World News for Students of English

19-01-2015 15:00

These rare frogs are usually found in Southeast Asia but have been bred at Chester Zoo for the first time, making it a European first.

The 43 cinnamon frogs are the only amphibians of their kind to hatch in any zoo in the world in nearly two years.

To encourage the frogs to breed, keepers recreated conditions to mimic the tropical forests of Borneo and Sumatra where the species come from.

Water-filled cavities in rotting logs are a habitat that was mirrored by zookeepers.

The frogs are also naturally found in ponds that tend to be sat among trees with lots of bark and fallen leaves in the water, so the pH is low due to a build-up of acid.

The zoo’s group of cinnamon frogs will move to a brand new exhibit when Islands, a new 30-million-pound development, opens later this year.

Islands, which will recreate habitats in the Philippines, Bali and Sumatra, is billed as the biggest and most ambitious expansion project in UK zoo history.

Difficult words: amphibian (an animal which can live both on land and in water), hatch (to come out of an egg), mimic (to copy something), species (animal kind), cavity (a hole/space), log (a piece of a tree), habitat (natural conditions), bark (the outer covering of a tree).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com