Show your love for the rare habitats and trails by symbolically adopting a rare species below and gifting it to a loved one. Give the gift of nature! Although we won’t be able to gather and celebrate the holiday season as in the past, you can still show love to family and friends and to the lands you love this holiday season.

I am one of eight turtle species in Ontario added to the ever-growing list of Species at Risk. It’s been hard for my species in Southern Ontario due to habitat loss and an ever increasing network of roads for me to cross. Fortunately, the rare Turtle Project has been protecting turtle eggs in Waterloo Region/Wellington County to give us a helping hand! Thanks to being collected from my dangerous nest location and getting to spend the summer in a safe incubator at rare, I along with hundreds of other baby turtles, have been given the chance to thrive in the wild. I’m sure you agree that my unique adaptations and long life makes me quite an amazing creature! I am now getting ready to hibernate for the winter, and I am already looking forward to next year!

While the COVID-19 pandemic has concerned everyone this year, I am a native amphibian species that has been fighting our own global pandemic for the last two decades — Chytrid fungus and Ranavirus! These diseases have caused massive mortality events in frog populations all over the world — but don’t be unhoppy, luckily at rare we are staying healthy. You can find me in many rare habitats — from the wetlands to the community gardens. Help me and other frog populations out by cleaning your boots and nets if in a wetland, and please do not to move me from one place to another if you see me!

I am an excellent “social isolator” butterfly species that spends the winter season alone as an adult butterfly hunkered down under the bark of a tree, in the crack of a rock, or other sheltered place to wait for spring. Even though you likely can’t spot me now that winter is arriving, I am one of the longest-lived butterflies and can be observed early in the spring, all summer long and late into the fall throughout many different habitats at rare. Look for my dark red-brown colour, and a thick golden yellow border on my wings that make me quite unique!

I live in forested areas near streams, lakes and marshlands. Nature photographers walking on the rare River Trail love to snap photos of my furry face as I swim across the Grand River, most often seen during dawn and dusk. I’m often dining on fish and other water species, so I can be impacted by pollution in the water and on land. I love when you keep the water clean and protect the forests at rare so I can stay happy and healthy in my natural habitat.