Badgers in Wales

Level: Upper intermediate / B2


Here is another item from Wildlife Extra. This is good site for environmental articles. You can sign up for free and get a weekly or monthly email with all the latest news.

This week there is an article about a badger cull in Wales. Read the article and answer these questions:

1 What is a cull?
2 What disease do the badgers have?
3 The RSPCA thinks there are better ways of dealing with the problem. What are they?
4 According to the ISG, how many badgers were killed over ten years?
5 How big is the cull area?

What do you think about culling the badgers? What other species do you know of that are culled? And for what reason?
Please let us know your thoughts.

Answers below!






ANSWERS!

1  Culling is the process of removing animals from a group based on specific criteria. This is done in order either to reinforce certain desirable characteristics or to remove certain undesirable characteristics from the group. For livestock and wildlife, the process of culling usually implies the killing of animals with undesirable characteristics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culling
2  Bovine TB (tuberculosis)
3  vaccination, increased levels of testing, improved biosecurity and stricter controls on cattle movement.
4  about 11,000
5  288km2