Watercolor by Amanda Mander

Wild Kin: Discovering Our Animal Family
​Full of adventure, conservation insights and memorable moments of awe, join Amanda in her journey to discover a deeper relationship to our animal family.

Excerpt from the chapter Toucan Time:
     "I was nervous. What if he bit me? What if he flew away and I lost him? Monty was a big bird, probably 1.5 feet high–and that beak! It was probably six inches long. Monty, a Yellow-throated toucan, had been abandoned as a baby. No one knows why he was found alone and out of his nest. Raised at the sanctuary, he was now full grown and nearly ready to be released back into the wild.
     I opened the cage slowly and was suddenly calmed as Monty's dark eyes looked steadily at me. He didn't run or squawk. He didn't jump to the branches to get away from me. He seemed to be saying, "Get over it. I've done this many times before."