Vocabulary
Habitats, conservation, pets and animal rights, for speaking, writing and reading. With a practice exercise.
IELTS vocabulary for animals is tested in every part of the exam. Speaking Part 1 asks about pets, Academic reading passages often describe animal behaviour or conservation projects, and Task 2 asks whether zoos should exist and whether protecting endangered species is worth the cost.
Much of this vocabulary overlaps with the environment, but the arguments are different. They are about animals themselves: their protection, their use and how people should treat them.
The words
Six groups. Learn one group at a time and write a sentence of your own for each word.
Wildlife: animals living in natural conditions
A species: a group of animals of the same type, singular and plural
A predator: an animal that hunts others
Prey: an animal hunted by others
A mammal: an animal that feeds its young on milk
A habitat: the natural home of an animal
An ecosystem: all the living things in an area and how they interact
Biodiversity: the variety of life in an area
Habitat loss: the destruction of natural homes
Native: naturally found in a place
Endangered: at risk of dying out
Extinct: no longer existing
Poaching: hunting animals illegally
An invasive species: an animal or plant introduced to a place where it causes harm
Decline: a fall in numbers
Conservation: protecting animals and their habitats
A wildlife reserve: an area where animals are protected
A breeding programme: a scheme to increase numbers of a species in captivity
To reintroduce: to return a species to an area where it once lived
In captivity: kept by people rather than living in the wild
Domesticated: tamed and kept by people
Livestock: farm animals kept for food or other products
Animal welfare: the health and wellbeing of animals
Animal rights: the idea that animals should not be used by people
Animal testing: using animals in scientific experiments
Species is the same in the singular and the plural: one species, two species. There is no word specie in this sense.
Animal welfare and animal rights are not the same. Welfare is about treating animals well. Rights is the stronger claim that animals should not be used at all.
Method
Six ways these words earn marks rather than just filling space.
Endangered and extinct are not interchangeable. An endangered species still exists. Using the wrong one changes the meaning of the sentence.
You protect a habitat, face extinction, ban poaching, breed animals in captivity and raise awareness of conservation.
Should zoos be closed? Is it right to test products on animals? Should money be spent saving endangered species? These recur in Task 2 and Part 3.
Most essays on zoos and farming turn on this distinction. Knowing it lets you take a precise position rather than a vague one.
Predator, prey, habitat and species appear constantly in Academic reading passages about animal behaviour.
If you are asked about pets, everyday language is right. Biodiversity has no place in a description of your dog.
Practice
Choose the answer that fits each sentence.
Read the whole sentence before you choose. Several options will be real words, and often more than one will nearly fit.
The test is precision: which word, or which pairing, means exactly what the sentence needs?
1A species at risk of dying out is ______.
Endangered. An extinct species no longer exists at all.
2Hunting animals illegally is ______.
Poaching. It is the precise term and a common topic in reading passages.
3Which is correct?
This species is. Species is the same in the singular and plural, and here it is singular.
4An animal introduced to a place where it causes harm is ______.
An invasive species. A native species belongs there naturally.
5The variety of life in an area is its ______.
Biodiversity. An ecosystem is how living things in an area interact, which is a related but different idea.
6Which is the natural pairing?
Face extinction. A species can also be threatened with extinction or driven to extinction.
7Animals kept by people rather than living in the wild are ______.
In captivity. It is the standard phrase in any discussion of zoos.
8Which sentence is more precise?
B. Precise nouns, a clear cause and a natural collocation.
That is the commonest vocabulary problem at Band 6, and it is very hard to see in your own writing because each word looks correct on its own.
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Recognising a word in a multiple choice is not the same as producing it accurately under time.
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Yes. Pets appear in speaking Part 1, conservation is common in Academic reading, and zoos and animal testing appear in Task 2.
An endangered species is at risk of dying out. An extinct species no longer exists.
Both. One species, two species. The word specie is not used in this sense.
Animal welfare is about treating animals well. Animal rights is the stronger view that animals should not be used by people at all.
Whether zoos should exist, whether animal testing is acceptable, or whether saving endangered species justifies the cost.
Full membership
Technique takes most candidates to about Band 6.5. Past that, the limit is usually the range of language you can use accurately, and knowing where you stand is the first step.
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