Current Events Lesson Plan January 14-20, 2016
Current Event: Early Retirement for Ringling’s Elephants
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus recently announced that in May it will be retiring the last 11 elephants on tour with the circus. These elephants will be joining the rest of the herd at Ringling’s 200-acre (80-hectare) Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida. After 145 years of featuring the animals in its “Greatest Show on Earth,” the circus is phasing out its elephant act and focusing its efforts on elephant conservation programs in North America and Sri Lanka. Critics noted the retirement comes after years of scrutiny and criticism concerning the organization’s training and treatment of elephants, especially while on tour. Tours can involve the animals traveling to over 100 cities in a year. Several cities have banned shows with live elephants, making Ringling’s planning of its circus tour more difficult. Ringling’s conservation center is working to help increase the number of Asian elephants. In addition to conservation, the retired elephants at the Center for Elephant Conservation will be a part of cancer research.
Objective:
Elephants are the largest land animals. They are extremely strong and highly intelligent. People have tamed and trained them for thousands of years. There are two chief kinds of elephants, African elephants and Asian elephants, also known as Indian elephants. African elephants live only in Africa south of the Sahara. Asian elephants live in parts of India and Southeast Asia. There is some uncertainty about the number of elephants that survive in the wild. In Asia, human population growth and habitat destruction have severely reduced the number of wild elephants. Scientists estimate that only about 50,000 Asian elephants survive in the wild. In Africa, the main cause of the decline in elephants is illegal hunting. In 1979, an estimated 1,300,000 elephants lived in Africa. Today, there are about 500,000. Many African and Asian nations have set aside land to protect the habitats of elephants and other wild animals. This land lies in national parks and in areas called reserves. But some wildlife experts fear that this amount of land is not large enough to save many wild elephants. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore elephants and other animals.
Words to know:
Discussion Topics:
1. In addition to Asian elephants, ask your students to name some other endangered animals. (Students might name American crocodiles, Asiatic lions, blue whales, California condors, cheetahs, giant pandas, orangutans, rhinoceroses, sea turtles, tigers.)
2. Ask your students to debate, “All wild animals should be banned from performing at circuses.”
3. Have your students debate, “Money spent on protecting endangered animals is money well spent.”
4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the Animal Extinctions Since 1600 timeline.