CWHC at the Heroes 4 Wildlife’s Environmental Awareness Festival

The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative was well represented at Heroes 4 Wildlife‘s Environmental Awareness Festival in Oshawa, Ontario on October 15-17. The Ontario/Nunavut region’s Communications Coordinator, Jenna Matsuba (left) and Co-op student, Abby Irwin (right) spoke with several hundred families about the work being done at the CWHC and the importance of wildlife health surveillance.

Abby and Jenna showed parents and kids alike wildlife specimens up close, including various skulls and parasites, distributed brochures on proper bird-feeder cleaning procedures, and facilitated a bird identification game to introduce people to common Ontario species.  Events like this are a great way to spread awareness about the organization, while equipping fairgoers with resources on how to handle various wildlife situations and contribute to current research as citizen scientists. We hope to have made new connections with both those attending the festival and the other vendors for future monitoring efforts!