Many of the Earth's creatures die because of humans' choices. These choices have nothing to do with food or shelter or anything else that helps humans survive. What kills millions of animals all over the world is that humans want to make money by doing so.
People use parts of animals for everything from hats to handbags, from jewelry to ashtrays(烟灰缸) and to make powders that supposedly improve a person's life. Deciding that a species is endangered and protecting it by law are not always enough. People who kill wildlife illegally rarely get caught.
During the late 1980s, saving elephants became a popular cause. Wildlife protection groups made sure everyone saw pictures or films of elephants with their faces cut off for their ivory. These groups also proved that certain populations of elephants were decreasing. As a result, most people stopped buying objects made of ivory. Laws against poaching (偷猎) were made stronger. Many countries made importing ivory illegal. Killing elephants for their ivory became more risky and less profitable.
However, concern for certain species will become weak after a while. In the late 1970s, people protested against the killing of seal babies. Everyone was shocked to see young seals being killed in their icy habitat. The cruel activity stopped. But ten years later, the number of killed seal babies was higher than ever.
Other animal protection movements have come and gone, such as saving the whales and protecting dolphins. The whale population appears to have increased for now. And the laws are finally changed in America to protect the dolphins that swim with tuna fish in parts of the Pacific Ocean.
In the years to come, people's attention will probably turn to some other endangered species. Plenty of them urgently need attention.During this time, will the elephants be forgotten?
Snow leopards (豹) are so hard to photograph that scientists aren't even sure how many of these endangered animals still live in the wild.
The Snow Leopard Conservancy(SLC) set up 20 cameras in Russia in 2010 to learn more about the big cat. After a full six months, they had exactly zero picture! That's when the organization understood they needed help. And the only people who could help them in finding the leopards were the very people from whom they wanted to protect the animals—local hunters.
Hunting snow leopards is against the law in Russia, but in the terrible climate of Siberia, the few people living there had to turn to poaching (偷猎) to feed their families.
In 2013, Russian naturalist Sergei Spitsyn approached Mergen Markov, a local hunter, and told him his project. Markov agreed to set up the camera where he knew he would find leopards, and it worked.
Markov, once a poacher, works full time for the conservationists now and has 10 cameras monitoring leopards. "I visit each camera once a month. I have known this whole region since I was a child," he said proudly.
The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) began working with other local villagers in 2015. The village would be paid 40,000 rubles(卢布)at the end of the year if the image of a snow leopard is caught. The WWF also rents horses from the villagers so that they do not need to make money by poaching anymore. "Today there are far fewer leopard poachers but leopards still get caught in traps set for other animals, so I have to stay watchful," said Markov.
Changing guns for cameras has made a big difference in the lives of these former poachers, the village, and the Russian snow leopards. The number of snow leopards has been rising and their population is expected to recover to normal levels within 10 years.
Help Hermit Crabs(寄居蟹)
Hermit crabs are nature's recyclers. They eat waste and help keep the ocean and shores clean. Unlike other crabs,the hermit crab has a thin outer shell over its soft tail. This makes the hermit crab easy prey for hungry attackers. Hermit crabs stay safe by living in old seashells. A hermit crab is picky(挑剔的);it tries on many shells until it finds one that fits just right. In recent years,however,many hermit crabs have had trouble finding their perfect homes. What is the problem?There are not enough shells to go around!
One reason for the seashell shortage is that ocean water is not as clean as it once was. This has caused chemical changes to sea water. Some sea animals,like snails,are affected by these changes. Now there are fewer snails making shells. People visiting the beach often take shells home as souvenirs(纪念品). This is another problem. Other people even hunt and take shells for their own pet hermit crabs! They do not realize that hermit crabs in the wild need those shells, too.
Now people are aware of that and working to solve this hermit crab housing shortage. They are teaching beach-Boers to leave seashells where they belong—at the seashore! Some people even make fake seashells that they hope the hermit crab will like. For example,a group called Project Shelter invited people who visited their website to create different designs for hermit crab shells.
These designers had a lot to consider. What kind of material should be used to build seashells?The material must be light enough for the hermit crab to carry,but strong enough to protect the crab from attackers. The man-made shells could not contain glue or any other substance(物质) that might harm the hermit crab. Another challenge of building a hermit crab home was the opening of the shell. Too big would mean the crab would not feel safe. Too small would be uncomfortable,and the crab would not want to move in.
The Project Shelter shells are placed in the wild for hermit crabs to find. Lucky hermit crabs can move into these new dream homes.
New Year was just around the corner. I was in second grade then, 7 years old. One day, on my way home from school, a lady gave me a piece of paper saying that the neighborhood was asking people to give New Year presents to those who needed them. When I got home, I showed my mother the paper and said that I wanted to take part in this plan. My mother thought this was a very good idea and encouraged me to offer kindness to others less fortunate than us. She said we would become "Neighborhood Angels (天使)".
Several days later, my mother said, "Get ready, and we will go." "Where are we going?" I asked my mother. "I will drive you to Boots Department Store to buy something you think would be suitable for a neighborhood present," she replied. As we went into the store, my mother gave me $20 to pay for the present. Then she said, "I'll see you outside in the car." She left me alone to do the shopping. I was not used to buying things on my own, as I had always been with one of my parents before. Everything seemed very strange and confusing to me, but I carried on. I asked myself what I should buy and for whom. An idea quickly occurred to me. There was a poor boy called Ralph who lived in our neighborhood. I used to see him often without a jacket during the freezing winter months, so I decided, then and there, to buy him a warm jacket.
I looked at many jackets and eventually chose a heavy blue one. The price was just within my spending limit. The assistant at the checkout asked, "Is this for someone?", as I paid for the jacket happily. I said it was, and she wished me a Happy New Year. I felt as if I were a real "Neighborhood Angel".
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That evening, my mother helped me pack the jacket in beautiful paper.
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My mother and I waited breathlessly for Ralph's front door to open and finally it opened.
Some of the greatest problems we face today are connected with the gradual destruction of our environment. Brown clouds, wildlife extinction, 1 water.These 2 all seem so huge.So my family do what we can. We take cloth bags to stores instead of using plastic bags. We walk where we don't have to 3 . But does it do any good?
I recently learned something about flamingos(火烈鸟). These beautiful birds gather in 4 groups of a thousand or more. Every year, when the time 5 for migration,a few flamingos start the process by taking off from the lake. But none of the others seem to notice, 6 the tiny group returns.
However, the next day they 7 again. This time a few more struggle along with them, but the vast majority still 8 no attention, so these pioneers come back.
Then one day something 9 . The same small group of birds takes wing and a tiny number more join, just as before. And this time their total number, though still quite10 ,is enough to tip the balance (起决定性作用). 11 one, the whole group takes flight and the migration 12 . What a(n) 13 sight it must be—thousands of flamingos flying to the sky at once!
A few can make a14 . It's true that all of the great problems of the world have been solved due to the15 efforts of a few.
China has made great improvements in environmental protection during the past 70 years. Each species on Earth has a role to play in the ecosystem.
In recent decades,a series of wildlife-protection movements have been carried out by the central government.The giant panda and the crested ibis(朱鹮) are among these successful stories.
The giant panda used to have a population of 1,114 in the 1970s. It now totals 1,864 thanks to 52 protection areas.By the end of last year, seven of the nine pandas released had survived in the wild. In 1981,only seven crested ibises were found in Yangxian County,Shaanxi Province.Since then,breeding programs have helped the population reach 2,000. China has even sent crested ibises to Japan and South Korea in recent years to help with the species' survival.
Key projects will be continually carried out to improve protection,including making the lists of wild animals and plants under State protection,and also fighting against illegal wildlife trade, which includes ivory(象牙).
A.Another species was once thought to be extinct.
B.Protecting wildlife is, without doubt, an important part.
C.China will continue its efforts of the wildlife protection.
D.People call for immediate protection of the remaining species.
E.Scientists have worked to feed pandas and then release them into the wild.
F.As environmental damage has increased, signs of change have appeared around the world.
G.Several species in danger of extinction have made impressive progress thanks to the methods.
About a hundred and thirty years ago, people at Waikanae, north of Wellington, saw great mass of strange birds. They were little green birdsa white ring of feathers round their eyes. Scientists soon made out that these birds (cross) the Tasman Sea by very strong winds before their arrival.
In the past, the Maoris called the new bird "tauhou",(they) word for "stranger". Today they are also known wax-eyes, white-eyes, or silver-eyes. Because they can eat all sorts of food and live in many (difference) kinds of places, wax-eyes have increased in number. Now they are found all over New Zealand—along coasts, on (island) , in bushes, on farms and in city gardens. There are (probable) more wax-eyes in New Zealand than any other kind of birds.
Usually, you see them in groups (move) very quickly through bushes and trees. Most of the time they eat as they walk along, making a high twittering noise,may help them to recognize each other and keep the group together.
Finding fish is going to get harder as climate change continues to heat the world's oceans. A new study finds that warming seas over the past 80 years have reduced the sustainable catch of 80 species of fish and shellfish. The sustainable catch refers to the amount of some species that can be harvested without doing long-term damage to the health of populations.
Overfishing has made that decline worse, researchers say. Overfishing refers to catching so many fish that the size of the population falls. In some parts of the world, such as the heavily fished Sea of Japan, the decrease is as high as 35 percent. That's a loss of more than one in every three fish.
Researchers examined changes in 235 populations of fish and shellfish between 1930 and 2010. Those fish populations spread far apart across 38 ocean regions. Temperature changes varied from one ocean site to another. But on average over that time, Earth's sea-surface temperatures have risen by about half a degree Celsius.
On average, that warming had caused the sustainable catch to drop by 4.1 percent, the study found. About 8 percent of the fish and shellfish populations the team studied saw losses as a result of the ocean warming. However, about 4 percent of some populations increased. That's because certain species have thrived in warmer waters. One example is a kind of black sea fish. It lives along the northeastern U.S. coast. As warming continues, these fish will reproduce faster until they reach their limit.
About 3.2 billion people worldwide rely on seafood as a source of food. That means it's urgent for commercial fishing fleets(捕鱼船队) and regulators(监管机构) to consider how climate change is affecting the health of all of those fish in the sea.
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