Shadowing Practice: Pufferfish | Masters of Self-Defense - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi everybody, my name is Sarah.
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Welcome back to Future Zoologist Academy.
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Today we'll be learning about a fish
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that is very well known for its useful and adorable ability to inflate like a balloon.
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Today we're learning all about pufferfish.
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Let's get into it.
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Pufferfish are a family of fish with about 200 different species.
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They have many different nicknames, including puffers, balloon fish, blowfish, and others.
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They're sometimes confused with a porcupine fish, which though is similar, they are not the same.
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Pufferfish are most commonly found in warm, tropical oceans.
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They're commonly found in shallow water in protected habitats like coral reefs.
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There are a few species that live in cooler temperate water, but no pufferfish live in cold water.
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Surprisingly, there are several pufferfish species that live in freshwater.
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Pufferfish are, of course, named for their ability to puff up like a balloon, which is one of the ways that they defend themselves from predators.
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However, they have many other ways to defend themselves as well.
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The best way for a pufferfish to protect themselves is to stay hidden,
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and they do this by hiding in cracks and crevices in the reef and by using countershading.
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Countershading is a type of camouflage where an animal has a dark colored back and a light colored belly.
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This helps them stay camouflaged from animals that are both above them and below them.
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Pufferfish are typically slow swimmers, but if spotted by a predator, they can use quick bursts of speed to escape into hiding places.
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They also have a pretty good sense of sight, and they can move their eyes independently and look in different directions at the same time.
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This makes it hard for predators to ambush or sneak attack them.
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If they can't escape, then they inflate like a balloon.
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And they inflate by filling their expandable stomach with water or air if they're up at the surface.
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When they become larger, they become more intimidating to predators
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and it's harder for a predator to get their mouth around the pufferfish's body.
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Their skin is also covered in spines which stick out when they're inflated.
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Sometimes predators may manage to catch a pufferfish before it inflates
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and can choke if the pufferfish inflates while in the predator's throat.
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If they manage to swallow the pufferfish, they may still find themselves in quite a bit of trouble because most pufferfish are poisonous.
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Most pufferfish have a dangerous neurotoxin in their organs which is powerful enough to kill small predators.
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Neurotoxins are especially dangerous because they affect an animal's nervous system,
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which includes their brain and how their brain communicates to the rest of their body.
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With all of these defenses, it may seem like pufferfish should be invincible, but they do actually have some predators.
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Their main predators are sharks, some species of sea snakes, and large fish.
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Larger pufferfish have fewer predators than smaller species.
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The largest pufferfish is the starry puffer, which can measure between three and four feet in length or about one meter.
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The smallest species usually measure just a couple inches in length, sometimes even smaller.
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Not only do pufferfish vary in size, they also vary quite a bit in their colors and patterns.
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Some pufferfish species have the ability to slightly change their color
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or the intensity of their color depending on conditions in their environment.
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And as we mentioned before, many pufferfish have counter shading where they have a darker color on their back and a lighter belly.
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Counter shading is primarily used for avoiding predators, though some pufferfish species also use it to help them sneak up on their prey.
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Most pufferfish species feed on algae and small invertebrates.
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Some of their main prey items include mollusks like clams, mussels, and snails.
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They also feed on crustaceans like crabs and shrimp, and they even feed on worms.
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The scientific name of the pufferfish family is tetraodontidae, which translates to four tooth.
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And they got this name because their teeth are fused together in a way
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that makes it appear like they have four large teeth.
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And their large teeth give them a beak-like structure
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that is strong enough to crack open the hard shells of mollusks and crustaceans.
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Pufferfish typically feed alone.
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The main reason pufferfish come together is for breeding.
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The breeding behaviors of pufferfish vary quite a lot between species.
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Most ocean pufferfish reproduce by spawning, where females release their eggs,
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males release their sperm into the water at the same time where they become fertilized and they float around as plankton.
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Some species attach their eggs to hard structures like rocks instead.
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Either way, the eggs develop in the water and And eventually, a pufferfish emerges that resembles a tiny little version of the adult.
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There is a unique species of pufferfish,
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the white-spotted pufferfish, that actually attracts mates by creating elaborate designs in the sand.
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If females are impressed by the design, she'll mate with that male and lay her eggs in the sand in the design.
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This behavior has stumped scientists for years and years.
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If you'd like to learn more about it and watch a video, please be sure to visit our lesson.
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Regardless of their breeding behaviors, newborn pufferfish are incredibly small and vulnerable to predators.
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Some species actually have a coating of poison on their body when they're young rather than in their organs,
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which actually causes predators to spit them out if they try to eat them.
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A pufferfish's poisons can actually be deadly to humans as well for those that are brave enough to eat them.
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Pufferfish is considered to be a delicacy in some parts of the world, and if it's not cooked and prepared properly,
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it could be bad news for any human that tries to eat it.
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Overfishing pufferfish and collecting them for the aquarium trade can be harmful to pufferfish populations.
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However, their greatest threat is actually habitat loss.
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In many parts of the world, the coral reefs that they rely on for protection and finding food are being damaged.
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And one way that we can help protect pufferfish is by protecting coral reefs, especially the parts of the reefs that are important to them.
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Some organizations, like a scuba diving shop in Costa Rica,
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is actually working to train scuba divers in the area to identify pufferfish species
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and document their sightings so we can learn more about the parts of the reef that the pufferfish rely on.
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Now in other parts of the world pufferfish can actually be a problem.
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In some regions pufferfish are invasive.
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They've been introduced to areas where they are not supposed to be and they out-compete native species for food.
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Local governments in these regions have worked with fishing organizations to
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try to encourage people to take as many pufferfish out of the ocean as they can
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and unfortunately they haven't really seen much success because pufferfish breed so quickly that their populations just seem to keep growing.
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So pufferfish are unusual for us to talk about for conservation
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because depending on where you are in the world pufferfish may need our protection or they may need to be removed.
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If you would like to learn more about puffer fish conservation and if you would like to do quizzes,
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activities, projects and learn even more please be sure to visit that link below to check out our puffer fish lesson.
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Thank you so very much for joining me today to learn all about the adorable puffer fish.
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I can't wait to see you at our next lesson.
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Thank you very much.
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Bye!

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¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →