ANIMALS 3
IN DANGER
WARM UP
Discuss these questions with a partner.
1. What animals can you think of that
A 24-day-old Bengal slow loris
are in danger?
at the Endangered Primate
2. What are some reasons that animals Rescue Center, Vietnam
become endangered?
39
3A
BEFORE YOU READ
PREVIEWING A. How much do you know about koalas? Read each sentence (1–3) and circle
the answer.
1. A koala’s diet consists mainly of tree nuts / tree leaves.
2. Baby koalas live for several months with their father / in their mother’s pouch.1
3. There used to be 10 million koalas in the wild. Today, there are about 80,000 /
800,000 koalas left in the wild.
PREDICTING B. Read the title and headings in the passage. Why do you think koalas are at
risk? List some possible reasons. Check your ideas as you read the passage.
1 A pouch is a pocket-like place
Caregiver Anika Lehmann looks
after a koala named Talisa
before releasing her back into
the wild.
40 Unit 3A
RAC ING
TO RE S C UE
KOALAS
A It’s two in the morning, and a koala is caught on a fence, like a prisoner
trying to escape. A phone rings in the home of Megan Aitken in a suburb of
Brisbane, on the east coast of Australia. Aitken runs a volunteer organization
devoted to rescuing wild koalas. Before she is told the location, she has
already thrown her clothes over her pajamas, ready to head out.
B When Aitken arrives on the scene, two other volunteers—Jane Davies and
Sandra Peachey—are already there. They discover that the koala’s fur is
caught in the barbed wire.1 Nearby, they notice tall eucalyptus trees. “He
was obviously trying to get to the trees on the other side,” Aitken says.
C Aitken puts on heavy gloves. Despite their cute appearance, koalas can be
ferocious when resisting capture. If they feel threatened, they bite, and
Aitken has the scars to prove it. The volunteers get to work. Davies throws
a blanket over the animal, while Peachey opens the lid of a cage. Aitken
firmly grasps the koala through the blanket, frees it from the fence, and
drops it in the cage.
D Next, they check the animal’s physical condition. If the koala is sick
or injured, it may need to be taken to an animal hospital. If the koala is
healthy—like this one—it is normally released where it is found. Koalas
tend to live in a small area, and often eat from the same trees over and over.
E Right now, however, Aitken and the rescued koala are in a suburb with
almost no trees. “This is the whole problem,” Aitken says. “There are so
few places left for the koala.” In the end, Aitken takes the animal to a small
park nearby and releases him. “Good luck, little one,” she says.
Koalas at Risk
F “Koalas are getting caught in fences and dying,” explains Deidré de
Villiers, a koala researcher in Queensland, Australia. Others are being
killed by dogs or struck by vehicles, she says. Some even die “simply
because a homeowner cut down several eucalyptus trees in his backyard.”
G For 15 years, de Villiers has been studying koalas and the reasons for
their disappearance. She is also working on ways to make suburban areas
more koala-friendly. De Villiers believes that koalas and humans can live
together, if certain changes are made. She recommends reducing speed
limits on streets and creating more green areas for koalas to live in. Even
more important is the need to preserve eucalyptus trees.
1 Barbed wire has sharp pieces of metal attached to it; it is often used to make fences.
Unit 3A 41
H Even if these changes are made, koalas still have another problem. “Disease is a
huge issue,” explains veterinarian2 Jon Hanger. Hanger says that almost half of
Queensland’s female koalas are affected by a disease called chlamydiosis. Without
treatment, the koalas are unable to reproduce. “Koala populations that used to be
vibrant are becoming extinct,” says Hanger. Once, there were millions of koalas in
Australia; now, there are believed to be fewer than 80,000.
A Friend to Koalas
I At her home near Brisbane, Deidré de Villiers is taking care of a female koala named
Ruby. “Ruby still sleeps in the basket hugging her teddy bear,” she says. “She was
rescued from the jaws of a dog.” Every two days, de Villiers collects eucalyptus leaves,
the koala’s primary food, from a nearby farm to feed Ruby. For 12 years, she has
cared for more than 60 koalas.
2 A veterinarian is an animal doctor.
LO SING THE I R EUCALY P TU S
Over two centuries ago, about ten million koalas lived in forests on the
east coast of Australia. Eucalyptus leaves—their primary food source—
were plentiful. By the start of this century, nearly two-thirds of the forests
had been cleared, leaving fewer than 80,000 koalas left in the wild.
42 Unit 3A
J Later, de Villiers visits a forest near Brisbane to catch Tee Vee, a wild female koala. De
Villiers has been following Tee Vee for over a year. Using special audio equipment,
de Villiers walks and listens for a signal from the koala’s radio collar.3 She eventually
finds Tee Vee sitting on a tree branch 15 meters high. As de Villiers climbs up a
ladder, Tee Vee starts moving down the tree. Then, suddenly, the koala jumps into
the air and lands on the ground. She is quickly captured by de Villiers’s team.
K Tee Vee is given medicine to relax her. Next, de Villiers measures the length of the
koala’s body and head. She also checks Tee Vee’s teeth and the condition of her fur.
“I think she has a baby,” de Villiers says. She carefully opens the koala’s pouch and
takes out a 10-centimeter-long baby koala. De Villiers examines the baby for any
problems. Then she puts it back in the mother’s pouch. “As long as there are healthy
babies,” she says, “there’s still hope.”
3 A collar is something an animal wears around its neck.
The “little guys are part of
our family,” says Samantha
Longman, who is raising
four orphan koalas.
Unit 3A 43
VOCABULARY PRACTICE
COMPLETION A. Complete the information. Circle the correct words.
Large and flightless, the cassowary lives in the rain forests
of northern Australia. In recent years, human activity
has driven the cassowary nearly to 1reproduction /
extinction. They 2 tend to / grasp shy away from
people, but are seen occasionally in city 3 capture /
suburbs. There they get hit by cars and sometimes
attacked by dogs. The birds even fall into traps meant to
4
capture / signal wild pigs. But it is land development
that really 5 threatens / grasps cassowaries. Large areas
of forest in northern Queensland have been cut down, which
has had a devastating effect on their numbers. Roads carve up
the forest, so their 6 signal / primary habitat is no longer a
single area. This makes it hard for young cassowaries to find
their own territories. Local people have begun replanting
fields and linking rain forest sections so cassowaries don’t
have to cross roads.
At almost 60 kg,
DEFINITIONS B. Complete the sentences. Choose the correct words. the northern
cassowary is one
1. When you grasp something with your hand, you hold it . of the world’s
a. loosely b. tightly heaviest birds.
2. Your physical condition relates to your .
a. mind b. body
3. An example of a signal might be .
a. a deep thought b. a flashing light
4. Two animals that reproduce .
a. have a baby b. fight each other
COLLOCATIONS C. The nouns in the box are often used with physical. Add them to the correct
sentences. One word is extra.
appearance condition contact education exercise
1. The most distinctive aspect of a toucan’s is its huge orange beak.
2. Physical , such as walking, is important to keep fit and healthy.
3. After an oil spill, many seabirds are in poor physical .
4. As is the case with most wild animals, humans should avoid physical
with koalas.
46 Unit 3A