Inside Out | These ambassadors don’t practice politics | Parks-recreation

Owls fly, salamanders wiggle, snakes slither, and turtles crawl, all at the Anita Purves Nature Center.

The nature center is home to 14 ambassador animals of eight different species (and there might be more in the future). These animals are ambassadors that encourage people to learn more about native wildlife, and provide safe opportunities for the public to interact with an animal or two.

Besides greeting visitors at the nature center, our animals also travel to programs: birthday parties, summer camps, school classrooms, libraries and more. Just over halfway through 2026, the ambassador animals have already had one of their busiest years of programming ever.

At the time of writing, our animal ambassadors have been to 158 programs and have met over 4,700 people. That’s over a tenth of the population of Urbana, with still half a year to go.

Our always-popular box turtles have met close to 3,000 people at the programs they’ve been to. And Lightning, our Eastern screech owl, has met more than 900 people on his own, and was even on WCIA to promote his birthday party.

At the nature center, ambassador-animal welfare comes first. All of our animals live in naturalistic enclosures that encourage natural behaviors. They are trained to be comfortable while being handled and meeting crowds of new people, who in turn learn how to respectfully interact with our ambassadors.

They are overseen by an excellent animal-care team that checks on them three hours a day, seven days a week. The nature center is open six days a week (closed on Sundays), and is always free to visit, but if you can’t make it, then our animals might be able to come to you.

Whether it’s a school visit, a pop-up at the park or a visit to a community center, the nature center offers a variety of programs, for a small fee.

And if you’d like, you or a group can also become animal sponsors. Sponsors can choose how long to sponsor an ambassador animal of their choice — for a month, six months or a year. There is a sponsorship charge that goes entirely toward animal care, paying for their food and checkups at the vet.

Sponsors can get a chance to have a photo taken with their animal, shadow an animal-care shift, receive a certificate and information packet about their chosen animal, have their name on display as a sponsor, and can even sign up to have an animal pen pal for the duration of their sponsorship.

With five months left to go, who knows how many more people our ambassadors will get to meet this year?

If you’d like to learn more, please call Anita Purves Nature Center at 217-384-4062, or email us at naturemailbox@urbanaparks.org, or visit urbanaparks.org.

Upcoming events

FRESH Crew Teenage Stewardship Volunteering:

9:30-11:30 a.m. Aug. 1 at Victory Park.

Play Days at the Park, featuring our Ambassador Animals:

5:30-7 p.m. Aug. 6 at Crestview Park.

Connecting You to Nature Hike: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at Perkins Road Prairie (meet at Urbana Dog Park); free.

Connor J. Ross is the environmental services and outreach coordinator and resident naturalist at Anita Purves Nature Center in Urbana. He can be reached at cjross@

urbanaparks.org.