Part 4. You will hear part of a lecture about protecting an endangered bird called the New Zealand Fairy Tern. First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40. Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.
Good morning everyone, and welcome back to our series of lectures on endangered species. Today, a case study. I'll be talking about one particular species of endangered bird, the New Zealand Fairy Tern.
By describing the efforts that have been made to save the Fairy Tern, both the successes and failures, I hope we can learn lessons that might be valuable when it comes to protecting other endangered species. First, some background information. The Fairy Tern constructs its nest made of grasses and twigs on the beach, especially where there are a lot of seashells.
And this is because it can find more food there. The other place the bird sometimes nests is beside a river. Forty or fifty years ago, the Fairy Tern was still a common sight.
But sadly, this is no longer true. In the 20th century, some amateur bird watchers suggested that bird numbers were falling. But there was no scientific research into the problem until 1953, when the first study was completed.
This study confirmed what we already knew, which is that it is problematic to estimate bird numbers, especially in remote coastal areas. Some parts of the coastline are almost completely inaccessible. And elsewhere, it would be easy for the researchers to miss a nest.
A further study in 1984 reported that there were only three pairs left alive in the whole country. Scientists were so concerned that in 1987, the Fairy Tern was given the status of nationally critical, showing it was in immediate danger of extinction. So why is this bird in such danger? The most important reason is loss of habitat.
Unfortunately for the Fairy Tern, it lives in the very same place that so many of us humans enjoy. In the last few decades, vacation homes have been built along many parts of the coastline, so the Fairy Tern has steadily been pushed out. But this is not the only problem.
In recent years, more and more of the fertile coastal land has also been used for farming. And this has had a very negative effect on the Fairy Tern. Another problem is predators.
And the most common ones that eat Fairy Tern eggs are rats and cats, both of which, of course, were brought into New Zealand relatively recently. Finally, I must say, in the last few decades, they have been very unlucky with the weather. It only takes one bad storm, like the one in 1983, and the Fairy Tern nests can be damaged or destroyed.
I really don't want to get into a debate about global warming at this stage or other possible causes of this bad weather, but the point is that unusually severe weather, whatever the cause, has destroyed many Fairy Tern nests. Well, now, I want to move on and talk about some of the solutions we have tried since our campaign to save the Fairy Tern began in earnest in 1987. For example, today the few remaining nesting areas have a guard.
Sounds funny, doesn't it? They are usually employed to protect banks or art galleries, things like that. But we think the Fairy Tern is just as valuable in its own way. Another idea is simply to build a fence around the nests to protect them from dogs and even human beings.
It's cheap and easy, but, you know, often the simple ideas work best in conservation. So what have the results been? Have we been successful, and what further action could we take? The most recent studies suggest that we have stopped the fall in numbers, but there are no more birds alive today than in 1987. This might seem a disappointing result, but we should remember that successful conservation often consists of many small steps that together make a difference.
In the future, I'd like to see more breeding pairs kept in captivity, because attempting to guard and protect the nests in the wild can be difficult. Remember, all our workers are volunteers who are protecting hundreds of miles of beaches using radio to stay in contact, which takes an enormous amount of their time. This brings me to my final point.
I'd like to get many more people involved in our work. We need to do much more to raise awareness. And to do that, I think we could better utilize the media, more stories every breeding season, to educate people about the problem.
Well, that's the end of my formal talk. I'm happy to take questions now, or listen to any of your suggestions about... That is the end of Part 4. You now have 1 minute to check your answers to Part 4. That is the end of the listening test. You now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the listening answer sheet.