NerdAlertNews got the chance to speak with David Mizejewski of the National Wildlife Federation at Awesome Con Apr 26-28, 2019 in Washington, DC. Mizejewski was at Awesome Con to present the array of animals he had with him. Mizejewski brought awareness and entertainment while he was at the convention. He is a naturalist who loves to educate people and the youth of the amazing wildlife on our planet. Working with animals is a passion of his, as well as bringing awareness to them. Don’t let it fool you that he was just there for work, he is a “total nerd” at heart though. Mizejewski spoke with us about his experience at the con and the lovely creatures he had on display.
Jadeen Mercado: What’s it like coming to these conventions but with animals?
David Mizejewski: Well I am a total nerd to begin with so I would actually be coming to AwesomeCon because I live here in DC anyway, so it’s pretty incredible that I get a chance to come here and get my geek on but also be working and using this as an opportunity to get other people, kids in particular, really excited about wanting to protect wildlife. I’m a nature geek, I’ve always identified as such, my goal here today is to convert some of these kids into nature geeks too.
JM: How did you find your love for nerd and comics?
DM: I’m a huge fan of the comic book series Elfquest. In face underneath my shirt here I have an Elfquest T-shirt on and when we’re done I’m going to wander the con. I got into reading this comic book Elfquest which is a fantasy comic as the name would imply, it’s also set in nature. It’s about a band of elves that ride wolves and have all these adventures.
Immediately as a 10-year-old kid, I saw that and I was an animal lover who grew up reading Ranger Rick magazine who, by the way, Ranger Rick is here to going photo ops as we speak. It just was the perfect fit of a comic book series that matched with my love of nature, and fast forward 35 years later I’m still a huge Elfquest fan and I’m a nature geek and I’m here promoting all the work the National Wildlife Federation does.
JM: So what animals do you have for us today?
DM: So we have a bunch of wildlife ambassadors. We have an arctic fox, we have an alligator, we have an animal called a cavy which is kind of a weird animal from South America that looks like it was put together from parts of other animals. It’s a cross between a guinea pig and a rabbit and a dog and a deer and it’s a rodent. It’s really crazy looking. Look it up. It’s big. It’s the size of a medium-sized dog. We’ve got a North American porcupine and a snake. We have a very large Burmese Python, which is one of the most beautiful animals.
Lots of people are afraid of snakes, and one of my messages that I’m going to be talking about today is to parents to not transfer their fear of wildlife to their kids. Kids are not afraid of snakes, and little girls in particular in my experience are no more grossed out by creepy crawlies or snakes than little boys until their parents teach them. Parents shouldn’t be doing that, right? So one of my messages is snakes are beautiful, they’re important animals. Like any animal, if it has a mouth it can bite so respect it and give it its space but we should not be afraid of animals, we should love them and want to protect them.
JM: Is there anything that you’d like to leave us with?
DM: If anybody wants to get involved in wildlife conservation go to the National Wildlife Federation, that’s NWF.org. We’ve got a ton of programs that folks can get involved in, including a lot of programs for kids and youth. And of course, we publish Ranger Rick Magazine. We’ve got a whole bunch of fun stuff on our website.
Don’t forget to check out David Mizejewski on NFW.org to stay up to date with his amazing work. Let’s all remember to be a bit kinder to nature and its animals.
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Written by Jadeen Mercado
