ScienceHabitats under pressure35 min★★ difficulty

Back from the brink: conservation that works

Extinction is not always the end of the story. Red kites, otters and large blue butterflies have all been brought back in Britain. This lesson is about how — and why some species are harder to save than others.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand changes in the environment that may leave individuals within a species, and some entire species, less well adapted to compete successfully and reproduce, which in turn may lead to extinction

Key learning points

• The slide towards extinction
• The red kite: Britain's best comeback
• The large blue: fussier than a kite
• What you can actually do

This lesson at a glance

35 minutes
20 parts to scroll through
4 quick checks
Marked quiz at the end
Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

changesenvironmentindividualswithinspecies

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 20 · Discover5%

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Part 1 of 20

Watch first

Back from the brink: conservation that works

An English teaching video on this topic from Acestudents. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

What you already know

Part 2 of 20

Before we start

What you already know

You know how habitat change and toxins push species towards extinction.

Recap: When habitats change Recap: Poisons up the food chain

Key words

Part 3 of 20

Key words

Words you'll need today

extinct: When the last individual of a species dies.
reintroduction: Releasing captive-bred or moved animals back into a former habitat.
captive breeding: Breeding endangered animals in zoos or centres to rebuild numbers.

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 20

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 — Why species tip over the edge

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 20

Learn

The slide towards extinction

A species rarely goes extinct for one reason. Habitat loss shrinks the population; small populations inbreed and weaken; then a single bad winter or disease finishes what the bulldozer started. Below a certain number, a species cannot recover alone — conservationists call it the extinction vortex.

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 20

Learn

The red kite: Britain's best comeback

By the 1900s, persecution had left a handful of red kites in mid-Wales. From 1989, birds from Spain and Sweden were released in England and Scotland, and the law protected them. Today there are thousands, soaring over the M40. The recipe: remove the threat, boost the numbers, protect the habitat.

Quick check

Part 7 of 20

Quick check

The 'extinction vortex' is...

Quick check

Part 8 of 20

Quick check

Red kites recovered because of...

Reset break

Part 9 of 20

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 20

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 — Bringing them back

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 20

Learn

The large blue: fussier than a kite

The large blue butterfly was declared extinct in Britain in 1979. Its caterpillar survives only by tricking one species of red ant into adopting it — and the ant needs short, warm grass kept cropped by rabbits. When myxomatosis killed the rabbits, the grass grew, the ants went, and the butterfly followed. Bringing it back meant restoring the whole chain: grass, rabbits, ants, then butterfly. It flew again in 1983.

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 20

Learn

What you can actually do

Most conservation is unglamorous: recording sightings for surveys, joining a beach clean, leaving a wild corner, planting native species, keeping cats in at dawn. Citizen science apps like iRecord turn millions of small observations into the maps that decide where protection goes. The data you collect on a walk genuinely feeds into real decisions.

Quick check

Part 13 of 20

Quick check

The large blue went extinct in Britain because...

Quick check

Part 14 of 20

Quick check

Before reintroducing a species you must first...

Investigate evidence

Part 15 of 20

Evidence 1 of 1

primary

Red kite reintroduction records

RSPB and Natural England reintroduction programme, 1989–present

1989: 93 young kites released in the Chilterns and Scotland, from Spanish and Swedish donor populations. 2000: first 100 breeding pairs in England. Today: over 4,000 breeding pairs across Britain, spreading without further releases.

Red kites were persecuted to extinction in England and Scotland by the 1870s. The reintroduction worked because the original threat — illegal killing — was tackled with legal protection first.

Think like a historian

The programme succeeded where others have failed. Using the record, identify the two ingredients of the success and explain why both were needed.

Source: Official reintroduction programme records, publicly reported.

View the archive record ↗

Common mix-ups

Part 16 of 20

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

Thinking extinction has a single cause — it is usually a spiral of several.
Thinking reintroduction works anywhere — the original threat must be gone first.
Thinking only rare species matter — common species keep the web working.

Challenge round

Part 17 of 20

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

Challenge round

Part 18 of 20

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

A ____ rarely goes extinct for one reason.

Mastery quiz

Part 19 of 20

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Back from the brink: conservation that works

3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

1. Reintroduction means...
2. The large blue's story shows that saving a species can require...
3. Citizen science helps conservation by...

Lesson round-up

Part 20 of 20

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

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Points this lesson

Best run

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Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

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Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Why the school greenhouse failed

A science club grew tomato plants in the school greenhouse. In June the plants grew well: leaves were dark green and the fruit set quickly. In July the club went away for two weeks and left the greenhouse door shut. When they came back, the leaves were curled and pale and most of the fruit had dropped.

The club had a data logger inside. It showed the temperature reached 46 °C on several afternoons and the soil moisture fell close to zero. The club knew photosynthesis needs light, water and carbon dioxide, and that enzymes in a plant work best in a narrow range of temperature. Above that range the enzymes stop working properly.

The club repeated the summer with the door propped open and a water bottle drip on each pot. Temperature peaked at 31 °C and the plants survived.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

Name the variable the club changed the second time, and one variable they kept the same.
Explain, using the words photosynthesis and enzymes, why the plants were damaged in July.
Write a conclusion for the club's report, saying how far the evidence supports it.

Source for this lesson

Use this for the source work task below.

Red kite reintroduction records

primary

RSPB and Natural England reintroduction programme, 1989–present

1989: 93 young kites released in the Chilterns and Scotland, from Spanish and Swedish donor populations. 2000: first 100 breeding pairs in England. Today: over 4,000 breeding pairs across Britain, spreading without further releases.

Red kites were persecuted to extinction in England and Scotland by the 1870s. The reintroduction worked because the original threat — illegal killing — was tackled with legal protection first.

Source: Official reintroduction programme records, publicly reported.

View the original record ↗

Method and results
Writing
Write the aim, what you changed, what you measured and what you kept the same, then record your results in a table.
1 page + results table
Conclusion
Writing
Explain what your results show and why, using the scientific words from the lesson. Say how you know you can trust them.
6–8 sentences
Labelled diagram
Diagram
Draw the apparatus or the process in pencil, label it fully, and photograph it.
1 labelled diagram
Reading and notes
Reading
Read the lesson text again and write the key ideas in your own words.
Half a page of notes

Write your answer, notes or working here

Saved as you type.

Photos of paper work, diagrams or working outHow many minutes did the written work take?

Part 1 of 20 · Watch & discover

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