Secondary 1 - Unit 2 lesson 2 Ex.2 - Listening

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Interviewer: In today's programme we're talking to Michelle Drake about Dr Leelah Hazzah, an Egyptian conservation'" biologist and founder of Lion Guardians, a conservation project in Kenya. Michelle, when did Leelah become interested in lions?
Michelle: Well, as a child, her father told her stories about how he listened to lions roaring at night when he was sleeping on the roof of their house during the summer. But when he explained that there weren't any lions left in Egypt, she decided that when she grew up, she would find out how to save them in other countries.
Interviewer: What happened next?
Michelle: She went to America to study conservation biology and then moved to Kenya to research lions amongst the Maasai people. It was there that she saw how quickly lions were disappearing''. Did you know that sixty or fifty years ago there were about 200,000 lions in Africa, but that number is under 20,000 now?
Interviewer: So why are lions disappearing so quickly?
Michelle: There are several reasons. People have built houses in the areas that lions traditionally hunt so they. can't find enough food to eat and, so they attack the villager's livestock, you know, their cows and goats. The villagers get angry with the lions and kill them in order to protect their animals. Another reason is prestige in Maasai culture; young men get a lot of respect from killing a lion. They are even given a lion name which shows that they are no longer a boy, but a man.
Interviewer What did Leelah do?
Michelle: She lived with the Maasai for a year and listened to their views about lions. She learnt that they have a love-hate relationship with lions; they admire their beauty but hate them for eating their cattle. She also understood the prestige that came from being a lion. killer and realised that she needed to persuade the young men that keeping livestock and having a job gave them more prestige than killing a lion, so she started to teach them about the advantages of protecting lions instead.
Interviewer: Is that when she started Lion Guardians?
Michelle: Yes. Lion Guardians is an organisation that employs local people to look for lions in order to protect them. Remember, these young men already have the skills needed to track lions in the wild so they are
taught to become lion guardians rather than lion killers. The organisation gives them a job and teaches them to read and write so they can help conservations with their research.
Interviewer How successful is the programme?
Michelle: Very. Maasai men now have jobs, a regular income and a sense of purpose. They get to know the lions they are protecting and even give them names and talk about them with fondness.
Interviewer And finally, what can other conservationists learn from Lion Guardians?
Michelle: The importance of listening to people in the community and to recognise how much knowledge local people have. By working together both the locals and conservations can benefit.
Interviewer Thank you, Michelle. And at 8 o'clock tonight you can see a ...