Emmett Diamond knows the difference between a monkey and an ape.
“No tails, just butts,” the 9-year-old said. “If it has no tail, it’s an ape. And if it has a tail, it’s a monkey.”
That confidence about the animal kingdom has carried Emmett, a Wilton third-grader, into the quarterfinals of Jr. Ranger, a national contest whose winner will receive $20,000, an exclusive wildlife experience with television host Jeff Corwin and an appearance in Ranger Rick magazine.
The contest, operated by professional fundraising company Colossal, benefits the National Wildlife Federation, which publishes Ranger Rick. The contest is open to children ages 4 to 12.
Emmett’s parents, Michael and Amber Diamond, said they came across the contest while scrolling Facebook, where the family follows “Wild Kratts” and other animal pages. The Diamonds are also longtime subscribers to Ranger Rick.
“We applied the kids into the program, and Emmett was selected,” Michael Diamond said.
He has since advanced through five rounds — top 20, top 15, top 10, top 5 and a wild-card round he won after finishing second in an earlier bracket. As of this week, he sits in fifth place in the quarterfinals, where only the top finisher moves on to the semifinals.
Emmett, a student at Florence Rideout Elementary School, has been drawn to animals since before he could read. His first favorite book, and still his favorite, is “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” His mother said he could recite it from memory as a toddler.
“He was always gravitating towards worms and frogs and birds and butterflies and turtles,” Amber Diamond said.
“I’m a big animal advocate as well, so I know how to hunt for salamanders and frogs and snakes and all that stuff,” Michael Diamond added. “So, we’d go on these adventures. I mean, all the kids truly, truly loved being on those adventures. But for Emmett, it’s been his passion and he’s always talking about animals, always looking for animals.”
Family outings have taken Emmett swimming with dolphins and stingrays in Florida, to a zoo in Colorado where he watched a mother orangutan care for her baby, and to the Seacoast Science Center, where he held a lobster on a school field trip. For his most recent birthday, his parents booked a local exotic animal tour company that brought a snake, an owl, a porcupine, a ferret, a chinchilla and a fox to the celebration.
If Emmett wins the chance to travel with Corwin, he knows where he wants to go.
“I was hoping to go to the jungle and find an orangutan and play with the baby ones,” he said. “I’m going to help protect all the animals in the universe.”
The orangutan is his favorite animal (a great ape, he clarified) and his favorite sea animal is the great white shark. He wants to be a scientist when he grows up.
Emmett is one of four children, including a twin brother, Grayson. Little siblings are Lillyanna and Cylis. Emmett is the oldest by two minutes — a fact his parents said he is unlikely to let go of.
“Pretty much everybody that meets him, he is a ray of sunshine,” Amber Diamond said. “He wants to be friends with everybody, introduces himself to everybody.”
Voting is conducted through Facebook and is open until May 21. Anyone with a Facebook account can vote for free once every 24 hours, the Diamonds said. Voters must be 18 or older to support a contestant through a donation.
To vote for Emmett, visit https://linktr.ee/mdiamond1017. Voting resets every 24 hours.
