Hunted, Then Protected: teacher key

Black Caimans, grade 5 edition, written for 5th grade. People once hunted the black caiman until its numbers fell far. Read what happened and what people did next.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did hunting for skins do to black caimans in the 20th century?
   • It made them bigger
   • It moved them to Bolivia
   • It cut their number by about 99 percent, as an estimate (answer)
2. What did Bolivia begin in 1990?
   • A ban on rivers
   • A program to breed black caimans and set them free (answer)
   • A zoo for capybaras
3. What is a predator?
   • A plant in the Amazon
   • A kind of leather
   • An animal that hunts other animals (answer)
4. When do the eggs often hatch?
   • Every day
   • When the rainy season begins (answer)
   • In the middle of winter snow
5. Why would clearing forest and burning swamps slow the recovery of black caimans?
   • It gives them more food
   • It makes them hatch faster
   • It destroys their homes (answer)

Words

• predator: animal hunter
• rodent: gnawing animal
• mound: pile of earth
• estimate: careful guess
• captivity: human care