11/01/2013 Newsround

This is a test. Happy Friday everyone. I am Leah and here is

your afternoon Newsround. Zambia decides to ban people hunting lions

for sport. But which other countries still allow it? The

island where whistling is taught in school.

They're the ultimate predator at the top of the food chain on the

African Savanna, but did you know that in some countries lions are

still hunted by people for fun? Well, now the African country,

Zambia, has banned people from hunting big cats in a bid to stop

their numbers falling. Ricky has the story.

As one of the fiercest animals on the planet, the lion doesn't have

any enemies to fear, apart from man. Although they're not an endangered

species, numbers are falling and it's partly down to people hunting

them for sport. Lions are sometimes shot by farmers in Africa to

protect their animals but they are also tracked and killed by people

on shooting holidays. With a search on the net I have come across one

of those companies, it's based in South Africa. It let's people kill

lions, leopards and elephants. These animals are raised in

captivity and released so people can kill them. Here on the website

it says, both the lion and the lioness can make for an extremely

exciting hunt. What's more disturbing is the amount of money

involved, people can pay thousands of pounds to kill these creatures.

There are thought to be about 4,000 lions in Zambia. Some animal

charities say the real number could be much lower than that. Some

people go to Africa to shoot the big five most difficult animals to

hunt. That's the lion, elephant, buffalo and rhino and leopard.

There have been calls to ban hunting lions entirely but it's

still legal in several African countries, including South Africa,

tphapl byia and Zimbabwe. Hunting companies in Zambia say the country

will lose money from tourism because of the ban but the

Government says they need to be protected. They want to preserve

lion numbers for people who want to shoot pictures of The Majestic

animals, and not kill them. Next - a Government campaign starts

today to try to speed up the adoption process in England.

Ministers say that at the moment, many would-be parents are put off

adopting kids by how long it takes. Part of the campaign involves a new

map showing which parts of the country have the most kids waiting

to be adopted. The most recent Government stats say that about

67,000 children in England are living in care, and that more than

4,000 of those are waiting to be adopted. Joe's been to meet Lucas,

who was adopted, to hear about his experience.

12-year-old Lucas was adopted when he was very young. He says his life

couldn't be better and feels sorry for kids that have to wait up to

two-and-a-half years to find a permanent home. It's ridiculous. It

shouldn't take that long. Adoption's worked out well for you.

Yeah, really proud. I tell my mates. I am not afraid to hide it. I am

proud to be adopted. Life has benefited from that in loads of

ways. His mum says adopting him was a

lengthy process. There are lots of forms to fill out and checks to be

made which all helps to give kids and parents the best chance of

getting on. But she says more could be done to get kids into homes more

quickly. It's better for the child and then they're not passed from

foster home to children's home and keep going around. Also, they get

into a family life and they're more stable. The Government hopes the

new map and helpline will make it easier for would-be parents to

adopt T also says it has other plans to give more kids like Lucas

happy homes. Now what would you think if your

teacher greeted you like this in the morning? (WHISTLING) At schools

like this in the Spanish Canary Island of La Gomera, whistling is a

compulsory subject. They're being taught an ancient whistling

language called Silbo Gomero which was used by locals to speak to each

other across the island's valleys and mountains. But it's not as easy

as just putting your lips together and blowing. TRANSLATION:

Children do it like this. But you have to do it slowly. And you don't

get busy. I was four. I was seven. In North America a deer needed to

be stranded -- rescued after getting stranded. Experts aren't