1. Elephants on the Move

2. Elephant Facts
African elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild.
They grow to be between 8 to 13 feet (244 to 396 centimeters) tall and weigh from 2.4 to 7 tons (2.2 to 6.4 metric tons).

3. Elephant Facts
The animals' ears are used to cool their bodies.
Their trunks are used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and grabbing things. These remarkable appendages contain 100,000 different muscles.

4. Elephant Facts
Elephants are pregnant for 22 months, and baby elephants weigh about 200 pounds (91 kilograms) at birth.

5. The number of African elephants in that continent has fallen from more than 10 million a century ago to fewer than 450 thousand today. The elephant faces two main threats: habitat loss due to human population growth and poaching. Poachers kill the animals for their ivory.

6. How can the elephants be protected
How can the elephants be protected? One strategy being used in Malawi is called translocation. About 500 elephants are being moved during a translocation project that was launched in July 2016.

7. Advocates see translocation as a way to help save a threatened species
Advocates see translocation as a way to help save a threatened species. They argue that many animals can adapt to a new habitat if it is similar to the old one. One key to success is to keep families together.

8. Opponents argue that elephants can have difficulty adapting to their new environment. Opponents also say that translocation is stressful for the elephants since they must be drugged before being moved.

9. VOCABULARY
adapt:
adjust to a new environment

10. VOCABULARY Threatened species:
a plant or animal group that is in danger of becoming extinct

11. VOCABULARY translocation:
the act of moving something from one place to another

12. VOCABULARY
decline:
to decrease in number

13. VOCABULARY
migration:
movement from one place to another

14. VOCABULARY
relocate:
to move somebody or something

15. Activity:
Read the question and try to answer it before you look at the answer choices.
Read all of the choices.
Eliminate answers you know are not correct.
Choose the correct answer.

16. TASK:
As you are reading the article, use the Reading Connection called “Setting the Purpose” to take notes. Then complete the Thought Question.
You will receive a writing grade based on your answer. Be sure to include evidence to support your opinion and PROOFREAD!!!

17. THOUGHT QUESTION:
Explain why a group called African Parks is moving some African elephants to a new location in Malawi. Do you think this will solve the problem discussed in the Article? Why or why not? Use facts and details from the Article to support your response.