GET ACTIVE!
(Based on the celebrated CBC Television series)
ENDANGERED ANIMALS
SPIDER MONKEYS
Meet Joel. He was captured as a baby in Peru and would have died if he hadn’t been rescued by a Canadian animal lover. Spider monkeys are actually more primitive than the old world monkeys. Their natural habitats are mature rainforests, which are disappearing fast. Spider monkeys face an uncertain future because they are also hunted for food and their body parts are illegally traded for medicines. Some spider monkey parts are even used to make exotic jewelry. Joel was fortunate to have escaped this fate. He now lives in a unique sanctuary for rescued animals.
SPEAKOUT!
James Brooks
“I’m an ape fanatic!” The thing I love about apes and monkeys is how close they are to humans. Just watching them play is really cool and fun. I really want to help out, ’cause there’s just so few of them left that we really need to get involved. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is where many species live, they’ve got a mineral called coltan, which is in cell phones and laptops. Everyone wants [coltan, so] they cut down the habitat, even kill[ing] gorillas and bonobos to get to [it].
So I began 1000 Classrooms. We ask one thousand different classrooms each to donate 3 dollars. All the money we raise goes to a group in the Congo who feed hungry kids. The group gives income to widows of those people who die while protecting gorillas and apes. One of the main things to helping apes is letting people know about them, ’cause when you tell enough people, one of them is bound to get involved. Young people can help out with gorillas by joining groups, donating money, fundraising and putting flyers in mailboxes. You can email people and just educate people about what’s happening.
B! FACTS
MOUNTAIN GORILLAS
– Mountain gorillas are one of the MOST endangered animals in the world.
– There are only 620 of them alive and they all live in the mountains of Africa in Rwanda, Congo and Uganda.
– The biggest threat to mountain gorillas is humans. Humans will often capture gorillas for zoos, threaten the animal’s habitat by cutting forests down and hunt the adult gorillas to get to their babies.
– The Silverback Gorilla is the head of the family and the only grown male in the group.
– Gorillas are vegetarian. The only time they will attack humans is when they feel threatened.
BREAKOUTER!
Simon Jackson and the Spirit Bear Coalition
The white Kermode or spirit bear, a genetically unique subspecies of the black bear found only on Canada’s west coast, numbers fewer than 400, and its future is threatened by habitat loss. 13-year-old Simon Jackson had a passion for bears and a budding curiosity to learn more about the plight of the spirit bear. In 1995, Simon Jackson and Salimah Ebrahim started a youth movement called the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition which has now grown to a global network of 6.5 million in 73 countries around world.
YOU TOO CAN BREAKOUT! TO FIND OUT HOW, GO TO: www.breakoutonline.ca