World News for Students of English

21-03-2023 07:00

Several alpacas have made a farm in West Wales their home, and they could be playing a very important role in Welsh sheep farming.

The Peruvian natives are being studied by scientists from Aberystwyth University. Keeping the alpacas next to the sheep isn’t just good for protecting the flock of 12 sheep by spotting predators like foxes, but it also has environmental benefits. Their eating habits are becoming beneficial for the land because they eat invasive species like purple moor grass, which leaves better quality grass for the sheep.

Scientists believe that controlling the animals’ eating habits can help restore come of Wales peatlands that are very important for capturing carbon. They don’t plan to replace the sheep with alpacas, they’re looking for ways how these animals can benefit from each other.

Difficult words: native (born or reared in a particular place), invasive (an organism that has arrived in a place from somewhere else and harms that place), peatland (an area of land that consists of a dark brown substance formed by dying plants).

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