World News for Students of English

17-03-2017 07:00

National Geographic Wild has introduced the first of a hyper-realistic animatronic leopard. The channel created the big cat to raise awareness about serious threats to the animal and to mark the beginning of the Big Cat Week on the channel. People saw the leopard on the streets of London and it scared them.

It took over two months to create the animatronic cat. The creator explained how the cat works. He also explained that on the street the cat will just be lying and doing almost nothing. It will just move its tail from one side to another. But when people go near, it will start to make noises and it will use facial expressions.

The main threat to leopards is the destruction of 90% of their natural environment. The big cats have no choice but to share their territory with man. This project hopes to raise awareness and put into practice strategies to reduce human and big cat conflicts.

Difficult words: animatronic (related to a machine that looks like an animal), raise awareness (give more information), threat (danger).

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