Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Under most circumstances, a striped skunk foraging for food inside the gymnasium at J.J. O’Neill Catholic School would be cause for concern.
On Thursday however Hugo was an invited guest, serving as one of the animal ambassadors during an assembly hosted by the Earth Rangers.
Hugo was joined by Shelley, a painted turtle, Kateri, a peregrine falcon, Sunny, a harris hawk and their two Earth Ranger humans handlers, Chris Gill and Catherine Robert-Frigon.
They were on hand to talk to the students about their program and the importance of environmental conservation.
“We’ve found that protecting animals from extinction seems to resonate with kids,” said Gill. “We’ve grown into the largest youth conservation organization in Canada. We have 175,000 members across Canada and we’re still growing.”
Their stop in Napanee, which also included a visit to The Prince Charles School on Friday, is part of an ongoing school tour across the country, visiting all 10 provinces and three territories.
“We present kids with science based information on the threats animals are facing,” said Gill. “We show them some of the conservation work that’s being done by adults and government agencies across Canada, hopefully inspiring them. The main goal is just to show them they can make a difference as well and do things in their everyday lives to help animals and their environment.”
Along with a multimedia video projected on a large screen, the talk also included an up close look at a the live animals. As an added treat, both birds of prey, Sunny and Kateri, wowed the audience by soaring just above the students heads to various perches setup in the gym. The peregrine falcon is noted for being the fastest animal on the planet while the harris hawk is only found in the desert.
As for Hugo, though it’s unlikely he’d actually want to spray anyone inside the gym setting, he has been ‘descented’ for added safety.
Hugo the skunk.
“A big part of our assembly school program is the live animal team,” said Gill. “Kids really resonate with seeing animals, especially in their gym. Sometimes we go to areas where they’d never be exposed to these animals. When I was in Nunavut last year I had a lizard with me, the reptiles don’t live up there so it was really cool exposing them to that. It really helps to make that connection with how important animals are, how beautiful they are and why they’re worth protecting.”
As part of their message, they encouraged kids to join their program. This year their focus is the ‘Bring Back The Wild’ initiative, which strives to raise money to help the blue spotted salamander, grey fox and snowshoe hare. They’re calling on kids to get creative and brainstorm fundraising initiatives to support the cause.
“It’s not so much about how much they’re raising, it’s just that they can realize they can have an impact in protecting these animals,” added Gill.
More information about the program can be found at www.earthrangers.org.