Tag Archives: Wildlife

National Geographic Magazine – August 2024

National Geographic Magazine (July 16, 2024) The new issue features ‘Rebirth Of The Seine’ – Inside France’s efforts to restore the iconic river to its former glory, in time for the Olympics…

Paris made an Olympic-sized effort to clean up the Seine—did they succeed?

For centuries, the Seine River has been Paris’s dumping ground. A billion-dollar cleanup is trying to make it swimmable again.

How the Seine River shaped the city of Paris

The history of Paris is inextricably linked to the river that flows through its center—from Neolithic settlement to this year’s Olympic games.

Meet the ancient goddess of the Seine River: Sequana

The opening ceremony for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will take place on the fabled French waterway. But did you know it was named for a Gallo-Roman deity?

National Geographic Magazine – June 2024

June 2024 Issue

National Geographic Magazine (May 15, 2024) The new issue features ‘Stress’ – What we’re learning about the way stress affects us. And how we can minimize the damage.

Can scientists ‘solve’ stress? They’re trying.

Three young girls eat bowls of cereal at the dining table as their mother and father stand distracted in the back of a cluttered kitchen.

From cardiovascular disease and obesity to a weakened immune system, the side effects of stress can be life-altering. But there may be a way to prevent those outcomes.

ByYudhijit Bhattacharjee

Does meditation actually work? Here’s what the science says.

Research is finally catching up to the idea that meditation—which has been practiced for millennia—also provides many health benefits, including managing stress and anxiety.

California: Elk At Point Reyes National Seashore

CBS Sunday Morning (March 10, 2024): We leave you this Sunday Morning with majestic Tule Elk at Point Reyes National Seashore, in California. Videographer: Lance Milbrand.

Tule elk are endemic to California and the most specialized elk in North America, given that they live in open country under semi-desert conditions, whereas the species as a whole typically occupies temperate climates and utilizes heavy cover at least seasonally.

Point Reyes National Seashore is a vast expanse of protected coastline in Northern California’s Marin County. Beaches here include Wildcat Beach, with the cliffside Alamere Falls. On a rocky headland, the 1870 Point Reyes Lighthouse is a viewpoint for migrating gray whales. The Phillip Burton Wilderness features extensive trails through grassland, firs and pine forest, and up to the peak of Mount Wittenberg. 

National Geographic Magazine – March 2024

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National Geographic Magazine (February 14, 2024) The new issue features ‘The Hidden World of Hyenas – Why these misunderstood – and maligned – animals are one of Africa’s most successful predators…

These creatures of the ‘twilight zone’ are vital to our oceans

With with big eyes and very long teeth.

The species help harness carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, deep in the ocean, but much is still unknown about this region and its fascinating inhabitants.

Love them or hate them, hyenas are getting the last laugh

The spotted hyena is Africa’s most successful predator—and one of its most misunderstood animals. But decades of cutting edge research is yielding greater understanding, respect, and protection.

Nature: Coastal Desert Of Baja California, Mexico

BBC Earth (January 7, 2024) – Journey to the coastal deserts of Baja California to witness marine turtles laying their eggs and dolphins gliding through the ocean.

It is the only desert in the world surrounded by two seas, a geologically isolated peninsula sets the stage for a myriad of remarkable plants and animals exemplifying adaptations to an isolated and arid environment. The Baja California Desert is the peninsular arm of the mainland Sonoran Desert, and although closely related to each other, they contain dramatically different evolutionary histories.

National Wildlife Magazine – Winter 2024

The front cover of National Wildlife's Winter issue containing text and an image of a submerged brown booby.

National Wildlife Magazine (December 21, 2023) – The 2023 National Wildlife Photo Contest Winners – Nearly 40,000 entries from more than 4,000 photographers.


An image of a running zebra herd.

GRAND PRIZE
Anup Shah

Chippenham, England

“It is powerful and decisive, the pace compact yet energetic,” says Anup Shah of this year’s spectacular top photo, catching zebras at the edge of a river crossing in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve. “I wanted the viewer to feel the energy in the path of a galloping herd.” We do, and it’s exhilarating.


An image of three coastal brown bear cubs following their mom.

BABY ANIMALS
FIRST PLACE
Torie Hilley

Ventura, California

Torie Hilley trudged through the mudflats of Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park and Preserve with a professional guide in July 2022, hoping to catch this coastal brown bear and her cubs in a line as they dug for clams. When Hilley spotted the family falling into formation on her last day, she dropped to one knee to preserve the moment. She later learned not all of the cubs survived the following weeks. “It reminded me to never take anything for granted,” she says.


An image of a piping plover chick on a beach.

BABY ANIMALS
SECOND PLACE
Carl D. Walsh

Dayton, Maine

Listed as endangered by Maine, the state’s piping plover population has seen some improvement in recent decades—a hopeful note suggested by the glow surrounding this days-old fledgling. To get this July 2022 photo, Carl D. Walsh “spent a lot of time lying in the sand, trying to capture the right vantage point and backlight” on a Cumberland County beach. “Many thousands of frames were shot,” he says.


An image of a submerged brown booby.

BIRDS
FIRST PLACE
Suliman Alatiqi

Kuwait City, Kuwait

TV: David Attenborough’s “Planet Earth” At 20 Years

BBC Earth (December 10, 2023) – Over the past two decades, Sir David Attenborough has travelled to the furthest corners of our planet.

20 years. 7 continents. 3 series. 1 planet.

He reflects upon the incredible animals and habitats he has seen, and what the future could hold – for both us and them.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE – NOVEMBER 2023

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National Geographic (NOVEMBER 2023) – The latest issue features The race to capture carbon – Any climate solutions strategy requires the removal of carbon from the atmosphere. Here are 12 of the most promising strategies; What flashy feathers reveal about the secret lives of birds, and more…

Another weapon to fight climate change? Put carbon back where we found it

Diver in wetsuit next to free-floating experimental enclosures.

Getting to zero carbon emissions won’t save the world. We’ll have to also remove carbon from the air—a massive undertaking unlike anything we’ve ever done.

BY SAM HOWE VERHOVEK

Over the past few centuries, we have dug, chopped, burned, drilled, pumped, stripped, forged, flared, lit, launched, driven, and flown our way to adding 2.4 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide to Earth’s atmosphere.

That’s as much CO2 as would be emitted annually by 522 billion cars, or 65 cars per person living today.

On a lonely, lunar-like valley 20 miles outside of Reykjavík, Iceland, Edda Aradóttir is on a mission to put it back where it came from.

What these flashy feathers reveal about the secret lives of birds

Shimmery. Spiky. Shaggy. Soft. Feathers are what make birds so alluring—but these photographs remind us that they also tell a story about the science of evolution.

BY ANNIE ROTH

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HEIDI AND HANS-JÜRGEN KOCH

In 1860 Charles Darwin wrote, “The sight of a feather in a peacock’s tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!” The plumes were so extravagant, he surmised, they could be a hindrance to survival. Darwin’s frustration with their seemingly inexplicable elegance eventually led him to the idea of sexual selection. Although this form of natural selection—driven by the preference of one sex for certain characteristics in individuals of the other sex—is well understood today, a peacock’s feather can still hold mystery for its viewers, says Heidi Koch. She and her husband, Hans-Jürgen, have spent the past few years photographing feathers in all their glorious detail.

Although both sexes of the gray peacock pheasant have back and tail feathers adorned with brilliant eyespots, the males make the best use of them. During elaborate wooing rituals, they raise and fluff up their feathers—which can reach nearly 16 inches in length—putting..

Travel Tour: Autumn In The Scottish Highlands

TRACKS – Travel Documentaries (October 24, 2023) – It’s Autumn in the beautiful highlands of Scotland, where the dramatic wilderness and spectacular wildlife thrive. Discover the secret wild places and the unexpected animals that living in the lovely cool season, as they face challenges while starting to prepare for the winter months ahead.

#autumn #fall #scotland #highland