Animals in Danger!

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Animal Themes
Caring for Earth
Animal and Biomes Basics Theme Unit

Animals in Danger!

Animals in Danger!
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 9
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	9.97

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		abnormal, lasting, urgency, environment, arrival, species, billion, conservation, pigeon, seabirds, shortly, fate, dioxide, impressive, common, rhinoceros
	content words:		Indian Ocean, North America, Cincinnati Zoo

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Spanish: ，nimales en Peligro!

Animals in Danger!

¹     What do the following animals have in common? Pandas, rhinoceros, Mexican burrowing snakes, loggerhead turtles, Californian condors, pink pigeons, small tooth sawfish, and Siberian sturgeons.

²     They are all endangered animals!

³     Animals become endangered for a variety of reasons. Sadly, humans are behind every one of them! Here are the four reasons that many animals are in jeopardy:

Excessive hunting: For centuries, humans have hunted elephants for their impressive tusks, killed tigers for their beautiful furs, and scooped up sturgeons to make caviar. While we still have elephants, tigers, and sturgeons in the wild, we cannot say the same about many others that have simply become extinct!
Foreign species: Year 1505 was a dreadful turning point in the natural history of the island of Mauritius - European sailors discovered this beautiful island in the Indian Ocean and brought dogs, pigs, monkeys, and unintentionally, rats with them. The arrival of humans and those introduced animal species were bad news for dodo birds. About 50 pounds and flightless, dodo birds did not have any natural enemies until then. They picked fruits fallen from trees and built their nests on the ground. Shortly after humans set foot on Mauritius, however, dodo birds realized that they were in big trouble - men killed them for their meat, and those introduced animal species destroyed their nests and ate their eggs. The compounded effects of excessive hunting and foreign species drove dodo birds to first become rare and then extinct. The last dodo bird was killed in 1681.
Loss of habitats: Humans and animals have always competed for land and other natural resources. We clear an area of a forest for farming. We cut down trees and use lumbers to build beautiful houses. We construct dams and have reservoirs to ensure that we have enough water to use. At the same time that we are trying to make our life comfortable, we inadvertently destroy the habitats of wild animals.
Pollution: More than once we have seen on televisions that rescue workers are trying frantically to save seabirds soaked in spilled crude oil. More than once we have heard about how emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases have raised the Earth temperature and caused global warming. Pollution has a long lasting, and usually irreversible, effect. If we choose to do nothing and continue to pollute our planet Earth, our next generations will have to bear the consequences of abnormal weather and polluted environment.