Ecology - Wildlife | Текст песни

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WILDLIFE
Can you believe that every ten minutes, one kind of animal, plant or insect dies out forever? If nothing is done about it, one million kinds of animals and birds that are alive today will disappear from the Earth in twenty years.
In the heart of Asia, northeast of the huge Himalayas, there is a region of high mountains and deep river valleys. The lower mountain sides are covered with forests of bamboo, up to five metres high. Bamboo is a kind of grass with thick, woody stems and long grass-like leaves, with edges as sharp as razors. The bamboo grows so thickly here that it is almost impossible to make your way through it. This is the home of the giant panda.
The giant panda is a large bear-like animal, and one of the rarest mammals in the world. Its sweet face with the black and white marks has been the symbol for the World Wildlife Fund since 1961. All efforts are now made to study the giant panda and protect it. Sadly, its future is uncertain.
Pandas eat flowers, grass and sometimes small animals. They are also very fond of honey. But bamboo is the giant panda’s main food. It pulls down the bamboo and breaks it as it stands on its back legs. It then sits down to eat. This animal, unlike other four-legged animals, does not lower its mouth to its food. Instead, it brings the bamboo up to its mouth like a man does it. A giant panda spends 10 hours a day, eating. And, to live, it must eat at least 20 kilos of bamboo every day. And this is the problem.
The bamboo has a very unusual lifecycle. It grows for almost 100 years, and then it falls down and dies. In ancient times, when large areas of bamboo forest covered a lot of China, the pandas could simply move from one forest to another. But now, many forests have been cut down and pandas have nowhere to go.
This happened in 1975-6 when 40 pandas died of starvation. Scientists think that there are only between 400 and 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild. So it is absolutely necessary to find ways of protecting this big, gentle and very beautiful animal.
Fortunately, somebody is trying to do something about it. In 1961 the World Wildlife Fund was founded. At first it was a small group of people who wanted to raise money to save animals and plants from extinction. Today, the World Wildlife Fund is a large international organization. It has collected over 35 million, and they give support to national parks on 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 give money, and if more governments help as well, perhaps the World Wildlife Fund will be able to protect the nature from the threat of great pollution and wildlife from extinction.

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