Elephant Sanctuary

The elephants at the Toronto Zoo will be moving to an elephant sanctuary soon. If you want to learn more about elephant sanctuaries, check out these children's books about The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

Travels with Tarra
This book tells the tale of one captive elephant and her devoted human caretaker, who realizes that Tarra's needs as an elephant are more important than anything else in their life together.

Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends
After retiring from the circus, Tarra became the first resident of the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. When other elephants moved in and developed close friendships, only Tarra remained independent - until the day she met a stray mixed-breed dog named Bella.

Just For Elephants
Shirley spent years as a circus elephant and then a zoo elephant. When she is finally moved to the Elephant Sanctuary, Shirley recognizes another elephant, Jenny, and greeted her with great excitment and joy.  Jenny had been a baby elephant at the circus where Shirley had worked so long ago. (Elephants do remember!)

All the books were written by Carol Buckley who is the co-founder and president of The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. She arranged for the release of and provided care for 24 elephants at the Sanctuary over 15 years. Learn more about her, the books, and elephants at: http://www.carolbuckley.com/

Corky the Killer Whale

Here are some of the messages for Corky that a group of students recently wrote:

Get yourself into Corky’s headspace. The same food every day. Not being able to do all the things you should be allowed to do. Confined in a space that would make you claustrophobic. Away from family and the life you knew before you were captured. Tricks and training and loud crowds every day. Is this life? I think not. – Reiya

I’m mad because you are keeping Corky in captivity. I think instead of giving her frozen dead fish you should give her live fish so she can learn how to hunt.  – Abby

Corky is unhappy and deserves to be set free gradually.  – Rayne

I feel awful for Corky because I think she needs to be taught how to be a mother and her family can only teach her. And also she needs to be with her family to make her life happy. – Rinad

Corky the killer whale should be with her family. You should release her, let her be out in the wild. Let her be free.  – Taliya

I feel mad because you are keeping Corky in captivity!!!!!!I think you should give Corky a bigger pool and work your way up to setting her free! Please return Corky to the wild! Let Corky go! – Jessica

If you were Corky, would you want to be in a little cage all day? I think NOT!!! And get the same food every day? That’s what I feel. Bring her back to her habitat. You know it’s right. – Saskia

If you are too stubborn to let her go free, give her live fish and teach her to hunt. Don’t make her do tricks, add seaweed and rocks to her tank. Give her privacy. Build her a tank ten times as big. Don’t continue to torture her. LET CORKY GO FREE.  – Gwyneth

Did you know that there are less than 50 killer whales in captivity around the world? And did you know that Canada is one of only six countries that has a marine park with killer whales? Learn more about killer whales in captivity, including recent events in the news, facts and statistics at: http://www.orcahome.de/index.html

A Great Gorilla Book for Kids

A Stranger at Green Knowe was written by Lucy Boston and published fifty years ago. The main character is a young boy, Ping, a refuge who is staying at Green Knowe mansion in London. During a visit to the zoo, Ping meets a captive gorilla, Hanno,  and feels a strong connection to him. The early chapters of the book detail Hanno's life in the wild, and the trauma of his capture. The story then follows the events that happen after Hanno escapes from the zoo, and Ping discovers him living in a tangle of woods near Green Knowe.

Here's a quote from the second chapter, when Ping visits the zoo for the first time:

What had he in his innocence expected?...Certainly it had never occurred to him that an animal could be stripped of everything that went with it, of which its instincts were an inseparable part, and that you could have just its little body in a space of nothingness. as if looking at that told you anything but the nature of sorrow, which you knew anyway.

The book is a sensitive and detailed look at the life of a gorilla in the wild and in captivity.But it's also an exciting and suspenseful read, and will be enjoyed by children and adults alike, especially as a read-aloud.   A Stranger At Green Knowe was awarded the 1961 Carnegie Medal in Literature. Check out this book, and the others in the Green Knowe series, at your local libary.

Rose Avenue Rocks

Thanks to the grade 1 students at Rose Avenue Public School for their great artwork and postcard messages for Lucy the elephant. Here are some of the messages that the students wrote after learning about Lucy living alone in the Edmonton Zoo:

Lucy needs sun. Lucy needs water. Lucy needs grass. Lucy needs friends.

Lucy needs friends and a home. Lucy wants to go to a sanctuary.

Lucy needs friends and the sun and a mud pool and grass and trees.

Sanctuary. Yes.

The city of Toronto and the Toronto Zoo have recently decided that the elephants in our zoo should be moved to a sanctuary. Hopefully Edmonton decides the same for their lone elephant, who is about to face another winter in the cold and snow.

Learn more about Lucy the elephant at: http://www.savelucy.ca/. To book a workshop about elephants at your school, check out our Keep It Wild website at: http://www.keepitwildeducation.com/

More Polar Bear Postcards

As promised, here are a few more of the great postcards created by students in grades 2/3 at Downtown Alternative School.

As you can see from the pictures, the students learned about polar bears hunting seals. In the wild polar bears migrate over the pack ice, searching for seal breathing holes, and waiting for hours for a chance to kill a seal.

In captivity, polar bears lack the freedom to move and travel as they would if they were hunting. They also lack the stimulation and excitment of hunting for their prey.

Yupi faces the additional challenge of being in captivity in a tropical climate. Hopefully the postcards and messages make a difference for Yupi. Learn more about Yupi the polar bear at: http://www.saveyupi.com/

Teachers Know Best

Here is some of the great feedback we've been receiving about our Keep It Wild! workshops:

We, myself and my grade 3/4 students, fully enjoyed our "Keep It Wild" workshop. Our presenter was very knowledgeable and engaging. Students were very interested in the workshop throughout. Thank you. Great work!

The workshop was wonderfully engaging and hands on. The students were excited and involved.

Our presenter did an OUTSTANDING job of engaging my learners. An invaluable program. Keep up the great work!

An excellent workshop on whales! Presenter was very knowledgable, patient, and worked well with all children of various abilities. Activites were all interesting, hands-on and the students were very motivated. I would book this workhsop again, recommend it to other teachers and definitely book another workshop again!

Book your workshop through our website at: http://www.keepitwildeducation.com/

The Whale - a Movie

If you live in Toronto, make sure to check out  The Whale being screened downtown later in November. The movie is a family-friendly documentary that tells the story of Luna, a young, wild killer whale who lost contact with his family on the coast of British Columbia. Luna is socially isolated from other whales, so instead she tries to befriend humans.
      

You can learn more about the movie at: http://www.thewhalemovie.com/. There is a great Q and A section that allows you to learn more about Luna, about the movie, and about killer whales. Here's one of the questions asked and answered:

  

 Does this film say it’s good for humans interact with all wild whales?

No. Definitely not. Whales need space to travel, space to hunt for food, and space to care for their young. We don’t believe that humans should harass wildlife of any kind. The story of Luna is about friendship and respect between species, but that means contact can work only in very unusual cases. Almost always, respect for any wild animal means staying at a significant distance. With Luna we believe respect and friendship meant listening to what he seemed to be trying to say about needing contact. But in almost all other cases, friendship and respect for wild creatures means giving them the space they clearly want.


If you don't live in Toronto, check out the website for a screening near you!

Downtown Alternative School goes Wild!

 

Last week grade 2/3 students at Downtown Alternative School in Toronto participated in a Keep It Wild! workshop. Here are some of the postcards that they created to send to the Mexican zoo where Yupi the polar bear lives. The students had lots of great ideas that would improve Yupi's captivity. They asked for more space for Yupi, more things for her to play with, more shade, snow and ice, and colder water in her swimming pool.



Learn more about the campaign to help Yupi at http://www.saveyupi.com/ 



Thanks to the students for trying to help Yupi. We'll post more of your comments and pictures in the upcoming weeks.

Toronto Elephants on the move!

Two of the elephants at the Toronto Zoo

Toka, Thika and Iringa, the 3 female African elephants that live at the Toronto Zoo, will soon be living in a new home! The Toronto City Council voted 31 to 4 in favour of sending the elephants to an elephant sanctuary in California.

This is great news for these three elephants. They will be living in a warmer place, rather than having to live in a cold climate with freezing temperatures and snow. They will have other elephants to socialize with. And they will have so much more space and freedom. 

A Photo from PAWS' website of Mara roaming in the sanctuary

The Sanctuary that the Toronto elephants will go to is run by PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society). PAWS rescues captive wild animals that are neglected or abused, or in need of a new home. They work to stop exotic animals being kept as pets, and to stop wild animals from being used as entertainment.

The elephants at the PAWS sanctuary have hundreds of acres to roam across. There are hills and trees and grassland. There are also lakes for the elephants to bathe in. To learn more about PAWS and the other animals that they have rescued, check out their website at: http://www.pawsweb.org/  It will be exciting to visit their website next year, and to see Toka, Thika, and Iringa at the PAWS Sanctuary!


A photo from PAWS' website of two elephants visiting the lake in the Sanctuary

Bone Clones

There are lots of ways to learn more about wild animals without actually seeing them in the wild or in captivity. A great way to discover more is by investigating the skeleton of an animal. In our Keep It Wild workshops all the skulls and bones we use are from Bone Clones (http://www.boneclones.com/).


Bone Clones provides museum-quality skull- and skeleton- replicas that are virtually indistinguishable from the originals. No real bone material is used in their replicas, so no animals died in the process.

Kids are always excited about the chance to examine a skull, study and count the teeth, peer into the brain cavity, run a finger along the sagittal crest, poke a finger into an eye orbit, and marvel at the sinus cavity. And of course, with a polar bear skull, they all imagine being bitten by those enormous canine teeth!

A Student's Letter

Here's a letter from a student who particpated in A Keep It Wild Workshop about Marine Debris:

     Thank you for teaching me about animals and the sea animals and plastic. I like the game with the marbles. I didn't know the animals got tied up. If we keep on dumping things on the lake and ocean, the albatross baby will die. I will try to not use too much plastic bottles. And I will not dump in the lakes and ocean.
     I like the part when we used the water and tested if the things float or not.  I saw a lot of pictures of Albatross babies that died from plastic. I feel sad. I learned a lot. I will tell people what I learned from you.
    From, Joshua.

If your class participated in a Keep It Wild workshop, send us a letter too. We'd love to hear what you liked and what you learned. And we'd love to know that you are going to tell other people how to help animals, just like Joshua did.

A Trio of Books

Rob Laidlaw, the founder and director of Zoocheck Canada, is just about to publish his third children's book, No Shelter Here. All three of his books are geared towards children aged 9-12. His first book, Wild Animals in Captivity, was published in 2008 and was nominated for the Ontario Library Association Silver Birch award. This book reveals what life is like for wild animals living in zoos, and provides ways for young people to make a difference and help wild animals in captivity.  

His second book, On Parade: The Hidden World of Animals in Entertainment, provides a behind-the-scenes look at animals in circuses, movies, rodeos, marine parks, and more. Again, there are suggestions for helping wild animals.

The third book in this series moves away from wild animal issues to focus on dogs. Readers will discover what life is like for homeless, exploited and mistreated dogs, but also learn more about people and groups around the world who are working to help dogs.

  

 Each of these books have photos, informational sidebars, inspiring stories, and suggestions for young people interested in taking action and helping animals. All three books are great resources for kids who want to learn more about animal issues, and want to help create change for animals, both wild and domestic.

Dreams of the Animals

Dreams of the Animals
Margaret Atwood

Mostly the animals dream
of other animals each
according to its kind

(though certain mice and small

rodents
have nightmares of a huge pink

shape with five claws

descending)

: moles dream of darkness and delicate
mole smells

frogs dream of green and golden
frogs
sparkling like wet suns
among the lilies

red and black
striped fish, their eyes open
have red and black striped
dreams defense, attack, meaningful
patterns

birds dream of territories
enclosed by singing.

Sometimes the animals dream of evil
in the form of soap and metal
but mostly the animals dream
of other animals.

There are exceptions:

the silver fox in the roadside zoo
dreams of digging out
and of baby foxes, their necks bitten

the caged armadillo
near the train
station, which runs
all day in figure eights
its piglet feet pattering,
no longer dreams
but is insane when waking;

the iguana
in the petshop window on St.

Catherine Street
crested, royal-eyed, ruling
its kingdom of water-dish and

sawdust

dreams of sawdust

An Elephant Singing Opera?

Check out Theatre Direct's upcoming opera for youth, Sanctuary Song. This opera, conceived by playwright Marjorie Chan, with music composed by Abigail Richardson, is based on the remarkable true story of an elephant named Shirley, and her journey from the wild to the circus, the zoo, and finally to freedom in the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. What a unique way for young people to explore the issue of animals in captivity and the meaning of freedom!

Sanctuary Song premiered at the 2008 Luminato Festival and was the winner of a 2009 Outstanding Opera Dora Award. It will be back for a week's worth of performances in February 2012. Teachers can book their class for a daylong program which includes a performance of Sanctuary Song and a workshop that explores the artistic and performance elements used in the play.

You can learn more about Sanctuary Song, (and book your class for a workshop)  at Theatre Direct's website.You can also learn more about Shirley, the real elephant who inspired the story by watching this video.

Wildlife - Keep It Wild!



This is a picture of two polar bears in a zoo in Indonesia. Take a moment and consider what it must be like for them. These are animals that are adapted for living in frigid, frozen places. Their fur and blubber are meant to protect them from sub-zero weather.

Polar bears don't belong in tropical places and elephants don't belong in the snow. Take a moment next time you see an animal in captivity to consider what its natural habitat and climate should be. If you don't think the animal belongs, consider how you can help. Write a letter, tell your friends, create a blog, start a petition! Take action to keep wild animals wild.

!

eco-warriors

Check out this book trailer for The Next Eco-Warriors. The book shares the stories of eco-activists who are fighting to save the earth, the ocean, and the animals.

Emily Hunter, who edited the book, was asked what inspired her to write the The Next Eco-warriors. She had this to say: 

Young people. In my own travels, I’ve meet so many inspiring young people over the years doing extraordinary acts of change. Their incredible stories fueled me in my own sense of activism and purpose. But later I came to decide that these stories needed to be shared with a greater audience, because I feel they will ignite others as they have ignited me.

When youth learn about issues affecting animals and the environment, it's always good to share ideas about ways that they can make a difference. They can become eco-warriors too!

You can learn more about the book at: http://www.nextecowarriors.com/

Corky in Captivity

Corky is a female orca who has lived in captivity longer than any other orca. She was captured at the age of four from the Pacific Ocean near Vancouver Island. Corky has spent more than 40 years in captivity. During that time she has given birth seven times, but all of her calves died. In captivity, Corky doesn't have the freedom to hunt or to swim in the ocean.

If Corky had been allowed to live a normal life, she would have stayed with her family, hunted cooperatively, and travelled up to 100 kms a day in the open ocean. Imagine what it would be like if Corky could be returned to her wild home, back to the ocean with her family.

Thanks to students at Downtown Alternative School in Toronto for encouraging Sea World to consider a more natural habitat for Corky.

Great Apes in Danger

Bushmeat is meat derived from wildlife in Africa, including animals like elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, and others. Often illegal methods of hunting, like wire snares, are used, and the animals being hunted might be endangered, threatened, or protected. Bushmeat has become a crisis because it is rapidly expanding, largely due to an increase in commercial logging in forested areas. The logging creates a system of roads and trucks that connects the forests and hunters to the cities and consumers.

If you live in Toronto and want to learn more about the bushmeat trade and what you can do to help, check out the photography exhibit at The Gladstone Gallery located at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto, between September 22 and Sept 28.  The exhibit is presented by the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada and We Animals, featuring photographs by Jo-Anne McArthur.   The photos document a snare-removal project in the Uganda forest, as well as primates rescued from the bushmeat trade as well as from the entertainment and research industries.  

En Français

Palmerston's Grade 2 French Immersion class did a great job writing letters to the Morelia Zoo on behalf of Yupi. Here are some of their thoughts:

"Je pense que Yupi doit avoir de la neige, de l'eau froid avec de la glace et les phoques pour manger. Peut-etre pour un jouet tu peux donner Yupi des jouets de chien. Pour que ce soit froid, tu peux mettre de la climatisation dans sa cage."

"Je pense que ton zoo n'est pas une bonne place pour un ours polaire. C'est chaud en Mexique, et un ours polaire a besoin le froid. Mettez de la climatisation dans sa chambre pour se froidir. Yupi beson le l'eau salée pour nager."

"Je pense que Yupi n'est pas content avec son environment. Je pense qu'elle doit avoic une plus grande cage.Aussi, sa cage doit être plus froide. Elle devrait avoir de la vraie neige. Son eau devrait être froide aussi. Je pense qu'elle doit vivre avec les autres ours en Ontario."

"Je pense que ton zoo n'est pas une bonne place pour un ours polaire. C'est trop chaud."

Thanks for your great work helping wild animals in captivity! Hopefully the Mexican Zoo listens, and starts to improve the conditions of Yupi's captivity, or considers moving her to a more appropriate place.

Learn more about Wild Elephants

The Elephant Scientist by  Caitlin O'Connell and Donna Jackson, photography by Caitlin O’Connell & Tim Rodwell

If you are interested in learning more about elephants in the wild, check out this new book co-authored by Caitlin O'Connell. The book is intended for readers aged 9-12, and is filled with lots of information and photos. Students won't just learn about elephants, they'll also learn what it's like to study them in the wild. It's always great to see new books about animals in their natural habitats, and to learn about the amazing things they do in the wild. Did you know elephants "listen" with their limbs?

Check out this picture, which is based on a diagram from the book. Can you figure out what it is, and why someone who studies elephants in the wild would need it?

Find the book at your public library to learn more. Happy Reading!

Our Closest Living Relative

We share some amazing similarities with chimpanzees, who are our closest living relative. Chimps and humans can both walk bipedally, solve problems and use tools, show emotions, laugh, cry, use mirrors, sleep in beds, use opposable thumbs, and more. A great way to learn more about the human body is by studying the similarities and differences between chimpanzees and humans.

Check out newest Keep It Wild! workshop, Me & The Chimpanzee Students will have an opportunity to compare the skeletal hand of a human to a chimp's, discover what life would be like without an opposable thumb, measure heart rate, lung capactiy and arm strength, identify and compare digestive systems, and more. You can learn more about the workshop at our education website. Students will also get a chance to learn more about chimps in captivity, and about chimpanzee sanctuaries, like the Fauna Foundation.

You can check out our links on this page to learn more about the Fauna Foundation.For adults interested in  learning more about the Fauna Foundation there is also a recent book entitled "The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary" by Andrew Westoll.

Inspiration

It can be hard work trying to help wild animals that are in need. The work can be sad, frustrating, and sometimes, it can even seem futile. Everyone needs to be reminded of the stories that have a happy ending! Check out this amazing video of a humpback whale that's trapped in a fishing net. The situation seems hopeless, and the video is riveting. The ending is the inspiration we all need to keep trying, even when things seem insurmountable!

All sorts of marine animals, like whales and dolphins, seabirds, seals, and sea turtles are at risk of entanglement because of the debris that litters our oceans. You may not be able to help untangle a humpback whale, but you can do your part to help wildlife by participating in the Great Canadian ShoreLine CleanUp this September. Picking up plastic bags, bottle caps, balloons, and other garbage from Toronto's shoreline will prevent these things from entering the waterways, and harming wild animals. Check it out at: http://shorelinecleanup.ca/

A Polar Bear in Mexico?

Imagine being adapted to life in the Arctic, and living in a tropical climate instead. This is the situation Yupi the polar bear faces. Yupi is eighteen years old, and lives at the Morelia Zoo in Mexico, where the average daily high temperature is over 20 degrees Celcius year round. But the climate is not the only challenge Yupi faces. Her enclosure is small, barren, lacks shade, and is made entirely of concrete. You can learn more about Yupi's plight at:    http://www.saveyupi.com/

Do you want to try and make a difference in Yupi's life? You can join a campaign to get Yupi moved to a more appropriate northern climate, in an enclosure that has a natural substrate, things to do, and room to move. Write a letter to the Zoo Director at:

Parque Zoologico Benito Juarez
Calzada Juarez S/N, Col. Felix Ireta
C.P. 58070, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico

If you are a part of a classroom in Toronto and would like to participate in a workshop about polar bears, check out our Keep It Wild website at: http://www.keepitwildeducation.com/

SOS - Save Our Sharks

    SAVE OUR SHARKS, SAVE OUR SEAS

Did you know that sharks kill fewer than 5 people annually, but humans kill 100 million sharks each year? One reason that so many sharks are killed is for shark-fin soup. This fishing practise involves catching a shark, cutting off its fins while its still alive, and dumping the shark back in the ocean, still alive!

Sharks are top predators, and play an important role in ocean ecosystems.  Sharks are at risk of extinction, but you can help them by trying to put an end to shark finning. If you want to help wild animals, start today by signing a petition to encourage Toronto to vote YES on a shark fin ban in Toronto. Find the petition and more information at : http://www.torontolovessharks.com/ 

Postcards from Parkdale

Check out these amazing postcards made by grade 1 students at Parkdale PS. They took part in a Keep It Wild workshop this past spring, and joined the campaign to help Lucy the Elephant.


 


 Here are some of the things the students wrote in their campaign postcards:

"Lucy needs a home and a bigger place to live and eat and she needs a family." - Katelyn

"Lucy needs more elephants to play with."  -Nyima

"Lucy needs a family because she looks sad and she needs more space." - Carlos

"Lucy needs a family because she looks alone. I think you have to find her family." - Riya

"Lucy needs more space and a warmer place like Asia. Lucy needs a family." - Rahul

"Can you help Lucy? Lucy needs a home that is bigger and warmer." - David

Way to go Parkdale! Thanks for your taking the time to draw and write postcards to help Lucy. If your class takes part in a campaign to help wild animals, make sure to let us know, and we'll post it on the blog.

Lucy the Elephant


 Lucy is a female Asian elephant captured from the wild in Sri Lanka when she was just a baby. She was shipped to the Edmonton Valley Zoo in 1977, where she remains today.


 Elephants in captivity require very large spaces, complex natural terrain, pasture, lots of things to do, other elephants to socialize with, and a warm climate. Unfortunately Lucy's life at the Valley Zoo is deficient in many respects.

Female elephants spend their entire lives in relatively stable family groups. They need to have friends and be around others of their own kind. But Lucy lives alone at the Valley Zoo. She has no elephant family or friends and is currently one of only a few elephants living alone in North American zoos.

Elephants have amazing adaptations that allow them to cope with hot climates. However, the Valley Zoo is located in Edmonton, and its weather is very different from the tropical climate of Sri Lanka where Lucy came from. During cold weather Lucy is kept inside a cement-floored barn, as well as at night when the zoo is closed.    

You can learn more about Lucy's story at http://www.savelucy.ca/

If you have suggestions or ideas about how to make life better for Lucy, like moving her to a different facility that has other elephants and a warmer climate, you can share them with the Zoo Director at denise.prefontaine@edmonton.ca.