HW:
- Finish the annotation bullets for “Can the Desert Tortoise Be Saved?” by Mackenzie Carro.
- Do NOT take too long on your three pictures; quick sketches are fine.
- Answer the practice quiz questions. USE QAR!
- Use the information on the blog to help you underline your proof in the article. Use a different color for each question.
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO IMPRESS:
On loose leaf, DRAFT a CER for practice quiz question #8.
HINT: Your first evidence could be about humans HARMING animals, and your second evidence could be about humans HELPING animals (using technology).
According to author Mackenzie Carro in her article “Can The Desert Tortoise Be Saved?” humans affect the lives of animals in the Mojave Desert in two major ways—one negative and one positive. First, humans have caused a 700 percent increase in the area’s raven population. This massive increase in the number of ravens is a result of the large number of people who have moved to the Mojave Desert in recent decades: “Ravens like to nest in the structures humans build, such as fences and telephone poles, and ravens like to eat the garbage humans produce” (Carro, 28). The explosion of the raven population is problematic because it has put the desert tortoise in serious danger of disappearing forever, because ravens eat baby tortoises. On the other hand, in recent years some humans have begun to affect the lives of tortoises in the Mojave in a positive way. Conservationists are using sophisticated technologies to deter ravens from eating baby tortoises and to clear ravens from certain areas and create safe zones for baby tortoises to grow up in (Carro, 29). The bottom line is that humans have created a problem for desert tortoises—and now humans are trying to solve that problem.