A video to help polar bears

Check out this great video by students at Davyhulme primary school in the UK. After learning about Yupi the polar bear's situation the students wanted to do something to help. They are hoping to raise awareness about the issue of polar bears in captivity in hot climates. What a fantastic and inspiring video. Thanks for trying to help the animals! 

Cycling for Elephants in China

A student cycling team in China is raising public awareness about elephant poaching during their bike tour across Shandong province this month.. They will urge the Chinese public to not purchase ivory through this campaign. Learn more through Humane Society International, which is sponsoring the event. The students hope that they can demonstrate their sympathy for the plight of elephants, and their commitment to be a part of the global effort to stop the ivory trade. Organizers for the event are concerned about the lack of progress China has made towards banning the ivory trade. 

What do Kids Learn at the Zoo?

Are zoos educational? A recent study at the London Zoo set out to answer this question. Children between the ages of 7 and 15 were questioned before and after their visit to the zoo. 

The researchers found that almost 60% of children who took an educator-guided tour had NO positive educational outcomes. For children who went on an unguided visit, this number jumped to 66%. This study suggest that zoos are not the way for students to learn about conservation and biology, or to change attitudes towards wildlife.

The study also indicated that negative changes in children's understanding of animals and their habitats were prevalent, especially on unguided visits to the zoo. 

See a summary of the study here.

Opened Cages: A Wild Celebration

Join Zoocheck's 30th Anniversary Celebration at Pawsway in Toronto on Saturday November 22nd. We will be honouring thirty great years of wild animal protection. Tickets are $50 and are available at zoocheck.com or by calling 416-285-1744. The evening will include entertainment, special guests, yummy vegan treats and a silent auction. And children 12 and under are free! 

Global March for Elephants Rhinos & Lions

Join hundreds of other animal activists for the Global March in Toronto on Saturday October 4th at 2 pm. Meet up at Trinity Square (between the Eaton Centre and Nathan Phillips Square). The March is to bring attention to the senseless killing of elephants and rhinos for their tusks, and the farming of lions for tourism and trophy hunting. Take action by participating in this event and letting your voice be heard. The animals need your help! 

A Back to School Book

The Midnight Zoo, by Sonya Hartnett, is a great book to start off the school year. The story is a magical fable set in a zoo in the middle of a bombed-out village during the war. Two young Roma brothers on the run discover the zoo and its inhabitants - a wolf and eagle, monkey and bear, lioness and seal, kangaroo and llama, chamois and bear - as they flee the through the darkness. It is a story about war and its devastating effects, but also a story about captivity and freedom.
     Here is a quote from an 8 year old book reviewer on Amazon:

I think that other kids will like this book - young and old (grown up) - because it is a very exciting book. My favourite part was when the animals start talking after the bombs drop, because it was a very exciting part, especially because Andrej thought the lion talking was his mother. I think that basically 3rd grade and up might like it - gilrs and boys would like your book! 

     The book's main theme of freedom speaks to both animals and people, the freedom of animals to live in the wild, not in zoos under human control, and the freedom of humans to live in peace, not in the middle of someone else's war. The book is set in World War II, but written in a way that it could be any war, any time, making it very relevant.
    Each animal's story, as well as that of the children, is revealed though the night. One of the most powerful and heart-breaking tale's is the seal's, who swims in endless circles in its tiny pool.
     "The shiny streak of animal was sweeping up and down the length of its pool exactly as it had been doing when the children first saw it. Its pace, which was swift, was also unaltering, nor did its ceaseless circuit veer even slightly from its invisible track...The seal seemed nothing more than a shadowy shape that had taken on a relentless life and a strange, perpetual mission..Andrej asked the bear, 'Is this all it does? Just swim back and forth?' 'What else should it do?' said the bear."
     For anyone who has seen an animal in a zoo pacing endlessly, or rocking repetitively, the seal's behaviour will sound familiar. This is stereotypic behaviour, which is an abnormal repetitive behaviour that has no obvious function, such as pacing in a figure-eight pattern. The cause of these behaviours in zoo animals relates to their boredom, lack of space, frustration, and inability to perform natural behaviours.
     The bear in the story continues to talk about the seal: "Of course it remembers [the ocean]. Its mind is filled with the crashing of waves. The ocean called out to it from the moment it was born. Its ancestors swam there; its kin swim there today. It remembers the ocean because its blood and bones cannot forget it. Somewhere out there, there's a gap in the water, a place which is hollow because the seal isn't there."
     Sonya Hartnett, who is the winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, has written a marvelous book that captures the essence of what it means to be a wild animal, and what it means to be free.
    If you are an older student, grade 4 or above, this book is a must-read. If you are a teacher, you might find the teacher resource from Penguin Books useful. Although this is a children's book, adults will also enjoy it immensely; it explores deep themes, and is written in beautiful, lyrical prose.

Find us on School Shows

Hey teachers. You can now find our workshops on School Shows. Check them out: here

Postcards for Kiska

This past year grade 4 students at Clairlea learned all about orcas in their Awesome Orcas Keep It Wild! workshop. Students spent a long time discussing the differences between the natural habitat of orcas and life in captivity. 

Here's a great message for Marineland from Iyanna:

I love your rides and all, but your whale shows concern me. I think you should make the whales happy. 

Picture by Avri

Kamal thoughtfully comments on the educational value of keeping whales in captivity:

A greeting! I would like to talk about orca whales. I think you shouldn't keep them in captivity because children aren't learning what whales are. In the wild they are the number 1 predator. 

Picture by Sankavis 

And Gowtham comments about the risk of keeping these highly social and intelligent animals in captivity:

Orca whales in captivity don't get enough space. They get no communication with other whales [when kept isolated, like Kiska]  and they don't get to hunt. The orca whales might go crazy and kill their trainers. 

Picture by Maddy 

Orcas - Keep Them Wild! 

New Postcards coming this fall

We are working on some new postcards for marketing our workshops. Here's a great parrot painting by one of our KIW student particpants that would be great for our newest workshop, coming in 2015, a grade 6 workshop on Biodiversity and Exotic Pets. We're looking forward to delivering the new postcards and to meeting some grade 6 classrooms in the upcoming school year. 

Fun With Dung!

Keep It Wild visited a summer camp today to present our Gorilla Trackers workshop. Kids had a lot of fun measuring and dissecting their gorilla dung and finding seeds. Gorillas play an important role keeping the forest healthy by dispersing seeds of several different fruit trees. The kids also shared their great ideas about how to help wild gorilla habitats by reducing, re-using and recycling paper. 

Dear Zookeeper

     Dear Zookeeper. Please give Yupi some toys. from Elvis.

Wildlife in the City

Narwhal graffiti, Sheffield, England. Image: KylaBorg

Check out this link to Earthtouch, featuring 10 graffiti murals that bring wildlife to the city. What a great way to bring nature into an urban setting.

Update on Yupi the Polar Bear

Yupi in Captivity by Ronan, grade 2, Reesor Park PS

Yupi is a female polar bear living in Parque Zoologico Benito Juarez in Morelia Mexico. Her concrete enclosure has very little shade and nothing to do. The soaring temperatures in Mexico are difficult for a polar bear to deal with as they are adapted to survive in Arctic conditions and overheat easily. One of the worst parts of her captivity is that for the majority of the day, as much as seventeen hours, she is locked off-site in a barren concrete cell. 

But more and more people are becoming aware of her plight. There is currently a wildlife park in South Yorkshire that hopes to provide a new home for Yupi on a ten acre reserve. Learn more about  Project Polar, the Yorkshire Wildlife Park Foundation's plan to rescue Yupi. 

The grade 2 students at Ressor Park recently participated in a Keep It Wild workshop about polar bears, and they learned about Yupi's plight. To learn more about our workshops, check out our website  Here are some of their comments:

I do not agree for her to be in this hot zoo.  - Isabella

Free Yupi, pretty please. 

We want Yupi to have a better place to live and give her a friend.  - Tristan

Dear Zookeeper. Please give Yupi snow and a colder place. - Hayden

I could help Yupi by telling the zoo keeper that he could help Yupi to put her in a colder place. 

 - Raymond

Please move Yupi to a better polar bear habitat. She is too hot!! - Matthew

Dear: Zookeeper. Please send Yupi to a sanctuary please!  - Cam

Keep following our blog for more comments and pictures from students at Reesor Park PS. 

Lolita the Killer Whale

Lolita is an orca whale captured from the wild in 1970. She has been on display at the Miami Seaquarium in Florida ever since. She is the last surviving orca from a group of almost 50 whales of the Southern Resident Community from the west coast that were captured and used for entertainment between 1965 and 1973.

Lolita was only four years old when she was captured. She has been living in a tank that is only 35 X 80 feet, which is illegal according to the Animal Welfare Act. The tank is also only 18-20 feet deep. There is no protection from the sun, and perhaps worst of all, she is kept alone, socially isolated from any other whales.

The good news is that there is a proposal to retire Lolita in a protected cove near her family's territory. Learn more about Lolita and the full plan for retirement by visiting: Orca Network

Photo of Lolita from Orca Network website

Join Zoocheck for an evening of discussion and images about animals