Wildlife Preservation Canada

09/01/2026

There's a new way you can support at-risk wildlife... introducing our Adopt-a-Species Program! 💚

By symbolically adopting a species, you will provide direct support to an at-risk animal in the care of WPC's programs. Your gift will help with the cost of food, regular health check-ups, enrichment, and more!

With each adoption, you will receive a digital adoption kit. Every kit includes an info sheet about your adopted species, a personalized adoption certificate, and a greeting card for you to collect or send to a loved one.

Head to the link below to adopt your favourite species today!
🔗https://wildlifepreservation.ca/adopt-a-species-program/

*Appearance of digital adoption kits will vary based on adopted species. Adoption kits are available in different packages, which may include more items. Please see our website for more details and available packages.

08/31/2026

This snake eats what?🪱⁠
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Remo and Snake 38 are back, but this time we're talking nutrition (warning this video shows a snake eating a worm🫣). Butler's gartersnakes were originally known to eat leeches, but have since switched their diet to include non-native earthworms.⁠
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This shy, rare species can be found in tall grass prairies and fields in Ontario, Canada, but is under threat of extinction due to habitat loss & fragmentation, vehicle collisions, and more. That's where our recovery work comes in.⁠
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Each year, we collect neonate (baby) Butler's gartersnakes, take care of them until they are a bit older and larger and then release them back into the wild the following year at a different site. This is also known as translocation, and helps them in their youngest, most vulnerable stages - giving them a better chance at survival.⁠
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During their time with us, we will feed them earthworms - like you can see in this sped up video!⁠
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More about the Ojibway Prairie Reptile Recovery Program:⁠
The Ojibway Prairie Complex and Greater Park Ecosystem (OPCGPE) in Ontario’s Windsor-LaSalle region is home to several reptile species threatened by urban development, habitat fragmentation and road mortality, including eastern foxsnakes, Butler’s gartersnakes, Blanding's turtles and a critically endangered population of massasauga rattlesnakes. The Ojibway Prairie Reptile Recovery Team (OPRREC) works to protect and monitor these species.⁠
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08/28/2026

Our Pollinator Team had a great time helping out alongside the Shkakamik Kwe Genwemaajig Species At Risk Team, the Wiikwemkoong Department of Lands and Natural Resources, and the University of Guelph 💚

Today our Ogimaa spoke with our young community members at the Meshkoodayaang (Prairie Point) Youth Camp.

They are our future leaders. Here they’re leaning about our cultural teaching, our land and species at risk. This is another step forward in building the toolbox they will use in leading our community into the future.

Chi miigwetch to our Species at Risk team with our lands department along with Guelph University staff and students assisting with the camp.

08/28/2026

Our species recovery programs in Ontario, Canada had a lot to celebrate this month 🎉

Eastern loggerhead shrikes in our Shrike Recovery Program have been tagged with radio tracking tags with Bluetooth capabilities for the first time ever! These tags will be able to track the birds after release and during their migration by connecting to the Motus network of towers, as well as connecting to any Bluetooth enabled phones the birds pass by on the way to their destination. We are excited to see what results these tags show us!

Team Ojibway Prairie Reptile Recovery Project (OPRREC) was busy returning the at-risk eastern Massasauga rattlesnake and headstarted Butler's gartersnakes back to the wild. Headstarting is a process that allows these vulnerable species to grow big and strong before being released to the wild, giving them the best chance of survival in their natural habitat. Both of these snake species play an integral role in keeping their ecosystems balanced, which means their survival is important for other species too. This includes other at-risk species, like the monarch butterfly!

Speaking of pollinators, our Bumble Bee Recovery Team reported 4 successful matings between at-risk bumble bee species, showing yet another example of how hands-on conservation efforts make an incredible difference for Canada's at-risk species. 🐝

While our teams are hard at work in the field, our monthly donors are the driving force that makes it all possible. Whether it's providing food for a western painted turtle hatchling or bird bands for shrikes, monthly donors provide the steady, reliable support needed to bring species back from the brink of extinction. ⁠
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💚🐾To become a Wildlife Guardian today, head to wildlifepreservation.ca/donate/

08/27/2026

Help celebrate Butterfly Big Day 2026!⁠
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WPC is joining the Urban Butterfly Initiative in celebrating the inaugural annual Butterfly Big Day by helping document butterflies around the world on 12 September 2026. ⁠
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Want to join?⁠
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Butterfly Big Day is an international event designed for people of all ages to find as many wild butterflies as they can, spread awareness of the importance of butterflies & other pollinators, and learn how we can help their populations. ⁠
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Participating is easy! ⁠
⬇️Just download the free iNaturalist app and sign up for a free account. You can also use a web browser and access the iNaturalist web site (inaturalist.org).⁠
📸Take photos of free-living butterflies (not captive or from butterfly houses)⁠
📩Submit your photos to iNaturalist. Photos of butterflies submitted anywhere in the world on 12th September will count for Butterfly Big Day! You do not have to be able to identify the butterfly in order for your observations to be useful.⁠
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🔗For more information, links to quick iNaturalist tutorial videos, and to find the Butterfly Big Day regional partner in your part of the world, visit www.urbanbutterflies.org/big-day⁠
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To see all the Butterfly Big Day submissions, visit the iNaturalist project page during or after the event: www.inaturalist.org/projects/butterfly-big-day-2026

08/26/2026

We have another update on Tutu, the endangered western painted turtle🐢⁠

She has laid her eggs but unfortunately they are not fertile. This is totally normal and was actually to be expected...Not only is it typical for turtles to lay eggs without fertilization, but in Tutu's case we didn't find the perfect mate for her until too late in her nesting season.

In case you missed it, Tutu is a 16-year-old endangered western painted turtle who was rescued in Burnaby, B.C. with eye injuries that made survival in the wild impossible. After seeing her successfully nest on the landscape for over a decade, she holds a special place in our hearts. Instead of euthanasia, we welcomed her into our care—giving her a safe place to live out her days with sunny basking spots, fresh meals, and her own mate named Onesie.

Onesie received this name because he too only has one eye (plus it's a play off of Tutu's ballerina sounding name). His missing eye does not seem to be a result of a past injury, so we're not sure what happened.. he could've been born without one and he seems to have faired quite well in the wild!
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Stay tuned as will continue to share more updates from this pair 💚
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📸A. de Wit⁠

More about WPC's B.C. Projects - western painted turtle:
In the wetlands of B.C.’s Fraser Valley, western painted turtles face many challenges, especially as eggs and tiny hatchlings. Since 2012, we’ve been working to improve their odds of survival by protecting nests, collecting eggs from vulnerable nests and artificially incubating them, and head-starting new hatchlings in our program located at the Greater Vancouver Zoo before releasing them back to the wild. To date we have released over 2,000 turtles back into the wetlands of B.C.

08/25/2026

Restoration... in progress 🔃⁠
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Last week, WPC's B.C. Team, spent some time restoring the Aldergrove release site💚⁠
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This involved placing anchored logs in the water to give turtles basking sites (replacing old logs that have sunk over the years) and placing a thin metal predator/root barrier to prevent burrowing animals and roots from invading the beach.⁠
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Working on this beach for the last 5+ years, it's exciting to see these restoration efforts make a difference - especially since we have been releasing turtles in this area for many, many years!⁠
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More about WPC's B.C. Projects - western painted turtle:⁠
In the wetlands of B.C.’s Fraser Valley, western painted turtles face many challenges, especially as eggs and tiny hatchlings. Since 2012, we’ve been working to improve their odds of survival by protecting nests, collecting eggs from vulnerable nests and artificially incubating them, and head-starting new hatchlings in our program located at the Greater Vancouver Zoo before releasing them back to the wild. To date we have released over 2,000 turtles back into the wetlands of B.C.⁠
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08/24/2026

Bye, bye, butterfly 🦋⁠
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Come along on one of our mottled duskywing butterfly releases with Rachel, WPC's Mottled Duskywing Technician at Norfolk!⁠
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The butterflies Rachel's releasing were all born and raised at the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory. They're then transferred to the release site, we mark them with a tiny dot of quick-dry nail polish (Sally Hansen) and release them into the wild. ⁠
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The tiny dots of polish help us identify the butterflies later on when we're surveying. If we spot a butterfly with one of these dots, we know they were conservation-bred and aren't wild born. This helps us learn more about how they are doing on the landscape: is the population only sustained by our releases? Or are they starting to do better on their own?⁠
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Since releases began in 2021, over 2,500 endangered mottled duskywing butterflies have been released back into the wild💚⁠
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More about the mottled duskywing recovery work and the Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Recovery Team:⁠
The Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Team is comprised of a collaborative and multi-disciplinary group of individuals with representatives from academia, non-government organizations, federal & provincial government, the private sector, conservation authorities, and First Nations. WPC is an active member of the Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Recovery Team, a collaborative, multi-disciplinary group which has been leading monitoring, habitat restoration, conservation, and research activities for mottled duskywing since 2017.⁠
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08/22/2026

A summer full of wildlife 🌞⁠
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Norfolk Mottled Duskywing Lead Biologist, Natalie Houde, spotted a variety of wildlife while working in the field with the Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Recovery Team and Wildlife Preservation Canada.⁠
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Although the team's focus was surveying for the endangered butterfly and reintroducing it to the landscape, they were also lucky enough to spot some cool insects, birds, reptiles and amphibians.⁠
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Can you name all the species? (Answers at the bottom of this post)⁠

📸N. Houde⁠
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More about the mottled duskywing recovery work and the Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Recovery Team:⁠
The Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Team is comprised of a collaborative and multi-disciplinary group of individuals with representatives from academia, non-government organizations, federal & provincial government, the private sector, conservation authorities, and First Nations. WPC is an active member of the Ontario Butterfly Species at Risk Recovery Team, a collaborative, multi-disciplinary group which has been leading monitoring, habitat restoration, conservation, and research activities for mottled duskywing since 2017.⁠

Answers:
1. Natalie and a mottled duskywing butterfly
2. Indigo bunting
3. Silvery blue
4. Midland painted turtle
5. Red spotted admiral
6. Lemon cuckoo bumble bee
7. Common whitetail
8. Eastern hognose snake
9. Field sparrow
10. American copper
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08/20/2026

Can you ID this bumble bee? (Hint: It's more than just a bumble bee)

If you are located in Ontario, Canada and struggle with identifying bumble bee species, we have the solution. 👀

Annika Wilcox, Ontario Programs Coordinator for WPC's Bumble Bee Recovery Program, has put together a crash course in bumble bee ID. With each bumble bee key identifier listed next to their photo, you'll become an expert in South Central Ontario bumble bee identification in no time.

Head to the link below to take Annika's crash course!
🔗https://wildlifepreservation.ca/blog/crash-course-in-bumble-bee-id/

📸A. Wilcox