ESO 1

DOSSIER: EXTINCT ANIMALS

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE

In pairs discuss: which of these animals are extinct? Which

ones are in danger of extinction? Classify the animals in the
grid below.

Useful expressions: I think…… is extinct / I am sure…… / I am

not sure……..

Dodo Dinosaurs Asian Elephant

Blue Whale

Asian Lion Cheetah Dolphin Giant

Panda

Orangutan Gorilla Polar Bear

Iberian Ibex

EXTINCT ENDANGERED

1.WATCH AND LISTEN TO THE VIDEO ABOUT ANIMALS IN

DANGER OF EXTINCTION

www.youtube.com/watch?v=asw-tkjqQqE

Complete the sentences:

There are fewer than………………. Gorillas left in the world

In the last 100 years…………………… per cent of the Orangutan population

has disappeared

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There are between 20,000 and …………….. Polar Bears in the Arctic

There are only ……………………… Giant Pandas in the world today

There are only ………………………… Asian elephants

EXTINCT ANIMALS

1.Here is a text about the DODO. Complete it by finding the

information in the webpages suggested:

http://www.birds.mu/Extinct/Dodo.htm

http://www.davidreilly.com/dodo/

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/expeditions/treasure_fossil/T
reasures/Dodo/dodo.html?dinos

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/informat
ion/Raphus_cucullatus.html

COMPLETE THIS TEXT ABOUT THE DODO

The dodo was a bird that lived in the island of ……

…………………. It was first seen around ……………………….. and in
80 years it was extinct. There are no complete dodo
specimens so we don’t know exactly what they looked like.

This skeleton of a dodo is in the American

Museum of Natural History. We can see that the dodos had 2

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heavy ……………………….. but could not fly. It weighed ……………
………….. kilos and was probably ……………………….. in colour. It
had a big, curved beak. Its legs were ……………………….. and
yellow. The dodo wasn’t aggressive, and it had no predators.

Sailors who arrived in the island ate them. But the most
important cause of the extinction of dodos was the
destruction of the forest and the animals that the sailors
brought to the island (rats, cats and ………………………..) which
destroyed the dodo’s nests.

A. Where is Mauritius? Find it in the Internet. Useful web

pages:

www.wikipedia.com www.nationalgeographic.com
www.lonelyplanet.com

www.yahoo.com

B. Find the meaning of the underlined words and translate

them into your mother tongue:

Nest

Sailor

Specimen

Beak

Predators

C. In the text about the Dodo, find the sentences that:

a. Describe the Dodo:

b. Say where it lived:

c. Say when it became extinct:

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 d. Explain the causes of extinction:

BECOME AN EXPERT ON AN EXTINCT ANIMAL!

Find an extinct animal and write a similar text about it. It

must include:

• Description (size, color….)

• Habitat

• Causes of extinction

 Write a description of your extinct animal and post it to

your blog. Add pictures.

 Check 3 posts of 3 different classmates and write a

comment to their blogpost.

WEBPAGES ABOUT EXTINCT ANIMALS

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/coloring/extinct.shtml

http://www.50birds.com/extan/gextanimals1.htm

http://extinctanimals.petermaas.nl/

http://www.extinctanimal.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinct_animals