Paws & Claws Film Festival

The Paws and Claws Film Festival is presented by the BC SPCA, and features wildlife-inspired films from Canada and the United States. The mission of the Film Festival is to promote awareness, knowledge and understanding of wildlife, habitat, people and nature. 

The films range from 3 minutes in length to 45 minutes, and feature bears, badgers, skinks, swallows and more. You can find the link to the films here.

Kids and Teachers - Learn more about Animals

Are you a kid, or do you know a kid, who wants to learn more about animals? There are lots of great resources out there, just for kids. Check out the BC SPCA Kids Club News, a free monthly email newsletter all about animals. It's packed with facts on companion animal care, wildlife welfare and farm animal issues. There are crafts and activities, photos and stories, and advocacy tips for youth. Learn more here. Teachers, the BC SPCA also has great resources just for you, including curriculum units, recommended resources, information about classroom pets and more. Check out their website section for teachers here

Hold on to that Balloon!

Students are often very excited to learn about things that they can personally do to help wild animals. Taking action, and knowing your actions are having a positive impact, can be very empowering. 

During our grade 4 Keep It Wild! workshop, Save our Seas, students learn about the impact that human pollution has on ocean animals. They also learn simple things that they can do to make a positive change for wild animals. One such action is to prevent the release of balloons into our environment. Once balloons break and come down to earth, they can be ingested by wild animals, and their attachments can entangle wild animals. 

 Take a few minutes to learn more about the impact of balloons at: Alliance for Balloon Education. Then take a few more minutes to tell someone else about the negative impact the release of balloons can have. 

Entangled Bird (Photo: Alliance for Balloon Education)

Chimps and Coffee

Last spring the grade 5/6 class at Downtown Alternative School participated in a Keep It Wild! workshop about chimpanzees. They had a chance to learn all about the similarities and differences between humans and their closest living relative. They also learned about some great ways to help chimpanzees in the wild and in captivity. Thanks to Abby for sharing her great chimpanzee artwork!

Did you know that in the last 100 years, the chimpanzee population has dropped from 2 million to less than 300,000 chimps? Each year their forest habitat is lost at a rate of four million hectares each year. The Jane Goodall Institute has launched a new Roots & Shoots campaign to help chimpanzees called What's in your cup? Find out more about the connections between coffee consumption and chimpanzee habitats, and find out what you can do to make a difference at: Roots & Shoots 

Animals in the Library

Thousands of amazing books about animals can be found at your local library. But did you know the Toronto Public Library also has lots of free programs and events about animals that are free! Learn more about our local spiders, find out about new dinosaur discoveries in Africa, take a class to learn how to draw animals and more!

Here are a few events this fall:

• Wildlife Wood Carving and Painting, Sept 29th @ 2 pm, McGregor Park
• Spiders of Toronto, Oct 2nd @ 12:30 pm, North York Central
• Chasing Electric Fish in the Amazon, Oct 24th @ 7 pm, Danforth/Coxwell
• Eggs, Nests and Baby Dinosaurs, Nov 26th @ 7pm, Northern District
• I Can Draw Animals, Nov 24 @ 2 pm, York Woods

 Pick up a copy of What's On, from your local library branch to find out more about upcoming talks classes and workshops. 

Another great resource available at the Toronto Public Library is the Biodiversity Booklet Series. This series of booklets is a great way to learn more about the city's birds, mammals, spiders, butterflies, fish, reptiles and amphibians. Pick up your free copy today at your local branch. 

Urban Animals

We often think that connecting with a wild animal is a rare event. We believe that it requires money and travel, or that it requires cages and captivity. Instead, we can pay attention to the magic and mystery of the everyday animals that we encounter, like this city sparrow, visiting a water fountain.