Children across the country have identified “protecting animals from extinction” as their No. 1 environmental concern, so Earth Rangers picked up the mantle and has grown to be the largest youth conservation organization in Canada.
Earth Rangers, such as Laura Douglas and Josh Mazza, travel across every province and territory in the country to educate children about biodiversity, inspire them to adopt sustainable behaviours and empower them to become directly involved in protecting animals and their habitats.
Thanks to the continued support of Teck, these Earth Rangers brought their live School Assembly Program to Grades 1 through 6 students at Cache Creek Elementary School and Desert Sands Community School in Ashcroft on Sept. 27.
They will travel to 15 other schools across southern British Columbia.
Without a doubt, the inspiring, fun and interactive presentation caught and kept the attention of the students.
The video presentations were very interesting.
The game of knowledge and recall between the students and their teachers was fun and a tad embarrassing for the teachers, but perhaps it was rigged a little bit.
However, the stars of the show were the animals that Rangers Douglas and Mazza brought to the schools.
The students loved the three birds and the snake, but the latter creeped some of the students out when they got closer to him.
The first animal to meet the children was Floyd the ball python.
He continually wrapped himself around Douglas’ arms and hands—with his long tongue flicking in and out of his mouth— while she provided interesting information about Floyd and snakes in general.
Mazza presented all of the birds of prey, which swooped and darted over the heads of the students who sitting on the gymnasium floor.
The children were wide-eyed with excitement and grinned from ear-to-ear as the birds flew between Mazza and Douglas.
The birds were rewarded with food and peered at the students and causing screeches of delight.
Mazza provided great information about each bird and there was video between each presentation, which gave the Rangers time to put the birds away and allow the children to settle down a bit.
The students also got to see Hook a red-tailed hawk, Maverick an American Kestrel and Sonic a European barn owl.
The children obviously enjoyed the hour-long presentation.
Mazza and Douglas are both from Toronto and they have been presenting shows all across the country.
Douglas says Rangers visited more than 900 schools last year.
“We deliver these hour-long presentations about animals, conservation and we get the students up close and personal with the animals. We’re hoping to spark some interest in them to help protect animals themselves.”
Mazza agrees there is a bit of magic that happens when they put on a show.
“There is a very infectious excitement when we first enter a school. We usually get recognized right away. We meet kids in the hallway on the way to the gym.
“And, of course, we bring four live animals that exhibit some natural behaviours in our show. We fly the birds over their heads and there’s usually a fair bit of excitement because they see four animals up close that they might not see in the wild, so it’s a special occasion for them I think.
“They leave the gym with big smiles on their faces, which means it’s really hard for us to have a bad day on the job.”
Douglas says they love it when the kids are so excited.
She adds the toughest part of the of the job is time restraint because they spend most of their time setting up and tearing down the displays, packing them in and out of the vehicles and driving to the next location.
Noting they started on Sept. 3, Douglas says they will be on tour for three months.
The animals are in their care day and night during the three-month tour, she adds.
“Our birds are carnivorous, so we buy chicken and beef from the grocery stores, and pet stores sell frozen mice for Floyd.
“They are super easy to travel with because they have been crate trained since they were very young. They’re very used to travelling and we have enclosures for the hotel rooms we all stay in and they’re comfortable.
One of the easiest signs to know if they’re comfortable is seeing them eat and doing their routines, such as flying over the kids’ heads, and then we know they’re happy and we’re happy,” she explains.
As far as finding accommodations that allow a snake and three birds of prey in the rooms, Mazza says it’s all worked out before they go on tour.
There’s actually a chain of hotels that we deal with, he says, adding there several pet friendly hotels across the country.
Douglas says they have weekends off while on tour. “But there’s really no days off with the animals because we still have to care for them.
“We get to spent a lot of time with them and we get to bond with them, so that’s important when you go into a gym with 300 to 500 kids and our animals look to us for support and comfort.”
Earth Rangers is The Kids’ Conservation Organization, dedicated to educating children and their families about biodiversity, inspiring them to adopt sustainable behaviours and empowering them to become directly involved in protecting animals and their habitats, Douglas explains.
Children and their families can get involved by going to www.earthrangers.com and becoming official Earth Rangers members. Once they sign up they receive their official membership card and join more than 175,000 youth across the country who are taking action every day to protect animals and their habitats.