​Native English Animals: Multiple Choice Vocabulary Test

by Nicola Jane Soen

Now England has hardly any predatory animals in the (0)     A   , but has it always been way? Not according to ancient rhymes. England was once a country where predatory animals freely roamed and so danger lurked.

Many centuries ago bears, wolves, lynx, etc, ranged the forests and woodlands. Also wild boar, Elk and Aurochs (wild bulls) were (1)________. However, although some of these species hung on till medieval times, most of these animals were long gone by that time. The last English wolf in England was (2)________ killed and the population extinct by the 16th century, although in Wales it is thought to have lasted a few centuries (3)________. The great Auroch herds did not last nearly as long and were sadly gone as early as the 9th Century, although on the continent it lasted for many, many (4)________ centuries.

There was an even bigger size herding animal in Britain in the early centuries. The Giant deer species called Megaloceros, with an antler span of up to 3 meters; it was possibly (5)________ by the time Neolithic man was making wooden stockades. But the antlers were often found, and perhaps used for digging with.

Lynx is thought to have gone by the 10th Century, in England at least. It is thought that the Neolithic settlers mingling with peoples already present or taking over, came from the continent and brought their own animals; cattle, (6)________ dogs and cats, pigs and also goats with them and built the wooden stockades to protect them.

In Saxon England land was cleared of the forest and a large communal area was used (7)________ farming; this was divided into strips called furrows. However by Medieval times the rich landlords had claimed a lot of land and planted hedges (8)________ their boundaries. This may have meant farming was easier, but for the poor it meant they were beggared and starving, (9)________ the loss of their land meant the loss of their livelihoods.

Land by the Thames was taken from the people in medieval times and given over to sheep farmers for the trading of wool, which by then had become an important industry that provided (10)________ for the crown.

So by now most of the original predatory or herding wild animals had been (11)________ by non- native species. Thankfully there is now a program that is re-releasing our original, surviving animals back into their own natural habitat. We (12)________ desperately that this is successful.