Module 9 Animals in dangerUnit 2 The government is working hard to save the panda.

Hello, boys and girls!

My name is Pingping.

Nice to meet you!

Hi~ My name is Binbin. We are pandas. Do you know anything about

us pandas?

Where do we live? What do we eat ? How big is our family now ?

Do you know…?

We live in Sichuan, China!

•Wolong Panda Reserve四川省卧龙自然保护区位于四川省汶川县西南部，距成都约 100

公里。保护区总面积为 20万公顷。卧龙自然保护区建于 1963 年，以“大熊猫之乡”、“野生动植物

乐园”而闻名于世，区内拥有野生大熊猫 100 多只，约占全国野生大熊猫的十分之一。同时，卧龙保护区还拥有世界上最大的大熊猫饲养种群，现有圈养大熊猫约 100 只。卧龙是大熊猫生存和繁衍后代理想的地区，这里地势较高，气候湿润，十分适宜大熊猫的主要食物——箭竹和桦桔竹的生长。

卧龙是国家重点自然保护区，被列为联合国国际生物圈保护区，这里还建立了中国保护大熊猫研究中心。

That’s right! Bamboo is our favourite!

• There are many kinds of bamboo in China. Giant pandas mostly eat 10 different kinds, but they can eat 40 different kinds.

• Today, there are only 1596 pandas in the China and a few more in other countries.

An animal in danger

• The panda is one of the animals most in danger. There are about 1,000 pandas living in nature reserves today. Zoos and research centres look after about 160 pandas. Scientists are studying how they live and more baby pandas are born in the zoos.

The panda's home

• Pandas live in the forests and mountains of Southeast China. They mainly live on bamboo, and each panda needs to eat a lot of bamboo every day. The area of bamboo is becoming smaller for many different reasons, so pandas have less and less land to live on. Pandas don't have many babies, and baby pandas often die. The situation is becoming very serious.

Help for pandas

• Our government is working hard to save pandas. There are more than 30 nature reserves to protect pandas but these are not enough. The government has made a new plan to help pandas. The nature reserves will be bigger and the bamboo will grow better. Then the pandas will have enough food to eat and enough places to live in. Pandas born in the zoos may go back to live in the nature reserves.

Pandas help other animals

• Most people love pandas. The panda is one of the best-known animals in the world. It is the symbol for the World Wide Fund for Nature. The WWF works to protect all animals in danger, so the panda has become the symbol of all animals in danger. There is still a long way to go to save the panda. Think of other animals in danger such as tigers, whales, turtles and elephants — we need to save the panda, and we need to save them, too.

Act 3 Match the beginning with the endings