Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr. This program is designed for English learners so we speak a little slower and we use words and

phrases especially written for people learning English.

Today you will hear stories from Jill Robbins and Andrew Smith. Later, Brian Lynn presents this week's technology report.

Finally, Katie Weaver and I take you on a journey to Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park. But first, humans hunted and killed

almost all northern bald ibis birds by the 17th century.

But breeding and rewilding efforts

over the last 20 years helped grow the bird population. However, the birds do not know which direction to fly

to migrate without the guidance of wild-born birds.

So humans are helping the birds learn their migration path.

The northern Bald Ibis once flew over North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and much of Europe, including

Southern Germany's Bavaria.

People liked eating the migratory birds and they disappeared from Europe.

A few groups of the birds survived in other places.

In 2002, a conservation and research group based in Austria stepped

in to help. The group is called Valdrop-team. The birds are called Valdrapin in German.

Scientists at Valdrap team raise the birds and teach them how to fly to warmer areas.

Johannes Fritz is a biologist working with the team.

He said, we have increased the

increased the

increased the number of northern Ibus in Central Europe

from zero to almost 300 since the start of their project in 2002.

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