Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

My name is Ms. Panchal, and I'm really glad you've decided to join me on this science lesson.

So our lesson today is going to be focusing on protecting animals whose numbers are in decline, which means there are animals, the number of those animals are actually decreasing.

And this lesson is part of our bigger unit of learning on living things in the environment.

So we're going to be looking at lots of different examples of animals that are in danger and that their numbers are slowly declining.

We've got lots of learning to do today, so let's get started.

So the outcome for our lesson today is I can name some animals in decline in the UK and describe ways to protect them.

So we're going to be learning about the different animals that are in decline in the UK, but we're also going to be focusing on ways that we can protect them as well.

So here are some keywords that we are going to use in our lesson today.

So we've got habitat, decline, wildlife, and protect.

So what I'd like you to do is pause the video here and I'd like you to work with your talk partner to read out the definition and its keyword out loud to each other.

Once you've done that, I want you to click play and we'll start the lesson.

Off you go.

Great reading, everybody.

Well done.

So our lesson today is split up into two parts.

The first part of our lesson is we're going to be looking at animals in decline in the UK and then we're going to be thinking about how we can protect those animals.

So let's get on with the first part of the lesson.

So Jun and Izzy have been reading a wildlife magazine called "Animals in decline in the UK." Jun says, "I thought it was only animals in other countries like Kenya that were endangered or in decline.

I didn't realise some UK animals were in decline too." Izzy says, "I wonder what changes are happening to their habitats and how this is causing animal numbers to decline." So do you know any UK animals which are in decline? So pause the video here and maybe you can jot down some of your ideas on a whiteboard or a Post-it note.

Do you know any animals in the UK which are in decline, which mean their numbers are decreasing and the amounts of those different animals are decreasing? Do you know? Great ideas, everybody, well done.

So in the UK, the numbers of some animals are declining.

That means they're decreasing due to changes in their environment, including habitat loss.

Some animals are becoming so rare they are in decline and at risk of dying out completely.

These are called endangered animals.

So numbers of red squirrels in the UK are endangered and with only about 140,000 left.

Now, I know this might seem quite a large number, but actually, before, it was around 3.

5 million.

So there's been a huge decline in the number of red squirrels in the UK.

So we have identified and we've learned that the number of squirrels, red squirrels in the UK has drastically dropped.

So do we know what is happening to the habitat of the red squirrel? Pause the video and have a discussion with your talk partner.

Brilliant work, everyone.

So the forest habitats of many red squirrels are being destroyed as trees are cut down through deforestation.

Now, unfortunately, we know there's a lot of deforestation that's happening on our planet, but as a result of that, what's happening is that the habitats of many other animals are being destroyed, and one of those animals is the red squirrels'.

Let's do a check of our learning.

Which of these changes in the environment could lead to animals in decline? a, fewer people, b, fewer cars, c, less habitat, or d, less noise? What do we think is the correct answer? Brilliant.

So less habitat is the correct answer.

So the question, which of these changes in their environment could lead to animals in decline, and that is less of their habitat 'cause they don't have somewhere to live, they're going to end up dying out.

Another reason for the declining numbers of red squirrels is that larger grey squirrels often take their food, so they don't always have enough to eat.

So it's almost like the grey squirrels and the red squirrels are a little bit in competition.

But because the grey squirrels are much larger, they often take the red squirrels' food.

And if the red squirrels are not eating enough, that means they're not going to be able to survive.

Grey squirrels also spread a disease called squirrel pox, which red squirrels cannot survive.

This means there are fewer healthy red squirrels to reproduce, so fewer baby red squirrels are born.

So this all impacts the numbers of red squirrels that are around, which means the numbers of red squirrels are declining quite drastically.

Jun says, "We used to have a hedgehog family that we fed in our back garden, but I haven't seen them since our neighbours put up a new fence." Izzy says, "I wonder if the fence has been the reason for them not visiting your garden." What do you think happens when an animal cannot move around freely in its habitat? So pause the video here and have a think about Jun and Izzy's conversation here.

Jun has spoken about the fact they used to have a hedgehog family in their garden, but actually, since a new fence has been been put in, they're not there anymore.

So why do you think this has happened? Well done, everybody, super ideas.

Now we can know and we can see here that the hedgehog environment has completely changed.

The habitat they were living in is now very different, has been split up by the fence.

So as their habitat is not what it used to be, they're not able to move around as freely.

So hedgehogs in the UK are in decline, which means their numbers are decreasing as well.

In the 1950s, there were around 30 million hedgehogs, but now, only about 1 million remain.

So the amount of hedgehogs has massively decreased over time.

Human impact, like building towns and cities, means hedgehogs' habitats have become smaller, divided by garden fences and roads.

We see garden fences here.

This means there are fewer places for them to find food and shelter and many are killed when they're trying to cross roads.

So unfortunately, there is a huge decline in the number of hedgehogs, and this is for a number of different reasons and all because of the human impact.

Other UK animals like the natterjack toads are endangered mainly due to habitat loss and changes in their breeding sites.

So we've got an image here of the natterjack toad.

Do you know where natterjack toads like to live? Pause the video here and have a think with your talk partner.

Look at the surrounding image of the natterjack toad.

Where do you think it likes to live? Brilliant.

So actually, their natural habitats, like sandy heathlands and wetlands, are being destroyed or altered by land development and farming.

So unfortunately, their natural habitat is being changed, altered, and destroyed for human benefit.

So these natterjack toads do not have much of their natural habitat left.

And due to their habitat loss and changes in their breeding sites, the number of these toads are decreasing.

Let's do a check of our learning.

True or false? The numbers of many types of animals living in the UK are in decline.

Do we think that's true or false? Brilliant.

We know the answer is true.

Can you tell me why it is true? Brilliant.

So we know that habitat loss has caused the numbers of many types of animals living in the UK to decline.

Let's move on.

Jun says, "As our cities getting bigger and the human population increases, we may continue to destroy more of the habitats these animals use for shelter to find food and raise their young." Izzy says, "Lots of UK wildlife is nocturnal, so I wonder if light and noise pollution from big towns and cities affects these animals." But my question to you now is, do you know what nocturnal means? Have a think with your talk partner, then share your ideas with the rest of the group.

What does nocturnal mean? Brilliant, well done.

So nocturnal animals are animals that sleep during the daytime and they are more active and awake during the nighttime.

So Izzy is saying here that, actually, lots of the UK wildlife are animals that are nocturnal who are awake in the nighttime, so she's wondering here if noise and light pollution from the big cities and towns are affecting these animals.

So light pollution can make it hard for nocturnal animals like greater mouse-eared bats to find food because their prey, such as insects, are more active when it is dark.

So we've got an image of light pollution here.

If you're looking at a city from far away, you've got lots of street lights, you've got restaurant lights, you've got lights on in people's homes, and here we've got an image of the greater mouse-eared bat.

Bats use sound to navigate and hunt.

So noise pollution makes it difficult for them to do these things effectively.

The greater mouse-eared bat is endangered.

The bats rely on old, undisturbed buildings and natural caves for roosting.

And here we've got the bats roosting.

Many older buildings, which provide essential roosting sites for bats, are being demolished to make way for newer, smaller buildings that lack suitable roof spaces.

So when it talks about buildings being demolished, that means they're being knocked down, making space for other new buildings.

Without suitable places to roost, these bats struggle to find safe places to rest and raise their young.

So let's talk a little bit about what this slide is saying.

So the bats need this specific space in order to have their roosting space and the natural caves and undisturbed buildings.

But unfortunately, what's happening to these undisturbed buildings, they're being knocked down to make space for newer and smaller buildings.

But in these newer buildings, they do not have the same roof spaces, which means the bats do not have their suitable places for roosting.

Jun says, "My wildlife magazine said that pesticides, used by some farmers to kill insects that eat their crops, can cause a decline in numbers of animals in the UK." Do you know why? So pause the video here and have a little think about what Jun is saying.

Do you agree with him? Excellent, everyone, well done.

"Pesticides can poison wildlife that eat or come into contact with them.

If insects get poisoned, the bats that eat those insects might also get sick.

And pesticides can also make the water and soil unhealthy too, which can harm the animals that depend on them." So pesticides can have quite a negative impact on the wildlife and the living things around them.

Let's do a check of our learning.

Which of these animals are in decline or endangered in the UK? So we've got a red squirrel, grey squirrel, sheep, greater mouse-eared bat, American mink, natterjack toad, hedgehog, and cow.

So think back to the learning we've done in the lesson today.

Which of these animals are in decline or endangered in the UK? Brilliant.

So we've got a few different examples here.

We've got the red squirrel, the greater mouse-eared bat, the natterjack toad and the hedgehog.

So let's go onto the first task.

So what I'd like you to do is play the animals-in-decline matching game.

So shuffle and place the cards into two separate piles.

One pile should contain animal cards and the other pile should contain explanations of decline cards.

Turn the top card from each pile over.

If they match, you can keep the cards.

If they don't match, put the cards back to the bottom of the relevant piles.

After the cards have been turned over once, shuffle each pile separately and repeat until all the remaining cards match.

So pause the video here and have a go at playing the animals-in-decline matching game.

We'll go through some example matches in a few moments.

Off you go.

Brilliant work, everybody, well done.

I can see you've worked really hard at playing this game, but actually, you really enjoyed it as well.

Super job.

So let's go through some examples.

So these are some of the cards you may have matched.

So you may have matched the red squirrel to squirrel pox from grey squirrels.

You may have matched the hedgehog to the habitat loss from fences.

You may have matched the bat to loss of older buildings for roosting and the toad would've matched to polluted ponds.

Do you get those matches? Well done for having a good go, everyone.

So then, I'd like you to carry out your own research to find out if there are any animals in decline or endangered where you live.

Try to find out the name of the animal and what has caused its numbers to decline in recent years.

So you may like to present your work as a poster, or you may want to do it on the computer as a presentation, or you might like to record yourself talking about the research that you have done.

So pause the video here, have a go at this task, and I'm really looking forward to hearing about your research.

Off you go.

Brilliant work, everybody, well done.

I can see you've worked really hard to do some really detailed research there.

So for example, you may have, in my area the number of curlews is in decline.

Curlews needs special places like wetlands and grasslands to live and lay their eggs.

But people are building houses, farms, and roads, so they don't have as many places to go.

Farmers are using more machines and sprays on their farms, which can destroy the curlews' homes and eat animals they eat.

This makes it harder for the curlews to find food and a safe place to raise their offspring.

So did you do an example similar to this or did you find a different example? Well done for having a good go at this task, everybody.

So we focused a lot on animals in decline in the UK, and so we're now going to think about what we can do to protect the animals that are in decline in the UK.

So Jun says, "I didn't know that the numbers of some animals in the UK were in decline.

What can we do to protect them?" Izzy says, "My uncle works for a wildlife charity and we can ask him what we can do to help." Do you have any ideas? So pause the video here, and I'd like you to write down some of your ideas on a whiteboard.

What do you think we could do to help protect these animals? Brilliant ideas, everyone.

Well done, and keep hold of those.

So Izzy's uncle says, "To help the red squirrel, we need to protect them by removing the grey squirrels from their habitats.

But how could we do this? So special traps are used to capture grey squirrels, which are then moved to a different habitat.

This helps protect red squirrels from the squirrel pox virus and ensures more food is available.

So actually separating the red squirrels and the grey squirrels will actually benefit both types of squirrels.

In addition to that, Izzy's uncle says, "To protect hedgehogs, we can help by creating wildlife corridors, which will mean they have a larger habitat to search for food and shelter." We can see an example here of a wildlife corridor.

So a wildlife corridor links small land areas like gardens, allowing animals to move safely between them using bridges, tunnels, tree planting, or fence gaps.

Because, unfortunately, we know that a lot of hedgehogs get killed on roads.

So we can see here that those corridors there allow the hedgehogs to move freely between those different places.

In addition to that, Izzy's uncle has suggested that we can protect natterjack toads by creating new breeding ponds and reducing water pollution of their existing ponds.

So we can see a shallow clean pond here and this fantastic environment for these toads.

We can also control the numbers of other animals that are their predators or compete with them for food and space.

Let's do a check of our learning.

Which of these actions would help protect some UK wildlife? a, removing animals that compete with them for food and space, b, building more roads so that more cars can use them, c, creating wildlife corridors to provide more places for animals to find shelter, and d, removing trees and green spaces to build more homes for people.

So which of these actions would help protect some UK wildlife? Brilliant ideas, everybody, well done.

So we know that removing animals that compete with them for food and space would be an action to help protect the wildlife, but also creating the wildlife corridors to provide more spaces for animals to find shelter, but also to avoid them coming into contact with any humans.

And for example, the hedgehogs being run over when on the roads, when they're trying to cross them.

Let's move on.

Izzy's uncle says, "When wildlife face food shortages due to habitat loss, we can help by providing the right food for animals in decline." Different animals have specific diets, so we must avoid feeding them harmful food.

Wildlife charities like the RSPB and Mammal Society offer fact sheets on safe, suitable food for various animals.

Let's do a check of our learning.

True or false, we don't need to feed wildlife, as there is always lots of food in their habitats for them to eat.

Do we think that's true or false? Brilliant.

We know that it's false, but can you tell me why? Great, so we know that an animal's habitat can be negatively affected, causing there to be less food available.

We can help protect them by providing food that would normally be part of their diet.

Great job, everyone, well done.

Let's move on.

Izzy's uncle says, "Habitat loss leaves wildlife with fewer places to live.

We can help by creating protected areas like wildlife reserves to protect their habitats." What could you do to help? So we can also help by creating shelters like hedgehog houses, bat boxes, and bird boxes for them to hibernate, roost and nesting.

So, as humans, we can actually help animals in this way and create spaces for those animals to use.

Jun says, "I've learned that everyone can help protect wildlife from dangers by getting involved and educating other people about the changes we can make." What could you do to help? Izzy said, "We can ask our MPs, who are the members of parliament who work with the government, to fight for animals by creating laws to protect their habitats.

We can also join environmental groups to protect local animals in decline." Let's do a check of our learning.

Which of these could provide suitable shelter to help protect animals in decline? a, a hedgehog house, b, a motorway, c, bat boxes.

So which of these could provide suitable shelter to help protect animals in decline? Brilliant.

So a hedgehog house and a bat box would be perfect to provide shelter and protection for the hedgehogs and the bats because it's giving them a space.

Let's move on to the next task.

So I would like you to choose one of the animals in decline and identify what humans can do to help protect them.

So you could choose the red squirrel, the natterjack toad, the greater mouse-eared bat, or the hedgehog.

So choose one of these animals and identify what humans can do to help protect them.

You can write a paragraph, you can record yourself explaining, or you can maybe even do a poster.

Completely up to you.

Click pause here, have a go at the task and we'll go through an example answer really soon.

Brilliant work, everybody, well done.

So you may have chosen some of these actions.

You could have said, "I'm going to ask the adults I live with if we can put up a bat box to provide a place for bats to roost." Another example may have been a local wildlife group could help to safely trap grey squirrels to protect the red squirrels that live in their local forest.

Another example may be, "I'm going to ask my neighbour if we can make a hole in our joint fence to allow hedgehogs to have a bigger habitat to access more food and shelter." Did you get similar actions to these or did you have some different ideas? Well done for having a good go, everybody.

Another example might be schools could create a shallow pond and keep it clean and free from predators to help protect the local natterjack toads in their area.

In addition to this, another example might be for people of all ages that should write to their local MP and find out what they're doing to protect the wildlife in their area of the UK.

So we can see here there's lots of different things that we can do as humans to help protect the animals in decline.

Now we've come towards the end of our lesson, so let's do a summary of our learning.

Animals are often in decline due to changes in the environment, including habitat loss.

The numbers of many types of animals living in the UK are in decline, and some animals in decline in the UK include, red squirrels, hedgehogs, natterjack toads, and greater mouse-eared bats.

There are ways to protect animals in decline, including providing sources of food and places for them to shelter.

So in our lesson today, we've learned about different animals that are in decline, but actually, we've learned about ways that humans can help to protect them.

I'm so impressed with your work today.

You've done such a fantastic job at having a go at the different tasks.

Have a great rest of the day, and I'm sure I'll see you really soon.

Bye-bye.