Earth Ranger Nicolas is a recycling and conservation hero. He recycles paper and aluminum cans and he encourages others to do the same. He has been called the “Electricity Police” at home because he goes around the house turning lights off when the lights are not needed. He also collects and recycles used batteries and to date has kept 100 batteries out of landfills by disposing of them at a proper recycling depot.
He learned about Earth Rangers on TV and went to the website to find out more. Already interested in protecting the environment, he signed up to become a member and started a Bring Back the Wild campaign to help protect the swift fox.
To raise funds for his campaign Nicolas decided to make and sell Valentine’s Day cards. He has raised $140 and even sold cards in exchange for used batteries. He even conducted research on what other kinds of cards would be popular after Valentine’s Day. He polled his friends and family and discovered that birthday cards will be the most popular choice for selling next.
Nicolas knows that we need to teach other kids about protecting wildlife. He thinks other kids need to know that animals should not be dying because we don’t protect them.
Amazing work Nicolas! We think Valentine’s Day cards are a super idea and we agree that when kids get involved, they can make a real difference for the future of animals.
For more fundraising ideas, check out the Fundraising Toolkit here.
There are some serious offenders hiding in your home and we need your help to stop them. Get your detective skills ready and accept Operation Conservation.
Alert! Watch this video for a special announcement from Captain Conservation.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Earth Rangers Most Wanted are on the loose, stealing energy and water from your home. This is bad news for the planet. When we use too much energy, more energy needs to be made, which puts unnecessary strain on our planet’s resources. This can lead to things like climate change, which affects animals all over the world.
That’s why we need your help to stop to these 7 energy wasting culprits.
The Earth Rangers Most Wanted Energy Wasters
Be on the lookout for…
The Power Phantom
The Power Phantom has been stealing your energy through the unused electronics and appliances you keep plugged in and on standby. It can steal up to 100 watts of energy at a time!
The H2O Hog
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!
The Terrible Tap
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!
The Devious Draft
The Devious Draft has been breaking into your home through small cracks under doors, and in walls and ceilings! It blows cold air into these cracks, making you use extra energy to keep your home warm.
The Thermo Inferno
The Thermo Inferno grows bigger and bigger the hotter you keep your home in the winter and the colder you keep your home in the summer. It spreads throughout your home, eating more and more energy, up to 200 kilowatt-hours a year per degree!
The Lousy Leak
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!
The Sinister Suds
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.
Keep your home safe by:
1. Searching your home for the Earth Rangers Most Wanted Energy Wasters
2. When you find a culprit, stick a paper cutout on it (or nearby) and tell your parents
3. Work together with your family to prevent these culprits from wasting energy and water in your home
4. When you’re done, visit EarthRangers.com/operation-conservation to let us know how you did
It’s family photo day, so pile in with your mom, dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. Get the whole herd together and smile for the camera like these adorable animal families.
Earth Ranger Raveena discovered Earth Rangers while looking online for ways to help protect wolves. A huge fan of canines, and wolves in particular, she was interested in doing something to raise awareness for this often misunderstood animal. “I first started liking animals because they were cute, but as I got older canines became my favourite animals. I started spending so much time with my dog and learning about other canines. That’s when I came across a documentary about wolves and decided to learn more about them.”
We’re so glad Raveena discovered Earth Rangers and is now helping to raise awareness for wolves through this fact-filled blog that she wrote for us. Take it away Raveena…
Did you know the gray wolf (Canis lupus) is the largest member in its family? Male gray wolves average about 100 pounds but can weigh up to 130 pounds. Gray wolves can run up to 60 km/h! They are extremely amazing creatures.
A wolf can survive on two and a half pounds of food per day, but each wolf needs an average of seven pounds of food each day to reproduce successfully. That means in order to feed a whole pack of six wolves they would need over 15,000 pounds of food each year. What an appetite!
Wolves are mostly known for their spine tingling howls! A cool fact is that wolves prefer to howl from elevated areas, to project their sound farther! They howl to communicate with other wolves. Click here to listen to wolves howling!
Other than hunting to eat, wolves are usually not aggressive. However, they will fight other animals and even wolves in other packs in order to protect their own pack and territory. I think this is why many people believe that wolves are violent and aggressive.
Right now humans are a bigger threat to them than they are to us. Forest habitat loss is also a major threat to wolves.
Meet six-year-old Kaylee, an advocate for animals even when it’s cold outside! This winter Kaylee started a Bring Back the Wild campaign for the bobolink and has put some creative ideas into action to raise funds to protect these amazing songbirds.
To kick off her campaign, Kaylee set up a hot chocolate stand on her street during -14 winter weather and sold hot chocolate with marshmallows for two hours. She also sold her play kitchen along with some other toys and is doing extra chores around the house to raise funds for her campaign.
Kaylee is a dedicated Earth Ranger and recycles plastic, cardboard and other recyclables, picks up litter from the walking trails near her home, makes sure the birds in her yard have plenty of seeds all year long and loves to work in the garden.
Already thinking about how she can help animals in the future, Kaylee would like to be an animal rescuer when she grows up. “It’s important to help animals because they don’t have a voice and we need to protect their homes so they don’t go extinct.”
Thank you Kaylee for sharing your story and for everything you are doing to protect animals!
What’s on your list of things to do in 2015? Get inspired by some of these animal New Year’s resolutions then share your ideas for how to make this year the best one yet!
During the winter months, things get dark outside pretty early, which really cuts into key hours that could be spent playing outside. If only you could see better in the dark! Lots of animals have amazing night vision thanks to some pretty cool adaptations. Here’s a countdown of adaptations that help animals see in the dark.
10. Eye Size
The colossal squid has the largest eyes of any known animal, reaching up to 30 cm across. That’s larger than a dinner plate! This species of squid lives in water up to 2 km deep. It’s pretty dark at these depths so having large eyes is a really important adaptation to help them see. Even at these depths there is still some light, if there was no light at all the squid would not be able to see.
Colossal Squid
9. Honing In
Tarsiers are small primates that are active at night. They can rotate their head 180°, which helps them to focus in the dark on objects at different distances. Tarsiers also have large eyes, just like the squid, this help them to see. In fact, the tarsier holds the record for the largest eyes in relation to their body size of any mammal!
Tarsier
8. Lens Size
Owls have a large lens that is very close to the back part of the eye called the retina. This large lens allows more light to reach the retina compared with other animals, helping them to see better at night. The eyes of owls take up about half the volume of their skull; that’s a lot of eye storage! Similar to tarsiers, owls can also rotate their head up to 270° allowing them to see their prey at different distances even in the dark.
Owl
7. More Rods Please
The eyes of vertebrate animals (including humans) have two main types of light sensitive cells in the retina (the back part of the eye): rods and cones. Rods help us see in different amounts of light, while cones help us see colours. Animals that can see well at night have more rod cells and less cone cells. The trade-off though is that they see less colour.
Lion
6. In the Centre of it all
Animals that can see well at night not only have more rod cells, but these rod cells are also specially designed to help focus light. The middle of the rod cell is very dense (or thick). This adaptation allows some mammals to make the most of the limited light that is available at night.
Raccoon
5. “Wired”
Humans have light sensitive cells (rods and cones) that help us know it is bright in the day and dark at night. For animals that can see well at night, their light sensitive cells are better able to tell the difference between light and dark. This increased sensitivity makes it easier for them to detect even the smallest movements in the dark.
Rat
4. In the Eyes of a Mirror
Spookfish are deep sea fish that live 1-2 km below the water’s surface. These fish have some of the most peculiar eyes! The spookfish’s eyes are divided into two halves by tissue inside the eyeball. This tissue is lined with special crystals that work like a mirror that not only reflects light inside the eye but also focuses the light. This adaptation helps them see in the dark, and as an added bonus, it also allows them to look up and down at the same time!
Spookfish. Photo credit: Florida Atlantic University
3. Straight to the Point
Leaf-tailed geckos can see up to 350 times better at night than we can. They have incredible night vision, thanks to vertical pupils made up of tiny holes about the size of the top of a pin that get wider in low light.
2. Upside down
Mammals that can see well at night have chromosomes (genetic material) arranged upside down inside the nucleus of their rod cells found in the eye. (Eskiw and Fraser 2009).
1. “Deer in the Headlights”
Animals like deer, raccoons and sheep have a special membrane on their eyes called the tapetum lucidum, which means “bright carpet”. The tapetum lucidum is a layer of cells that sits just behind the retina and acts like a mirror allowing more light into the eye. This special layer of cells allows them to see at night, and is also why these animals’ eyes glow bright yellowish green in the dark when light shines at them.
Meet 10-year-old Nicholas, an Earth Ranger who has done some amazing things to help protect animals.
Nicholas first learned about Earth Rangers when we visited his school in Manitoba. Since then he has been busy doing his part to preserve the wild spaces that animals call home.
On a Mission
Nick and his bird feeder
Nicholas accepted the Battery Blitz Mission and went to his dad’s work to collect batteries. He collected 400 batteries!
To support the For the Birds Mission he came up with his own design for a bird feeder that will help birds in the winter and hopefully protect the seeds from squirrels!
For the Homemade Holiday Mission, Nicolas made a very cool card out of a used pizza box and recycled paper. It can even be used as a Christmas card holder or a stocking for holiday goodies!
Helping Owls
Nicholas is also working to help the western screech owl. He made this awesome western screech owl poster and made a presentation at his school to help raise awareness and funds for his campaign. He is also shovelling driveways in his community and plans to host a Bring Back the Wild Birthday party in the spring to support his campaign.
Nicholas’ homemade holiday card
A Message from Nicholas
“We need to help protect all animals so people in the future will be able to enjoy them. I try my best to help animals. I pick up garbage when I see it on the street or in a park. I recycle paper and plastic at home. I even made a bird feeder out of a plastic bottle that I recycled.”
Thank you Nicolas for everything you are doing to make a difference for animals!
Around this time of year, when most trees are bare and winter is near, do you ever look up and see a ball of leaves high in the branches? If you have spotted one of these leaf balls you might be standing at the doorstep of a squirrel’s home!
Most ground squirrels hibernate in winter, but not the Eastern grey squirrel. Eastern grey squirrels stay active all year round. Throughout the winter, you can see them running around digging small holes in the snow looking for nuts that they hid in the summer and fall. Eastern grey squirrels stay warm at night in nests. They will use existing tree cavities, but if none are available they will build a leaf ball home called a ‘drey’. These balls of leaves actually have three parts: the base; the outer layer and the inner core. Squirrels build the base for their nest out of sticks so that the nest has lots of support. The outer layer of leaves looks messy and fluffy but it really helps to block the cold wind. Inside, the nest has an inner, warmer core of leaves tightly woven or packed together with grass and thin strips of tree bark. In the extreme cold, two squirrels may share the same nest to help stay warm.
Flickr Credit benjamin sTone
More squirrel facts!
• Squirrels are in the rodent family
• Worldwide there are 262 species of squirrels
• Twenty-two species of squirrels live in Canada, six of which nest in trees, like the Eastern grey squirrel; the other 16 live in dens or burrows in the ground
• Eastern grey squirrels have two different colour types, grey and black. Scientists think the black colour is an adaptation to cold winters in Canada
Many species use camouflage to help them survive, click here to see some animals that are incredibly good at blending into their environment. But not all animals can be the best at hiding, sometimes they don’t get it quite right. Check out this countdown of animals with the worst hiding spots.
1) “No one can see me right?”
Bush dog (Speothos venaticus) Photo credit Steve Wilson
2) “I think I need a bigger tree”
Lynx cub. Photo Credit: Cloudtail
3) “Total stealth mode”
Gorilla hiding. Photo credit Mark Dumont
4) “Am I lined up right?”
Photo credit hobvias sudoneighm
5) “Best hiding spot ever”
Lizard hiding. Photo credit Mark Peiser
6) “Is this feathery hat too much?”
Crowned pigeon. Photo credit Jeff Krause
7) “My secret fortress”
8) “I totally blend in with the local traffic”
Elephant on the road. Photo credit Craig Sefton
9) “Be the stump become the stump…”
Photo credit stefan david
10) “Nothing to see here, just a field of yellow flowers”
