The last thousand polar bears.

 

arctic alive fewer hunting increase live successfully

Thirty years ago…than 1000 polar bears were left …in the wild in Norway, Greenland and the former USSR. WWF persuaded the five… nations of Canada, the USA, Denmark, the former USSR and Norway to agree to control… and promote scientific study. Now the “ice bears” are…and breeding… once again, and those 1000 bears have… their numbers to about 5000.

 

The tropical forests

 

Dam destroy encourage flood in danger international medicine protect supply

Tropical forests have…us with many sorts of plant for food,…and industry. They could probably supply many more. They also reduce …and droughts, keep water clean, and slow down the Greenhouse Effect. But the tropical forests are being… to make room for things like farms, ranches, mines and hydroelectric…. About 20 million hectares are lost each year – an area more than twice the size of Austria. WWF is working to… and save the forests that are…; to plant new trees for fuel wood and to slow down the Greenhouse Effect; and to … governments to think about the forests and their importance when… giving…aid.

 

Group work

Work in groups of 3 or 4. Imagine that you are the executive committee of a wildlife conservation organization in the year 2500.

You have enough money to save several but not all of the following from extinction:

the lion

the rabbit

the sheep

the cat

the dog

the horse

the golden eagle

the bee

the cobra

the rose.

Draw up a list of priorities: 3 things that you will certainly save, 3 more that you will save if you have enough money left over, and 4 that you will not try to save.

Design a poster or write a letter to be sent to all the members of your organization persuading people that your 3 priority species must be saved.

Did you know?

In 1961 the World Wildlife Fund was founded – a small group of people who wanted to raise money to save animals and plants from extinction. Now called the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF is a large international organization working to stop the destruction of the earth’s natural resources. It has raised over 230 million pounds for conservation projects over the last ten years, and has created or given support to National Parks in five continents. It has helped 30 mammals and birds – including the tiger – to survive. Perhaps this is not much, but it is a start. If more people gibe more money – and if more governments wake up to what is happening – perhaps the World Wide Fund of Nature will be able to help us to avoid the disaster that threatens the natural world, and all of us with it.

Read the following text and make a resume of it:

 

I saw my first tiger in a national park in India. It was a young male and he was drinking at a waterhole. He raised his head slowly and stared at us for a minute. Then he turned his back on us and disappeared quickly into the jungle.

Twenty years ago the tiger was in trouble. In India its numbers were around 1800. Then the Indian government launched Project Tiger, which set up national parks all over the country. Poaches still hunt the tiger illegally but at least it is no longer in ganger of extinction.

In Africa the most important species is the elephant, the world’s largest living mammal. In 1979 there were 1,3 million elephants there. Ten years later numbers were down to fewer than 600 000 and still falling. Conservationists warned that the species could be extinct soon.

But slowly the situation changed. In July 1989 Kenya’s President Moi publicly burnt his country’s stock of ivory, and towards the end of 1989 the world agreed to ban the ivory trade completely. Since then the demand for ivory has fallen sharply and elephant numbers in Kenya and Tanzania are increasing rapidly. In Kenya’s vast Tsavo national park breeding herds of elephants is a common sight, the new babies hurrying to keep up with their mothers.

Africa has also lost 99 per cent of its black rhinos last century. About twenty years ago there were only 11 rhinos left in Kenya’s Masai Mara national reserve. Today numbers have tripled.

On the other side of the world the grey whales of Baja California nearly disappeared last century. Fortunately the US Marine Mammals Protection Act of 1972 saved them. The same year Mexico created the world’s first whale sanctuary on the west coast of Baja. The grey whales recovered quickly. Today there are perhaps 20 000 and these gentle giants are now worth far more alive than dead. The reason is whale-watching, an American craze for tourists.

All over the world other rare species continue to receive protection; giant tortoises in the Galapagos, pink pigeons in Mauritius. In America you can hear the song of the timber wolf, and see the mountain lion in the canyons and high forests.

Suddenly wildlife is good for the tourists trade. And tourism – provided it takes only pictures and leaves only footprints – is good for the national parks. If wildlife can be seen to be paying its way, then its chance of survival will be much greater.

 

First printed in British Airways High Life magazine.

Notes:

1. to launch начинать, запускать

2. poacher браконьер

3. stock запас

4. ivory слоновая кость

5. to breed (bred,bred) разводить

6. herd стадо

7. rhino носорог

8.whale кит

9. sanctuary убежище

10. tortoise черепаха(сухопутная)

11. pigeon голубь

Match the following words with the definitions:

1..tiger

2. elephant

3.rhino

4. whale

5. tortoise

6. pigeon

7. wolf

8.lion

 

 

f) large, strong flesh-eating animal found in Africa and S.Asia called “the King of Beasts” because of its fine appearance and courage.

g) kinds of large sea- animal some of which are hunted for their oil.

h) Large, fierce animal of the cat family, yellow-skinned, with black stripes, found in Asia.

i) Bird, wild or tame, of the dove family.

j) Slow-moving, four-legged land (and fresh-water) varieties of turtle with hard shell.

k) Thick-skinned, heavily built animal of Africa and Asia with one or two horns on the snout.

l) Largest four-footed animal now living, with curved ivory tusks and a long trunk.

m) Wild, flesh-eating animal of the dog family, hunting in packs.