger fish and other sea creatures, nibbling away dead skin, bacteria, and parasites. The smaller fish get to enjoy a meal—and keep the bigger fish healthy in the process!
Which animals work at these special cleaning stations?
- Cleaner Wrasse
- Cleaner Shrimp
- Butterfly Fish
- Neon Goby
- Surgeon Fish
- Parrot Fish
- Angel Fish
- Seabirds
These and several other species attract “clients” like sharks, turtles, rays, and eels. Some of these “clients” open their mouths wide to let “cleaners” pick food and debris from their teeth—just like when you go to the dentist! But even the predators know better than to eat the cleaners!
A Cheater!
When you go to the spa, you expect to receive care, right? What if you got the opposite? Let’s say your beautician pinched you. Yikes!
At cleaning stations, a species called the false cleanerfish mimics the look and dance of the cleaner wrasse to lower the client fish’s guard. Instead of cleaning off their clients, this cheater attacks! The clients leave in a huff—which makes it harder for real cleaner fish to get the food they need.
Luckily, both cleaners and clients will punish and chase these cheaters away. Even regular cleaners who try to cheat will be taught a lesson!
One little problem…
Cleaning stations are often near reefs, which face many threats, including pollution, climate change, illegal fishing, storms, and disease. As the reefs disappear, so do the fish that call them home.
But wait! It’s not too late to do something! We have the power to stop a big threat to cleaning stations: pollution. By keeping our rivers and shores clean, we can reduce the amount of plastic that eventually makes it way to our oceans, harming marine life!
Cleaner fish help keep our oceans clean. Let’s help them, too–by cleaning our shores!
What can you do to help clean up? Accept Shoreline Saver in the Mission section in the Earth Rangers App! You’ll get ton of helpful information to get you well on your way to becoming a shoreline superstar!
Generously supported by
Ultimate Guide to National Parks: Wapusk
Welcome back to Emma’s ultimate guide to national parks. Today we’re heading north – WAAAAAY north to Wapusk National Park – the land of the polar bears.
Buckle in, the adventure continues NOW!
In this episode Emma greets us from marvelous Manitoba, specifically Wapusk National Park.
She’s here to find a friend of Adelia Goodwin’s: Nellie Peters. But also to visit this awesome park!
Wapusk National Park is found in a rather remote area of Canada. It is known for its stunning landscape, from open snowy plains to boreal forests, frozen wetlands, and coastal shores home to various marine animals.
The park was created as an area to protect polar bears while they sleep in their winter dens, as well as home to caribou who raise their calves during the summer seasons.
Now…Emma can’t exactly explore Wapusk on her own the way you might visit Yellowstone or Pacific Rims’ national parks. Why?
Well, although polar bears are extremely cool animals, they’re also large carnivores (males can weigh up to almost a thousand pounds and be up to 9 feet long). They can be unpredictable, and they have been known to attack people in the past. Best to have an expert along with you!
Have you ever wondered why polar bears are white? It turns out that polar bear hair is really special: it’s clear. When the sun hits the hair, it reflects and scatters the sunlight. Our eyes interpret it as white. Polar bear fur also has keratin protein in it, which is slightly white. And polar bears look the whitest when it’s really bright outside with a lot of sunlight, and when they’re clean.
Polar bears aren’t all that you can find in Wapusk! On land, you might be lucky to see animals like the arctic fox, wolf, moose, caribou, wolverine, or smaller mammals like weasels or lemmings. In the water, seals, arctic char, and beluga whales swim around. Emma had a lucky run-in with a pod of beluga whales. She asked us to share some cute pictures!
After belugas and bears, what was left for Emma to see in Wapusk National Park? That would be a beautiful beaded pouch! This gift that Emma received from Ranger Nellie was something that Adelia herself had gifted many years ago.
What is inside the pouch? It’s a secret! Emma was told to open it when she really needed to. Who knows when that moment will come?
Do you have any ideas what might be hiding inside the pouch? Why do you think Adelia gave it to Emma? Now that Emma is back on course, where should she head next for her summer vacation?
Would you Rather #50
Would you rather meet…
A tiger lily or a dandelion
Tell us which one you pick in the comments!
More “Would You Rather” Questions!
Pixel Puzzler #33: Part 1
Let’s put your identification skills to the test! Can you figure out what is hidden in this picture? Make your guess in the comments.
Check back next week for the answer!
Tap here for more cool stuff like this!
Wolf Mask
Wolf Mask
Time:15 min
Difficulty:Easy
No need to ask us “where-wolf?”. We’ve got just to mask to huff and puff about!
Here’s what you need:
- Paper plate
- Scissors
- Glue
- Paint
- String
- Recycled paper, foam or felt sheets
Here’s how you make it:
Step 1: Halve your paper plate. On the back of your mask-half, draw four triangle shapes. Cut these out to create fur tufts.
Step 2: Draw two eye shapes on your mask. With the help of an adult make holes to cut them out.
Step 3: Grab your recycled paper! Cut out three triangle shapes from your sheet: one nose and two ears.
Next glue the ears to the top of your mask and the nose to the front.
Step 4: Time to paint your wolf mask! Don’t forget to add details! What kind of pattern do you want to give your wolf? Are they gray, white, brown, red, or another color?
Step 5: Finish off your wolf by asking an adult to help poke holes in both sides of the mask and tie both ends of the string.
Time to try on your mask and let out a mighty howl!
Help Eastern Wolves with a Wildlife Adoption!
Head to the Adoptions Section in the App!
Partner Spotlight: Tangerine
By supporting Project 2050, Tangerine is empowering Canadian youth for a sustainable future. Project 2050 provides environmental education and leadership skills to children aged 6-12, instilling positive environmental habits in the next generation and building a nationwide movement of children contributing to Canada’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
With Tangerine’s support, Earth Rangers has launched six Project 2050 Challenges resulting in nearly 20,000 children logging more than 700,000 climate-friendly habits, from turning off the lights to eating less meat to shopping locally. Challenges have addressed single-use plastics, food waste, deforestation, and more.
In each Challenge, kids collaboratively achieve milestones and unlock rewards. Each Challenge completed results also sets in motion the support of on-the-ground initiatives to protect climate-affected Canadian ecosystems. These have included the reintroduction of the Blanding’s turtle to the Rogue Valley, the restoration of wildfire-affected areas in Kamloops, and the safeguarding of pollinator ecosystems in the Northwest Territories. For kids, this reinforces the notion that they can affect change when they work together.
Among children who have participated in Project 2050:
- 91% feel they have a better understanding of climate change and how to help;
- 95% have increased their climate-friendly habits and behaviours at home;
- 94% feel more optimistic that they can make a difference in the fight against climate change.
Earth Rangers thanks Tangerine for their support of Project 2050 and shared commitment to creating the next generation of conservationists!
Caption This: What is this seal thinking?
We need your help! This animal is trying to tell us something but we can’t figure it out! Do you know what this seal is thinking?
Post your ideas in the comment section below.
Tap here for more cool stuff like this!
Ultimate Guide to National Parks: Pacific Rim
Greetings from Pacific Rim National Park, in beautiful British Columbia. It’s time to dive in and hop into Emma’s kayak as she explores the epic wildlife on these rugged shores.
Tune in to join the adventure!
In today’s episode, Emma explores a particular park on the west coast of Canada: Pacific Rim!
Pacific Rim National Park is known for its interesting biodiversity. In one part you can find yourself in a lush rainforest, and another, you can go swimming along its beautiful beaches! The forest and waters of this park shelter many different animals, from black bears, wolves, and otters to seals, whales, and various marine birds.
The diversity of Pacific Rim National Park means there is a ton to do and a lot to see! People can come here to enjoy camping, hiking, surfing, kayaking, and so much more! The park’s stunning landscapes and diverse wildlife make it a paradise for photographers looking to capture the beauty of nature. You can spend time birdwatching, or go on whale-watching tours. Organized boat tours can take you to areas specially designed for safe wildlife viewing. Some tours might even have hydrophones to listen to the whales’ underwater vocalizations! How cool is that?!
One animal you can find on these whale-watching tours is the grey whale. Grey whales are large –about 50 feet long and weigh nearly 90,000 pounds! Despite their size, they enjoy living in relatively shallow waters. Each year, these whales will swim from the Arctic waters down the Pacific coast, past Vancouver Island, to California, making one of the longest migrations of any mammal! An interesting fact about grey whales is that they don’t sing like many other whales. They communicate with grunts, ‘knocks,’ and croaks.
Emma’s time at the park was interrupted by an old friend – Adelia Goodwin! Adelia wants Emma to go to Wapusk National Park next. There she is to find someone called “Nellie Peters”. What does Nellie Peters have for Emma? Why is Adelia calling Emma up so suddenly?
All of this sounds very strange…
What do you think of the Pacific Rim National Park? What awaits her in Wapusk National Park? Shouldn’t Emma be resting?
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
