BEST IELTS Academic Writing Task 1, 16th May

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IELTS ACADEMIC WRITING TASK 1

The charts below show the result of a long-term survey carried out by an environmental group into local wildlife population figures. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

SAMPLE ANSWER

The charts give information about wildlife in a particular area from 2000 to the present. The first chart gives reasons why wildlife figures have changed in the area, while the second chart looks at the wildlife which has been affected.

Although habitat destruction is the main cause for changes in wildlife population, other factors have had an impact. Pollution and overexploitation through hunting and fishing have played a significant role, as have random factors such as accidents. Disease and the introduction of exotic species have had a much smaller impact.

The second chart tells us that wildlife population figures have mostly fallen as a result. The figures for insects are particularly noticeable, with drops of over 40% for both butterflies and bees. Freshwater fish have also witnessed a significant decrease. Bird and reptile numbers have fallen, but at a much lower rate.

On a more positive note, some wildlife has increased during this period in spite of the problems listed in the first graph. In the ‘mammals’ category, the number of hedgehogs has decreased, but the number of foxes and bats have gone up. In the case of bats, this has been by a significant 23 percent. Likewise, with aquatic mammals, while the water vole population has decreased slightly, the number of otters has increased by nine percent.

Overall, despite population increases for some species, there has been a downward trend for most of them. This suggests that urgent action needs to be taken to prevent further decline.

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