A ring-tailed lemur with a baby in Madagascar
Saving Lemurs Read the following conversation. Pay special attention to the words in bold. A: What are you watching? B: I’m watching a video about baby lemurs. Scientists are raising about 240 lemurs at Duke University in North Carolina. They’re breeding1 them there. A: W hy are they doing that? Why aren’t the lemurs living in the wild2? B: L emurs are the most endangered3 mammals4 on the planet. Scientists are trying to increase the lemur population. Lemurs are disappearing from their native Madagascar. Some species only have a few hundred individuals. A: Aren’t all lemurs from the same species? B: N o. There are about 100 species. In this video, scientists are working at Duke University. Other scientists are working with the people of Madagascar. They’re teaching the local people how to protect the lemur population. Lemurs are close relatives of humans.
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A: R eally? Oh look! They’re so cute. They’re looking at the scientists. Those babies are playing. That one’s climbing a tree. Oh, and that baby’s jumping onto its mother. It looks like the scientists are enjoying their job. B: Shh! I want to hear this part. [Video] “ We’re weighing the babies. We want to make sure they’re gaining weight. If they’re gaining weight, they’re healthy. Some babies aren’t gaining weight. That means they’re not healthy." A: I think those scientists are doing a wonderful thing. B: I agree. It costs over $8,400 a year to care for a lemur. I’m thinking of sending money to help the Duke Lemur Center. 1 2 3 4
to breed: to help animals produce babies the wild: a natural area where animals live endangered: at risk of disappearing mammal: a warm-blooded animal; the female gives her babies milk
Unit 5 Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203 Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
