Susie Spikol, a naturalist on the Harris Heart for Conservation Schooling in Hancock, is the writer of “The Animal Adventurer’s Information.” She spoke with One thing Wild’s Chris Martin and Dave Anderson about her new guide.
The guide options actions to deliver youngsters nearer to wild animals and expands the thought of the place — and what — wild animals are.
“You do not have to go anyplace particular to seek out one thing wild. You may exit your again door or your entrance door,” Spikol says. “You may look within the crack in a sidewalk. You may take a look at a forest, a stonewall. Even alongside the sides of roads and highways, you could find wild issues. So I simply wished to get folks pondering that nature occurs all over the place.”
Individuals have a tendency to emphasise “large wildlife,” she says, “however I am all concerning the little issues which you could see…the ladybug in your home is simply as wild because the eagle that you just see flying.” Even the spider within the nook of the room? “Undoubtedly wild!”
Spikol additionally encourages youngsters to transcend “yuck!” Leeches are a very good instance.
“After we go ponding and we discover a large juicy leech, a whole lot of it’s like ‘gross, ugh, it would get caught on me,'” says Spikol. “However then once we cease and we take a look at the leech and actually take the time to speak about and take a look at its physique and see the way it strikes and its colours, it is truly actually an extremely lovely creature.”
Spikol has spent a whole lot of time discovering the worth in one thing which may trigger others to recoil.
“Round my neighborhood and in my neighborhood, folks typically check with me because the Princess of Poop, which some folks would possibly take as one thing not so good,” she says. “However I like it! It’s all about my scat assortment, which I’ve been accumulating for the reason that early nineties. It is a fantastic instructing device. Should you actually wish to know what an animal eats, take a very good, arduous take a look at what it excretes.”
One of many actions in her guide is making a bug pooter —which, simply primarily based on the identify alone, is certain to attraction to youngsters.
“It is truly a bug vacuum,” Spikol says. “I give instructions on how one can make this little bug vacuum out of a cup and a few straws and a little bit little bit of clay and a few screens. And it is not such as you’re sucking the bug into your mouth, however you create the kind of vacuum that pulls the bug into the jar so you’ll be able to catch the bug with out touching it or hurting it or scaring it away.”
Spikol additionally makes word of the significance of getting near nature.
”The precise bodily act of being the one who’s studying how one can comply with a frog, stand up shut, get quiet, bend down and catch it in your hand after which maintain it, really feel it is gentle physique in your hand… that is actually basically completely different than watching it on a display,” she says. “And I feel these experiences are the experiences that go proper into your coronary heart. And that is actually what I hope my guide does is, is assist households and children discover entry to that.”
One thing Wild is a partnership of New Hampshire Audubon, the Forest Society, and NHPR and is produced by the crew at Exterior/In.
