Wild Animals
Primary 4 · English
Wild Animals
Lesson 3 of 5
45 min
“Have you ever heard a lion roar?” asks Teacher Mutesi. The class laughs. “Lions don't live in Rwanda!” says Gatete. But he is wrong. In Akagera National Park, you can hear lions roar at night!
Today you will learn which wild animals live in Rwanda, where they live and how we protect them.
A national park is a big area of land where wild animals are protected. Nobody may hunt there or cut down the trees. Rwanda has four national parks.
Volcanoes National Park is in the north-west, near Musanze. It has high mountains and bamboo forests. Mountain gorillas and golden monkeys live there.
Nyungwe National Park is in the south-west. It is a big, wet rainforest. Chimpanzees and many other kinds of monkeys live in its tall trees. Visitors can walk on a bridge high above the trees.
Akagera National Park is in the east. It has grasslands and lakes. Lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, giraffes and zebras live there. Hippos and crocodiles live in its lakes.
Gishwati-Mukura National Park is in the west. It is Rwanda's newest park. Chimpanzees and golden monkeys live in its forests.
Rangers work in every park. They count the animals, keep them safe and stop people who try to hunt them.
This text is adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article Gorilla.
Gorillas are large apes. A grown-up male gorilla can weigh up to 225 kilograms. Gorillas live in family groups called troops.
Gorillas have a wide chest, short legs and long, strong arms. Their skin and hair are black. When a male gorilla gets older, the hair on his back turns silver-grey. So older males are called silverbacks.
Gorillas are gentle animals. They mostly eat plants: leaves, vines and young bamboo. Sometimes they eat ants too. They walk on their feet and on their knuckles.
If another gorilla comes near the troop, the silverback protects his family. He stands up tall and beats his chest.
Every evening, each grown-up gorilla makes a soft, flat bed of leaves and branches. The young gorillas sleep with their mothers.
Which park would you visit to see giraffes and zebras?
Akagera National Park, in the east.
Why is an older male gorilla called a silverback?
Because the hair on his back turns silver-grey.
What do gorillas mostly eat?
Plants: leaves, vines and young bamboo.
We use the present simple for things that are always true.
In Akagera there are lions and zebras. In the lake there is a big crocodile.
Animals live in the forest, in the lake, on the mountains, near the river, under the trees.
Speak: Ask a friend: Where do golden monkeys live? What does a hippo eat? Answer in full sentences.
Write a fact file about one wild animal of Rwanda. Give its name, its group, where it lives, what it eats and one interesting fact. Finish with one way people can protect it.
Tip
One animal takes the s. A gorilla eats. Many animals don't: gorillas eat. The s goes to the verb when there is only one!
Write your answers in your exercise book, then check.
Name the national park where mountain gorillas live.
Answer: Volcanoes National Park
Complete: A hippo ___ (live) in lakes and rivers.
Answer: lives
Complete: In Nyungwe ___ many kinds of monkeys. (there is / there are)
Answer: there are
Correct the mistake: Gorillas eats leaves and bamboo.
Answer: Gorillas eat leaves and bamboo.
Write one question about lions with Where do …?
Answer: Example: Where do lions live in Rwanda?
What you learned today
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Match each national park to something about it.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
