Giant Panda: Habitat and Conservation Insights
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Paola ReyesGiant Panda: Habitat and Conservation Insights
Uploaded by
Paola ReyesB1 The Giant Panda LIU016
Choose the correct word or phrase for each blank.
The giant panda is a bear that lives in central
China. It is special because of its black and
white fur. Pandas belong to the most
(1) ____________________ species of our world.
About 2000 pandas live in the wilderness
and 300 live in (2) __________________ zoos
around the world.
Recently, there have been (3) _______________
in many countries to save the giant panda.
The animal has been driven away from its
natural habitat because of deforestation, intensive farming and the creation of new
(4) ____________________.
The giant panda can reach a height of up to 1.5 metres and weigh up to 150 kg. Pandas
have bodies like bears, but scientists do not know why they grow a thick black and white
(5) ____________________. It keeps them warm during the cold winter months and the white
colour protects them from possible enemies in the snow-covered mountains in which they
live. Pandas have large teeth, which they need to eat bamboo, their (6) ____________________
food. Because it is low in nutritional value it does not give pandas much energy to move
around for longer periods of time.
Giant pandas can live up to 20 years in the wilderness and 30 years in zoos. They start
(7) ____________________ between 4 and 8 years of age. When panda cubs are born, they are
very tiny, only about a thousandth the size of the mother, and blind. Like all mammals, they
get their food from their mother, whom they stay with for up to three years before being
able to (8) ____________________ alone.
Pandas have been an important (9) ____________________ throughout history. They first
became known in the western world during the middle of the 19th century. In the 1960s,
the Chinese government (10) ____________________ it had to do something to protect the
giant pandas from becoming (11) ____________________. Since then they have set up 40
reserves in which the animals are protected.
In the 1970s, pandas played a role in the opening of Communist China to the west. They
were sold to zoos in other countries. Today, about 45 pandas live in zoos outside China.
Zoologists are putting millions of dollars into (12) ____________________ the animals in
captivity. When they get older, they are released again into their natural habitat.
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1 dangered danger endangered dangerous
2 various range often fewer
3 elections campaigns operations battles
4 settlements settle settlers settling
5 wool hair skin fur
6 basic important first major
7 copying producing reproducing repeating
8 last outlive continue survive
9 nature species kind sort
10 moved realized gathered achieved
11 extinct dead vanished disappeared
12 making keeping breeding creating
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