#7 CATFISH

Exercise: Change the words!

Where humans are not, nature flourishes. This is quite a pessimistic opinion on our impact on the planet, but it is ……….(1. deny) true. When humans first arrived in North America about 15,000 years ago they found a ……..(2. vary) of enormous, wonderful creatures. Such as…

They all went extinct very quickly, because, despite their size, they were ………..(defence) against the dangerous ingenuity of humans. We seem harmless; we have no fangs, no claws, no tusks, small muscles and only two legs, but we have big brains, which gives us an advantage over pure size and ……….(strong).

There are still places on the planet where the lack of human influence has resulted in incredible biodiversity. If you want to see nature at its most wonderful, then you have to study islands; the places which are harder to reach have had the time and space necessary to produce the most exotic of species. There are human ………….(inhabit) on nearly every island on the planet now, but we arrived relatively recently to some islands so we haven’t destroyed everything just yet.

Check out these autochthonous island-dwelling species:

Valencia has its own area of natural beauty and unique biodiversity. It’s called ‘La Albufera’, an expanse of wetland situated within the rice fields of Southern Valencia state. The fresh water lakes provide a perfect home for some unique bird and fish species:

About 10 years ago a local idiot fisherman decided to introduce Catfish (Siluro) into the ecologically …….(sense) waters of the Albufera so that he would have something to catch. Predictably, this ………..(invade) species has become a pest and they are destroying the native wildlife populations.

.…………..(similar), in Madrid, they are suffering from an invasion of raccoons (Mapache) and parrots. They first came to the country as pets, and have since decided that they enjoy exploring the Spanish capital and eating the leftover tapas.

I love the Spanish, but for some reason they feel the need to share their home with animals. If a raccoon wants to stay in my flat then it will have to pay rent like everyone else.