Join us on our Carbon Footprint Investigation Mission and test your skills as a savvy shopper! Take this quiz to see if you can figure out what causes some products to have a higher carbon footprint than others!
Did you know you can lower your carbon footprint by making smarter choices when you shop? Learn more in the Carbon Footprint Investigation Mission in the Earth Rangers App!
Climate change is about more than warmer weather – it’s a big problem pushing some animals towards extinction. Let’s learn more about the different ways climate change affects animals worldwide, and find out how you can help!
With their massive claws and even bigger (and sharper!) teeth, polar bears take the cake for the fiercest-looking hunters. You might be surprised to learn, however, that their hunting style is more laidback than on the attack. These cold-weather carnivores will trek across the ice looking for holes, where they’ll wait patiently for an unknowing seal to pop its head up for air.
As temperatures in the Arctic increase and sea ice keeps disappearing, the polar bear loses the important hunting grounds it needs to survive. Without ice, it takes a lot more energy for polar bears to reach their prey, and this energy is hard to come by during the winter months when food is already limited. If climate change continues, scientists predict that over half of the polar bears in the world could disappear in the next 100 years.
If you’ve ever been quick enough to catch a frog, you know their slimy skin feels thin and delicate, but did you know this is because they breathe through their…bodies?? Frogs can absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide through their skin, which is an important feature for these cold-blooded creatures that spend lots of time underwater and are buried in soil. Unfortunately, their thin skin also leaves them vulnerable to changes in the environment, especially changes in temperature.
Frogs will only lay eggs when the time is just right, and spring’s warm weather usually means there will be enough food around to support their growing tadpoles. But what happens if the weather gets warmer earlier in the year? If frogs lay their eggs early and the food they need isn’t available, it could cause the newly hatched tadpoles to starve.
It’s not only the direct effects of climate change that are causing problems for our frog friends. Warmer weather can cause shallow ponds to dry up, leaving the frogs that would use these ponds to lay their eggs without this important habitat.
Living in the cold Canadian north is tough, but the woodland caribou has it all figured out – and they know that lots of hair is the key to staying warm in the winter! Their bodies are covered in fur, but not just any kind of fur; the caribou’s hair is semi-hollow, which lets it trap warm air close to the caribou’s body to help insulate it and keep it warm. That’s pretty cool!
Sadly for the woodland caribou, this amazing adaptation to surviving the cold is no help in the face of climate change. Caribou spend most of their summers searching for the nutritious food they need to fill up to survive the winter, but warmer weather can melt the snow and ice that the caribou uses to get from place to place to find its food. Higher temperatures can also cause the plants that the caribou needs to survive to grow less and be less nutritious, and eating less healthy food in the summer can make it even harder for the caribou to survive the winter.
You’ve probably heard that an elephant never forgets, but did you know that sea turtles have a memory that could give them a run for their money? Even though they spend most of their lives cruising the seas, sea turtles will swim back to the same beach they hatched on to lay their eggs – even if this beach is hundreds of kilometers away!
One of the many impacts of climate change is rising sea levels. Just one higher-than-normal tide or a storm that creates big waves at sea can flood turtle nests, suffocating the eggs or washing them away completely.
Penguins are easy to spot thanks to their tuxedo-coloured coats and tiny flipper-like wings, but did you know that their characteristic colours are more functional than fashionable? Their black and white feathers might not scream camouflage to you, but they do the trick! The black backs of penguins make them hard to spot from above, and their white bellies look like the reflection of the sun on the water’s surface, helping them avoid predators while still looking like cool customers.
Unfortunately for the penguins that live in Antarctica, the melting sea ice is causing big problems, and even their camouflage can’t help. Penguins travel hundreds of kilometers across the frozen water to get to their breeding grounds, but as the ice melts this journey becomes harder and harder. If females can’t lay eggs in time, fewer new penguins are born, which can shrink colonies over the years.
You can do your part to help slow down climate change by reducing your carbon footprint when you shop. Join our team of Carbon Footprint Investigators today!
Did you know you can lower your carbon footprint by making smarter choices when you shop? Learn more in the Carbon Footprint Investigation Mission in the Earth Rangers App!
We need your help! This animal is trying to tell us something but we can’t figure it out! Do you know what these two raccoons are saying?
Today’s burning question is: “Are there Mammals that lay eggs?”
You bet, and where in the world could we find such a creature? Australia of course.
Earth Ranger Emma is back in the outback to investigate this new animal mystery… Get ready to meet some perfectly precious puggles.
Howdy Earth Rangers, we’re out in the Down Under (that’s Australia and New Zealand) today to solve a new mystery… but not just any mystery – an animal mystery!
Australia is filled with strange animals. There’s the “Tasmanian Tiger”, which isn’t actually a tiger – but the now-extinct Thylacine! There’s also the Tasmanian Devil that’s the largest surviving carnivorous marsupial to date. This isn’t even mentioning all the big insects found there. So what can we find in Australia that may answer today’s question?
The echidna is a mystery of its own… is it a bird? A mammal? Is it like an anteater? Just what is it? The echidna lays eggs, like a bird, it also has a long snout-like beak, like a bird. But this nose is more like an anteater’s, with a long tongue used to slurp up ants and termites. It also feeds its babies with milk, just like a mammal! But unlike a mammal, they have spikes instead of teeth!
Whew! That’s a lot, isn’t it? But just what is the echidna?
Echidnas are monotreme, mammals that lay eggs. Echidnas are one of the only two animals IN THE WHOLE WORLD to belong to this order…which makes them super-duper special! The only other monotreme (besides the echidna) is the platypus…which is a whole different mystery.
Who would have thought that there was a one-word answer to this question? Going to Australia, and seeing baby echidnas (called puggles, isn’t that cute?), the adventure was worth it! We’re on our way to answering our next set of questions, but don’t hesitate to send us more of your own!
Do you have a fun animal mystery you want us to explore?
Let us know in the comments in the Earth Rangers App.
Time:20 min
Difficulty:Easy
Did you know you can create a meadow oasis in your backyard AND have fun doing it? Seed balls help disperse plants, and reinforce your local pollinator population. Here’s one way to make them!
Be sure to wait until after the last spring frost to try this! After a rainy day is ideal.
Shred your scrap paper into small pieces and place them in the mixing bowl.
Fill the mixing bowl with water and leave your paper scraps to soak for 20-30 mins.
Once your paper scraps have softened, drain the water. Place the paper scraps into the food processor or blender and blend the paper until a mushy pulp forms.
Squeeze the paper pulp to drain some of the water (if needed) and place it in a separate bowl.
Add your wildflower seeds and compost soil (if you’ve chosen to use it). Mix everything together well and then form the mixture into small balls (about the size of a golf ball).
Set your seed balls aside for a few hours to dry a little. Don’t wait any longer than a day, though, to play with the seed balls! Whatever game you make up, be sure it ends with the seed balls on the ground and spaced out appropriately. They will need contact with the soil to grow out eventually!
We got tons of great guesses on Part 1 of this Pixel Puzzler and now it’s time for the answer. Are you ready for the great reveal? Find out if you got it right!
The answer to this Pixel Puzzler is (drum roll please) a Moose! How did you do? Tell us in the comments!
Head to the Adoptions Section in the App!
Time:25 min
Difficulty:Easy
Ever wondered about used toilet paper rolls? Crafting with them is both fun and good for the planet! Heard of upcycling? Upcycling turns them into cool creations like a fin-tastic fish?!
Step 1: Your fish are going to need fins and a tail! Cut little triangles from your foam/paper.
TIP: You can spice things up by cutting a cool wavy design into the tail.
Step 2: Let’s put your fish together! Glue the fins and tail to your toilet paper roll.
Step 3: Time to paint your fish! What kind of pattern do you want to give it? Does it have a white belly? Is it a clownfish, a whale, a shark, or another type of sparkly fish?
Step 4: Once the body paint is dry, your fish are going to need eyes! Finish everything off by drawing on eyes, and even a smile! There you have it! A funky fish!
Hello and welcome to our brand new season! We are diving deep on some burning questions like “what does the world look like to a fly, how do whales sleep and how does an octopus go into battle? (Well armed!)
Welcome back Earth Rangers! After a wild trip around the world to find Adelia, a race across the United States and a super-productive forced “Vacation” in different national parks, Emma is finally back at the Earth Rangers Centre!
After so many different cool and excited adventures, what is there to do? Investigate mysteries about the animal kingdom, of course! Ever wondered “Can mammals lay eggs?”, “How do whales sleep?”, “What does the world look like to a fly?”, and “Are there birds that can’t fly even though they have wings?” Emma’s here to try answering these questions, and more!
Well, what do you think?
Super-athletes are fast, but can they outrun a horse in a long-distance race? Vote on the answer you think is right! If you have any thoughts, share them in the comments below.
So… what’s the answer? Be sure listen to know the full reason why! In fact, the answer can change, it all depends on very special circumstances.
A race has a lot of different elements: Horses are fast, but humans are too. Both have pretty good endurance – something that allows them to keep running for a long time without getting tired (which the super-speedy cheetah does not have). The difference? Weather and SWEAT! Humans sweat! It cools us off in hot weather. Horses sweat too, but their fur coats can heat them faster. During warm weather, humans can finally get an advantage over horses… but is that enough to beat them in a marathon?
Do you have a fun animal mystery you want us to explore?
Let us know in the comments in the Earth Rangers App!
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