Can cows prevent wildfires? ⏲️ 6 Minute English

29,904 views ・ 2025-05-01

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:07
Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
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And I'm Beth.
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Neil, do you remember the children's television show, Lassie?
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Oh yes, of course.
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The show's hero was a dog named Lassie.
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And Lassie went round helping people in trouble.
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Yes, well, if you watched Lassie as a child,
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you might also remember the TV shows, Flipper the Dolphin,
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and Skippy the Kangaroo.
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The stars of these shows were animals who would also come
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to the rescue of humans in trouble.
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In this programme, we'll be discussing
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some real-life animals helping people in trouble.
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It might sound strange,
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but we'll be hearing how cows are helping to stop fires in Spain.
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Well, now I have a picture in my head of a cow wearing a fireman's helmet,
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but I guess that's not what you mean, Neil.
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Not quite, Beth, but you're right about the fires or wildfires, to be exact.
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Wildfires are unplanned fires,
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in areas like forests or grasslands, which spread out of control.
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They often happen in hot, dry countries like Spain.
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So, how could cows help?
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We'll be finding out and learning some useful new vocabulary as well.
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And remember, if you like to read along as you listen to the programme,
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you'll find a script on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
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But now I have a question for you, Beth.
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Some wildfires are caused naturally,
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but most are the result of human activity.
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So, according to the Natural History Museum of Utah,
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what proportion of wildfires is caused by people?
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Is it a) two out of every five, b) three out of every five,
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or c) four out of every five?
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I'm going to guess three out of every five, I think.
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Let's find out at the end of the programme.
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Thanks to increasing temperatures caused by climate change,
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the wildfires happening today are more intense, and more destructive,
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than ever before.
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Here, Craig Langran, reporter for BBC World Service programme,
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People Fixing the World, discusses the problem with Pablo Schapira
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of Rewilding Spain, an organisation combating wildfires in central Spain.
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02:13
One of the reasons for this
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is that the forests have been left to grow unchecked,
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as there simply aren't enough animals to feed on all the trees, bushes and grass.
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And the more dense this vegetation is, the more likely it is to catch fire.
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What we had before in our ecosystems here in Europe
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is that we had big grazers: we had bison,
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we had tauros, we had wild horses.
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And now they are gone from the ecosystem because of extinction, domestication.
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Many European forests have grown unchecked.
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If something is left unchecked, nobody controls it
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or prevents it from increasing.
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The problem is that when trees, grass and vegetation are left to grow,
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they're more likely to catch fire.
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Hundreds of years ago,
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animals known as grazers would simply have eaten this vegetation up.
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To graze means to eat grass and other wild plants,
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and grazers are the animals,
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including horses, cows and goats, which do this.
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In English, you can also say a person is grazing
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if they continually eat snacks or little bites of food.
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But in modern times, numbers of grazing animals have declined sharply
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because of extinction,
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when a species of animal – the dinosaurs for example – no longer exist,
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and domestication, when wild animals are controlled by humans
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to work or for food.
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And as numbers of grazing wild animals decrease, forest
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and grasslands continue to grow unchecked,
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leading to the large wildfires which now regularly happen in Spain.
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And that's where our four-legged friends, the cows, come to the rescue.
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Supported by Rewilding Spain,
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Pablo has reintroduced herds of tauros – the species of cow similar
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to the now-extinct wild aurochs, the ancestor of the modern domestic cow –
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into the forests of central Spain.
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04:01
Here's reporter Craig Langran again
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for BBC World Service Programme, People Fixing the World.
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Along with the cows' voracious appetite, they trample on the vegetation,
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and it's that trampling that helps to open up the forest
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so it's not so densely packed full of flammable vegetation.
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Tauros eats everything from grass and leaves to tree branches and bark.
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Craig says the cows are voracious, or very eager for lots of food.
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What's more, by wandering freely around the forest,
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they trample down dead trees, reducing the amount of flammable,
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meaning easily burnt, vegetation.
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They don't wear firemen's helmets,
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but these four-legged, fire-fighting friends are really coming
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to the rescue in Spain.
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04:46
OK. Neil, isn't it time to reveal the answer to your question?
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Yes. I asked you, "What proportion of wildfires are caused by people?"
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And I said, "Three out of five." Was I right?
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I'm afraid you're wrong, Beth. The answer was c).
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05:01
According to the Natural History Museum of Utah,
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four out of every five wildfires are manmade.
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05:07
OK. Let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this programme,
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starting with the adjective unchecked.
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If something harmful is left unchecked, nobody controls it
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or prevents it from growing.
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05:18
To graze means to eat grass and vegetation.
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Grazers are animals, like cows, which do this.
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And a person who grazes continually eats little bites of food.
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Extinction is when an animal species no longer exists.
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The dinosaurs and the wild aurochs are two examples of extinct animals.
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Domestication is when wild animals become controlled by humans
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for work, food, or as pets.
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The adjective voracious means very eager for something, especially a lot of food.
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And finally, if something is flammable, it easily burns or catches fire.
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05:55
Once again, our six minutes are up.
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If you enjoyed this programme, why not check out the accompanying worksheet
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and quiz, both available at bbclearningenglish.com.
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06:05
Goodbye! Goodbye for now.
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