Martinez is a national spokesman for the importance of getting youth into the outdoors, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. In this video he talks to National Geographic’s Barbara Moffet about the importance of encouraging young people to take the lead in saving the planet.

Barbara Moffet interviews Krithi Karanth, a 32-year-old conservation biologist based in Bangalore, India, the recipient of  National Geographic’s 10,000th grant (since the first in 1890). Dr. Karanth, who grew up around the wild animals of India’s national parks, will use the funds to examine the conflicts that are occurring frequently between humans and India’s storied wildlife such as tigers and Asian elephants. As in many places around the world, wildlife are under increasing pressures in India, especially as they seek out food on farmland. Dr. Karanth answers questions about her pioneering research:

Question: I understand you learned wildlife conservation at your father’s knee, so to speak. Talk a little about your experiences working with your father (wildlife biologist and conservationist Ullas Karanth) and your early encounters with animals in the wild.

I have had a fun and unusual childhood. I got to spend a lot of time in Indian parks watching wildlife as I tagged along with my father to his various field sites. I got to see my first wild tiger and leopard by the age of 3. I got to watch him radio-collar and track wild tigers and leopards in Nagarahole in the 1990s. Watching him fight and overcome many conservation challenges and battles (such as closure of a large mine) over the past 30 years in India and his incredible knowledge on a wide range of conservation issues has been an extremely rewarding experience.

His work as a scientist and conservationist particularly linking science to conservation action is path-breaking and inspirational to me and generations of Indians. His insights into conservation policy and management issues continue to inspire me.

Q: Describe your early encounters with wild big cats.

A: I saw a leopard first…maybe that’s why I love them the most…the memory even 30 years later is etched so strongly. I was sitting in the front of a Jeep with my father, Ullas Karanth, and the late John Wakefield, and my mother Prathibha Karanth was sitting in the back. We were driving on a dirt road in Nagarahole National Park, maybe around 4 in the afternoon, and we saw this beautiful leopard bound across the road….the whole thing lasted maybe 30 seconds.

My 4-year-old daughter saw her first leopard two months ago, and she got to watch it for 10 minutes. Watching her excitement makes me realize how lucky we both are.

I saw my first tiger in Nagrahole with my father, Ullas Karanth, and grandfather Shivarama Karanth. We were driving in a car  in the evening around 5:30. There is a old fort and its moat is overgrown with grass…My father spotted a beautiful tigress walking in the moat, and we got to watch her amble along for 5 minutes, and 10 minutes later we saw a leopard who sat on the road for 15 minutes. That was incredible day.

Q: How did you further develop your own knowledge about wildlife, and where were you educated?

My own interest in wildlife came from the wonderful childhood my parents provided me in India. They have always encouraged my interests and their passion for their respective careers continues to motivate me. Initially, I was hesitant to engage professionally in wildlife but the educational opportunities I got at the University of Florida (UF), Yale and Duke very quickly showed me that my heart and mind were interested in working in India as a conservation biologist.

I received bachelors degrees from UF, masters degree from Yale, doctoral degree from Duke and did postdoctoral work at Columbia in the U.S. For the past 10 years, all my research in these universities has focused on conservation research in India.

Q: India’s wildlife has been severely depleted over the past century. How does your research analyze this trend, and how have you been able to determine historic levels of wildlife populations?

For my doctoral work at Duke, I examined range contractions and extinctions of several species of large mammals in India over the past 100 years. This involved establishing a database of more than 30,000 historic locations from hunting, taxidermy and natural history of wildlife occurrence and establishing their present status in these places. This study established that many species occurred widely across India just a hundred years ago and today have disappeared in many parts of the country. The paper was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London in 2010.

Krithi Karanth, Conservation Biologist and recipient of the National Geographic Society's 10,000th grant for exploration. © Sandesh Kadur

Q: What kinds of conclusions have you drawn about the current health of India’s wildlife populations; have some animals gone extinct?

Our work shows that for many species such as tigers and wild dogs protected areas are critical. We also find that cultural tolerance for species has been important for persistence of some species in India. The cheetah is the only large mammal we have lost in India.

For many other species we find high probabilities of local and regional extinctions (swamp deer, lion, wild buffalo, gaur), and it serves as warning that we may completely lose many species in the near future.

Q: What are the main threats to India’s wildlife?

Depletion of prey, hunting and inadequate protection at local levels, large scale land use change and habitat fragmentation linked to infrastructural projects, roads, mines etc. at landscape levels.

Q: What is the outlook for big mammals such as tigers and Asian elephants?

I am optimistic for many species including the tiger and elephant; in some parts of India, particularly the south, there is very serious interest and the will to conserve these species, and their numbers have recovered compared with the 1960s-1970s. However, in other parts of India the same species are in trouble. Important to note that India still has the largest populations of both these species though.

Q: What will you use your National Geographic grant to do?

My National Geographic grant will be used to examine human-wildlife conflicts across several protected areas in the Western Ghats. Despite centuries of tolerance for wildlife, there is a gradual erosion of tolerance as conflicts between people and wildlife continue to gradually increase in some places.

Q: How can people in India and around the world help prevent extinction of India’s wildlife?

We need to increase people’s interest and awareness about wildlife and conservation issues and reduce the general disconnect from nature. Urban Indians and others are beginning to spend time and money visiting parks to view wildlife (especially tigers) and must be more conscious of their impacts, particularly via wildlife tourism. We need broader public support for existing protected areas, which now cover less than 3 percent of total land area and support a lot of wildlife. We also have to address people’s needs and requests, such as voluntary relocation from parks, so that they have opportunities for better lives as well.

Krithi Karanth is Ramanujan Fellow with the Government of India, Assistant Director for India’s Centre for Wildlife Studies, Adjunct Assistant Professor at Duke University (U.S.) and Adjunct Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University (U.S.).

More to Celebrate Our 10,000th Grant

Watch a video interview with Dr. Peter Raven, head of National Geographic’s Committee for Research and Exploration. He  talks to National Geographic News about the Society’s field work and the many grants given to emerging scientists to advance knowledge of the natural world.

See a photo gallery of ten of the most significant National Geographic grants, including projects from Jane Goodall, Jacques Cousteau, Bob Ballard, and more.

Question: Lake Victoria, the world’s largest tropical lake, has been Africa’s most important source of inland fisheries production; what is happening to the lake’s fish today?

Over the past century, Lake Victoria has undergone massive, fundamental ecological changes, driven primarily by human activities.  Overfishing during the first half of the 20th century led to the collapse of almost all of the native fisheries, which in turn motivated the introduction of a series of foreign food fishes, including the predatory Nile perch, Lates niloticus. This invasive predator, in conjunction with habitat degradation and continued over-fishing, drove hundreds of native fish species to extinction in the mid-1980s, in what has been referred to as the worst mass extinction of vertebrates in modern times.

The past two decades have brought about yet more changes, and unexpected reversals.  The Nile perch, which formed the basis of an extremely productive and lucrative export-oriented fishery in the 1990s, is now on the decline, likely due to over-exploitation.  A tiny native cyprinid fish (minnow) called mukene (Rastrineobola argentea), has flourished alongside the invader and is now emerging as a major commercial fishery.

Q: Lake Victoria was the scene of one of the worst mass extinctions of vertebrates in modern times. How did this happen?

Lake Victoria is famous for its rich fish assemblage, which previously included over 500 species of endemic haplochromine cichlids.  However, in the 1980s, several hundred of these cichlids disappeared completely from the lake, and many other non-cichlid fish species, such as lungfish, some catfishes and native tilapias, suffered dramatic declines.   Ecologists believe that three main factors contributed to these declines: Fishing pressure, introduction of several non-indigenous fish species to the lake in the 1960s, and pollution and nutrient run-off from the growing human population in the Lake Victoria basin.
Q: What fish are the local people eating these days, and in what ways are the people affecting the health of the lake’s fish populations?

In general, fish is the cheapest and most important source of animal protein in Uganda, especially as rising global food prices in recent years have put other types of meat out of reach for many Ugandans.  The most recent available data suggest that mukene is now the most important commercial fish species in Uganda, followed by Nile perch and Nile tilapia.   These three species are also the most widely consumed nationally.  Mukene is one of the least expensive types of fish on the market (about half the cost of Nile perch or Nile tilapia), and so it has become increasingly popular, especially among low-income households.

The very limited data that we have suggests that the mukene stock is stable — if not increasing — but there is still some cause for concern.  In particular, the work that we have done suggests that fishing pressure may be imposing extremely high mortality on mukene populations and may be driving detrimental changes in important reproductive traits like size at maturation.  We do not yet have a clear understanding of what the sustainable level of exploitation for this stock is— and whether we may have already surpassed that point.

Q: Your hypothesis was that introduction of the Nile perch and intensification of commercial fishing have driven significant changes in the reproductive biology of the mukene over the past few decades. What did your research show and how did you go about it?

Mukene in Lake Victoria are now experiencing the dual pressure of predation from the introduced Nile perch and fishing pressure from a rapidly developing commercial fishery, in addition to other changes in the lake ecology that may alter the quality of their habitat.  We wanted to test whether fishing pressure and Nile perch predation might be driving any changes in the reproductive biology of mukene.  To answer this question, we looked at variation in key reproductive traits across mukene populations from 10 lakes in Uganda that differed in the intensity of Nile predation and fishing pressure.  We focused much of our sampling efforts on the on the remote, swamp-locked lakes near Lake Kyoga (a large, shallow lake about 150km downstream of Lake Victoria), many of which lack Nile perch and mukene fisheries.  As relatively pristine ecosystems, these lakes provide a rare glimpse into the past.

We found that mukene from unperturbed lakes (those lacking the introduced Nile perch and commercial mukene fisheries) were dramatically different from those found in perturbed lakes (lakes with introduced Nile perch and/or commercial mukene fisheries).  Specifically, we found that mukene from perturbed lakes had significantly reduced body sizes, smaller size at maturation, and increased fecundity. Our findings raise some concerns for the sustainability of the mukene fishery, especially given that reductions in body size and size at maturity can lower the reproductive capacity of fish populations and can also decrease the yield of fisheries.   Furthermore, rapid changes in reproductive traits may signal that fishing mortality is extremely high and have sometimes preceded drastic population declines, such as the historical collapse of Canada’s Atlantic cod stocks.
Q: How did you approach your work on the lakes? Were you working with local scientists and others?

All of my work was done in close collaboration with Ugandan fisheries scientists at the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute of Uganda (NaFIRRI), building on partnerships developed by my Ph.D. supervisor at McGill (Dr. Lauren Chapman), who has worked in Uganda in collaboration with NaFIRRI and others for almost 20 years.

It was important to us to involve local community members in our sampling as much as possible.  Whenever we first arrived at a fishing community, we met with the local authorities to explain our objectives, obtain permission to sample in the lake and negotiate the terms for hiring local fishermen as part-time field assistants.  We typically hired three to five fishermen at each lake, who rented us their canoes for a day or two and helped us with the sampling.

Working in such remote locations was fascinating and rewarding but also challenging at times, and I am grateful for the help of a wonderful, enthusiastic field team of Canadian and Ugandan students and scientists, without whom this expedition would not have been possible.
Q: What should the next steps be to ensure the future of fish in the Victoria Lake basin, both for biological diversity and to meet the protein needs of the millions of people in the region? You report that Uganda’s population is expected to triple by the year 2050.

Yes, the UN estimates that Uganda’s population will triple, topping 90 million, by 2050.  In fact, the region immediately surrounding Lake Victoria has the highest population growth rate on the African continent.  Meeting the basic needs of this growing population while sustaining the biodiversity and fisheries of the lake will be a major challenge.

As a first step, more research is certainly needed to be able to understand the dynamics of this complex and rapidly changing ecosystem and to guide management decisions in the future.   One of the major ongoing initiatives of the Ugandan government is to include local fishing communities in fisheries management through locally run Beach Management Units.   This system of co-management is still in its infancy, so we have yet to see how effective it will be.  Another suggestion being advanced by Ugandan fisheries scientists is to expand aquaculture, which would improve food security while also taking some pressure off of the wild fish stocks of Lake Victoria.

In terms of the mukene fishery specifically, one relatively straight-forward management solution is to encourage the transition from a near-shore to offshore fishery.  Research by a Ugandan fisheries student has already shown that this would simultaneously increase yields of mukene while reducing bycatch of other fish species, such as juvenile Nile perch and cichlids.

Dr. Phil Manning of the University of Manchester (U.K.) checks out the colors of a chameleon. Courtesy Phil Manning.

The discovery will be featured in “Jurassic C.S.I.: In Living Color,” premiering Thursday, July 7, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on National Geographic Channel (full series to air this August). Manning, who will host the new series, talks here about the discovery’s significance.

Q: How were you able to shed new light on how long-extinct birds — and by extension their relatives, the dinosaurs — looked?

A: For the first time, we are able to chemically map the presence of specific elements and compounds that correlate with the residue of pigment in several extinct species. Not only can we map the presence of specific pigments but we also can map their concentration, so this enables us to generate an image of the distribution of pigment patterning in extinct animals. The presence of pigment must not be confused with color, as even with a specific pigment being recognized, there are/were many factors that contribute to an organism’s entire color palette. Our team has unequivocally resolved the presence of eumelanin pigment, so we still have much work to do, but this is a major breakthrough.

Q: You applied a sophisticated technology to find chemical traces of eumelanin. What is the significance of eumelanin?

A: The technique we applied was called Synchrotron Rapid Scanning X-Ray Fluorescence (SRS-XRF). This allowed us to first map the chemistry of living species’ tissues, including skin, scales, feathers and hair, to provide us with information to relate to extinct species. Using the SRS-XRF, we were able to map the chemistry of fossils, which we then compared the chemistry of the living species’ samples. We were very pleased that the chemistry has remained relatively unaltered in some cases. Eumelanin has a copper atom at its structural heart, allowing us to map its presence, via its distinctive signal. Eumelanin is possibly the most important pigment in living species, and our study clearly identified this pigment’s presence and distribution in several extinct species. We can now use this copper-coordinated molecule to help unlock the pigment palette of many other extinct species.

Dr. Roy Wogelius of Manchester University (U.K.) checks the fossilized Confuciusornis sanctus specimen before it is subjected to intense rays at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Courtesy Phil Manning.

Q: Talk about the two fossilized birds that served as your study subjects. What species were they and what did you find in them?

A: The two main fossils that we analyzed in our study were the 120 million-year-old Confuciusornis sanctus, and the 110 million-year-old Gansus yumenensis. These species are both important in evolutionary terms, with C. sanctus being the first beaked bird and G. yumenensis being the most primitive member of the group that gave rise to modern birds. We were able to map elevated levels of eumelanin pigment in the neck, body and distal tail feathers of C. sanctus, but also resolve the subtle variations in tone and pigment concentrations within its wings. C. sanctus preserved both evidence of pigment chemistry but also the microscopic biological paint-pot (melanosome) that once held the pigment, so that the two were correlated for the first time. G. yumenensis, however, only preserved the distinctive copper “biomarker” indicating the presence of eumelanin pigment, given the structural (melanosome) data was long lost in the sands of time. So with G. yumenensis, without the SRS-XRF results, it would not have been possible to map the presence of the pigment.

Q: How is this approach different from the previously announced method of determining the colors of ancient creatures’ feathers?

A: Prior studies have relied upon the pigment “containers” called melanosomes (biological “paint pots”) to diagnose color. Our new results go beyond this and show that chemical remnants of pigments may survive even after the melanosome containing them has been destroyed, such as with Gansus yumenensis. The Gansus samples clearly preserve a chemical fossil, where almost all structure has been lost. More importantly the new technique allows scientists to rapidly map and quantify the chemistry of whole fossils, without having to remove samples from their precious new finds.

Top, optical images of: blue jay feather, squid, and fossil fish with feather. Bottom: x-ray images showing the distribution of copper (red) in the same organisms. Copper in the dark parts of the feathers, the fish eye, and the squid ink sack indicates the presence of eumelanin pigmentation and in combination with other elements can be used to map pigment distributions in fossils and existing organisms. Photos by Phil Manning/Nick Edwards/Holly Barden, University of Manchester. Data were collected at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, image created by Gregory Stewart, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Q: Where can this discovery take you and other scientists in the future? Will you be able to recreate the palettes of numerous extinct animal species?

A: The synchrotron at SSRL has been used for many years to probe the innermost workings of molecules to an almost impossibly small scale. Here the team from the University of Manchester and SSRL have shown it is possible to retain the sensitivity and probing ability of the synchrotron whilst working at a much larger scale (these fossils are giants in terms of synchrotron samples). The information gleaned from the current study is way beyond anything we could have dreamed of a few years ago. The potential for this technique to gently un-pick the chemistry of long extinct species is quite breathtaking. The possibility of mapping biosynthetic pathways, enzymatic reactions and mass-transfer of elements between organic and inorganic systems through deep time offers many areas of science, not just paleontology, a cracking insight to the past. More importantly, the hindsight that the fossil record provides will undoubtedly have benefits for understanding processes on earth both today and in the future. Advances in one field are often a function of a curve ball from another.

Watch a clip from Phil Manning’s upcoming show “Jurassic C.S.I.”:

Learn more about the show and tune in Thursday, July 7, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on National Geographic Channel.

Q: Your 10 seasons of field work in Madagascar have yielded a wealth of fossils — 555 specimens from last year’s expedition alone. What makes Madagascar such a rich place for paleontologists?

We’ve been fortunate to unearth some of the most complete and best preserved specimens of fossil vertebrates (backboned animals including fishes, frogs, turtles, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals) from the Cretaceous of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana, mostly from a small field area in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar. Their completeness and preservation is owing to unusual conditions that we’ve been able to reconstruct from a close examination of the rocks in which the specimens were entombed (e.g., Rogers and Krause, 2007).

The climate in the Late Cretaceous appears to have been much like it is today in the same general area — hot and dry for much of the year, resulting in severe droughts and stressed environments, but extremely wet for a few weeks or months. In other words, the climate was highly seasonal. The relatively brief rainy season dumped 40-50 inches of precipitation on the area annually. This resulted in massive debris flows that, with milkshake-like consistency, churned their way down from the highlands in the southeast and made their way into the Mahajanga Basin, where we find the fossils, and then on to the Mozambique Channel (Rogers, 2005).

These debris flows covered everything in their paths, including the bones of animals that had died, whether months or days before, and perhaps even living animals. It is these debris flows that entombed the remarkable fossils that we’ve been discovering since 1993. Because of their rapid burial, many of the specimens are remarkably well preserved, to the extent that even non-bony tissues (e.g., keratin) are known (Schweitzer et al., 1999).

Photo courtesy of David W. Krause

David W. Krause (right), with team members Joseph Groenke and Gina Sorrentino of Stony Brook University, examine remains of a sauropod dinosaur Sorrentino discovered in Madagascar.

Q: Talk about some of the most interesting and important finds you’ve made so far — what are your top four?

1) Well, first, I think discovering the skull of Majungasaurus crenatissimus back in 1996 ranks at the top. We knew there was a medium- to large-sized, meat-eating theropod dinosaur in the fauna because a French paleontologist by the name of Charles Depéret had described a couple of teeth and a few bone fragments of it back in 1896, a full century earlier. And we, in our expeditions of 1993 and 1995, had found literally hundreds more teeth and also more bones, including a nicely preserved premaxilla (Sampson et al., 1996). But finding the skull had become an obsession, and our patience (not really) and work were rewarded in 1996 when we uncovered an exquisitely preserved skull and lower jaws in a quarry that was littered with not-so-well preserved sauropod bones. The skull showed, without doubt, that parts of a skull of another dinosaur, long thought to be the only Gondwanan pachycephalosaurid, a dome-headed plant eater, were actually those of this meat eater; the skull solved what had become taxonomic and biogeographic enigmas. We described the skull in 1998 (Sampson et al., 1998) and since then have discovered several more skulls and, in fact, now have several partial skeletons as well, including one nearly complete one.

Interestingly, we also uncovered evidence revealing that M. crenatissimus was cannibalistic (Rogers et al., 2003).  In 2007 we produced a large monograph on M. crenatissimus (see Sampson and Krause, 2007), making it the most thoroughly documented representative of a diverse group of Gondwanan theropod dinosaurs known as the Abelisauroidea.

Photo by Lucille Betti-Nash

Majungasaurus crenatissimus, a large meat-eating dinosuar found by Krause and team — considered his top discovery in Madagascar.

2) Rahonavis was also an extremely interesting and important discovery. Although we have since discovered more bones of this animal, the first and still most complete partial skeleton was found in 1995 in a huge quarry that yielded several skeletons of the new, large sauropod dinosaur named Rapetosaurus (Curry Rogers and Forster, 2000). This skeleton included much of the vertebral column, the pelvis, hind limbs, and part of a wing. When we first described Rahonavis (Forster et al., 1998), we considered it to be a bird, albeit an early but still very primitive offshoot in the avian radiation. It had feathers and several other features that were then considered diagnostic of birds, but it also had several very primitive features, including a huge, sickle-like, raptorial claw on the second toe of the hind foot, very much like that in Velociraptor, the dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur of Jurassic Park fame. It was clearly close to the transition between dinosaurs and birds. Several more recent finds of dromaeosaurids, particularly in the Cretaceous of China and Argentina, however, show that they also had feathers and therefore have clarified the picture. Rahonavis was also a dromaeosaurid theropod, one that belonged to a particular group known as unenlagines otherwise known only from South America.

Art by Lucille Betti-Nash

Rahonavis, found by Krause and team in a huge quarry in Madagascar. The enormous, sickle-like raptorial claw on the animal’s second toe calls to mind Velociraptor of Jurassic Park fame. Rahonavis belonged to a group of animals otherwise only known from South America.

3) Simosuchus was based on an exquisitely preserved, articulated skull and most of the skeleton found in 1998 by a Malagasy graduate student, Louis Laurent Randriamiaramanana. It is an extremely unusual crocodyliform that seems to break many of the rules of being crocodile-like. Instead of having a long snout, it had a pug-nose. Instead of having long, conical teeth with which to capture prey, it had leaf-shaped teeth, probably used to eat vegetation. Instead of having a long, laterally compressed tail, it had an extremely short, uncompressed one. Instead of having a few rows of bony plates in its skin like most of its close relatives, it was enveloped in them, resulting in a tank-like body; it even had bony shields on its legs. And on and on. The phenomenal preservation of this specimen in particular, but also several more recently discovered skeletons, prompted us to thoroughly document the anatomy of Simosuchus and make inferences about its relationships and functional morphology in a recently published, large, multi-authored volume (Krause and Kley, 2010).

Art by Lucille Betti-Nash

Simosuchus, a crocodyliform, based on an exquisitely preserved specimen, that is decidedly uncrocodile-like — pug nose, leaf-shaped teeth, short tail.

4) Beelzebufo represents a different kind of discovery, one in which we were not able to find a single, reasonably complete, well-preserved “gee-whiz” specimen. Beginning in our first field season, we found bits and pieces of a monstrous frog and, knowing that it was huge, we kept referring to it as the “frog from hell.” Finally, in 2008, after 15 years, we decided to describe what we had, which consisted of 75 or so fragments, mostly from the skull (Evans et al., 2008). My colleague Cathy Forster, while working with us one day in the field, conjured up a name that was in keeping with our original description: Beelzebufo, which, translated literally from its Greek and Latin components, means “devil toad.” We estimated Beelzebufo to have been 16 inches long and to have weighed up to 10 pounds; it was, in fact, probably quite a formidable predator. In the last few days of our most recent field season (2010), we finally discovered articulated material, most of a skull, which we are now eagerly studying for more clues about the anatomy, relationships, and life habits of Beelzebufo. And this summer we intend to go back to the same site, hoping to find more of this same individual. [National Geographic News: Giant "Frog From Hell" Fossil Found in Madagascar]

Art by Lucille Betti-Nash

A monstrous frog the team named Beelzebufo — “devil toad” — dwarfs the largest frog living on present-day Madagascar. Beelzebufo is thought to have measured 16 inches long — and weighed up to 10 pounds.

Q: What do these finds tell you about the supercontinent Gondwana and the controversial question of how and when it broke apart?

A lot.  Our discoveries of vertebrate fossils from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar continue to have profound implications for the biogeographic and plate tectonic history of Gondwana. In essence, if the pattern of the distribution of organisms is frequently the result of the development of geographic barriers to dispersal, one mechanism for the development of such barriers is plate tectonics, which during the Cretaceous resulted in the Gondwanan supercontinent breaking into various landmasses – mainly South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Madagascar, and the Indian subcontinent. Animals that could not disperse across marine barriers were therefore left isolated on one or more of these subunits of the supercontinent to evolve (or go extinct) in isolation.

We now know that Madagascar has been physically isolated from all other major Gondwanan landmasses for over 85 million years; it’s been an island in the Indian Ocean for that long. It was therefore initially surprising to us to find vertebrate animals that had close relationships to taxa (organisms) that lived at roughly the same time near the end of the Late Cretaceous (roughly 66 million years ago), in both the Indian subcontinent and South America. This indicated a level of cosmopolitanism, to the exclusion of Africa, that had not been documented previously. It seemed, therefore, that much of the Gondwana supercontinent had remained connected for considerably longer into the Cretaceous than previously known.

In looking for ways to explain this cosmopolitanism, particularly to South America, we latched on to a paleogeographic reconstruction proposed by a group of geologists and geophysicists in 1999 that suggested a lingering connection between South America and Indo-Madagascar through Antarctica. Renewed assessment of this reconstruction, however, clearly shows that such lingering physical connections between Antarctica and Indo-Madagascar (the landmass including Madagascar, the Seychelles, and the Indian subcontinent) did not exist into the later stages of the Late Cretaceous (Ali and Aitchison, 2009; Ali and Krause, in press). Teaming up with geologist/geophysicist Jason Ali, I recently examined the best test cases among vertebrate animals for assessing physical connections between landmasses, those that were large and restricted to terrestrial environments (that is, those that were unlikely to have rafted or swum great distances) (Ali and Krause, in press). This pertains largely to dinosaurs and crocodyliforms, many of which were much less aquatic than the crocodiles of today. When we did this, we saw that the relationships of the taxa known from the latest Cretaceous of Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent revealed long ghost lineages, which simply means that their ancestors probably arrived on Indo-Madagascar much, much earlier than their current records would indicate. This may solve what has become a rather contentious issue over the last decade. It also points again to the need to find earlier records on Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent but also from these and other Cretaceous intervals on other Gondwanan landmasses.

Photo courtesy of David W. Krause

Krause’s team works at a particularly rich Madagascar fossil site found in 2005 to contain fossils of ancient birds.

Q: Your research has yielded more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters; what main conclusions do they draw about the overall significance of the vertebrate assemblage you have been unearthing and analyzing?

The answer to this question, in part, goes hand-in-hand with the preceding one. The entire assemblage is providing new insights into the biogeographic history of many groups of vertebrate animals, as well as the timing and sequence of Gondwanan fragmentation. But another significant aspect of the vertebrate assemblage has to do with documentation of the anatomy of individual species, reconstructing the relationships of the various groups that they represent, inferring aspects of their functional morphology and behavior (i.e., what they ate, how they moved), and finding clues to reconstruct the paleoenvironment and paleoclimate in which they lived. Owing to the remarkable preservation and completeness of the majority of the specimens, many of the taxa now serve as the best-known representatives of major groups of vertebrates. I think this is fair to say particularly with regards to the dinosaurs (e.g., the abelisaurid theropod Majungasaurus crenatissimus, the noasaurid theropod Masiakasaurus knopfleri, the titanosaurian sauropod Rapetosaurus krausei) and the crocodyliforms (e.g., the notosuchians Simosuchus clarki and Mahajangasuchus insignis) but also to several other groups and several still-to-be-described taxa.

Photo courtesy of David W. Krause

David Krause with a Malagasy child, at a dental clinic established by Krause’s team in Berivotra, Madagascar.

Q: Along with searching for fossils, you have made sure to leave something behind in Madagascar. Talk about the fund you have started to build schools and clinics in impoverished parts of Madagascar.

Because most of our work was concentrated in the same small field area year after year, we got to know the members of the community very well. From the very beginning of our work in Madagascar, the children seemed to follow us everywhere. They were fascinated by us, since foreigners were a rare sight in those early years. And they, in turn, were absolutely delightful, some of the happiest children I had ever encountered despite the fact that they live in horrible conditions in one of the very poorest countries in the world. We finally realized that they were with us every day of the week that we were traipsing around the badlands of Berivotra, and that they were therefore not going to school. We found out that they were not going to school because there was no school to go to; in fact, only a couple of the adults in the entire community had ever gone to school (they were from another area) and could read and write. Because the villagers in the community had helped us in various ways, we were looking for a way to repay them for their kindness. So, one day, I arranged for a meeting with the village leaders and asked them what we could do to help. Their #1 priority was an education for their children. When they informed me that we could start by hiring a teacher, which costs about $500 a year, it was a “no-brainer.” I went back to camp and we raised the teacher’s salary on the spot.

One thing led to another and in 1998 I founded an organization called the Madagascar Ankizy Fund (“ankizy” means children in the Malagasy language), whose mission is to provide education and health care to children living in remote areas of Madagascar . Since then we have built four schools in various parts of Madagascar (we will start building a fifth this summer), renovated an orphanage, dug many clean-water wells (thanks to Rotary International), and brought medical and dental teams from Stony Brook University into remote villages where there is no health care. Indeed, medical and dental care is virtually non-existent in many remote communities. It is actually very sad for us when we come back after a year or two of being away; some of the kids that we got to know very well had passed away from some easily treatable diseases. Respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, and malaria are the biggest killers among young children, and almost all of the children also have major protein and iron deficiencies and rampant parasitic infections. And almost all of them have dental pain, the result of poor diets and no dental care. Our health care teams therefore provide life-saving care for both children and adults in these communities. In turn, our health care workers, many of them medical and dental students, have unparalleled, life-changing experiences, both personally and professionally.  It’s a win-win situation.

Photo courtesy of Andrea Lewis

Opening day at one of four schools, this one a primary school,  built by David Krause and his team for the children of Madagascar. They had no school before this project.

LITERATURE CITED

Ali, J.R. & Aitchison, J.C. (2009) Kerguelen Plateau and the Late Cretaceous southern-continent bioconnection hypothesis: tales from a topographical ocean. Journal of Biogeography, 36, 1778-1784.

Ali, J. R., and D. W. Krause. In press. Late Cretaceous bio-connections between Indo-Madagascar and Antarctica: evaluation of the Gunnerus Ridge causeway hypothesis. Journal of Biogeography.

Curry Rogers, K. A., and C. A. Forster. 2001. The last of the dinosaur titans: a new sauropod from Madagascar. Nature 412:530-534.

Evans, S. E., M. E. H. Jones, and D. W. Krause. 2008. A giant frog with South American affinities from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(8):2951-2956.

Forster, C. A., S. D. Sampson, L. M. Chiappe, and D. W. Krause. 1998a. The theropod ancestry of birds: new evidence from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Science 279(5358):1915-1919.

Krause, D. W., and N. J. Kley (eds.). 2010. Simosuchus clarki (Crocodyliformes: Notosuchia) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 10. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30 (6, Supplement), 236 pp.

Rogers, R. R. 2005. Fine-grained debris flows and extraordinary vertebrate burials in the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Geology 33:297-300.

Rogers, R. R., and D. W. Krause. 2007. Tracking an ancient killer. Scientific American 296(2):32-39).

Rogers, R. R., D. W. Krause, and K. Curry Rogers. 2003.  Cannibalism in the Madagascan dinosaur Majungatholus atopus.  Nature 422:515-518.

Sampson, S. D., and D. W. Krause (eds.). 2007. Majungasaurus crenatissimus (Theropoda: Abelisauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 8, 184 pp. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27 (2, Supplement).

Sampson, S. D., D. W. Krause, P. Dodson, and C. A. Forster. 1996. The premaxilla of Majungasaurus (Theropoda, Ceratosauria), with implications for Gondwanan paleobiogeography. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16:601-605.

Sampson, S. D., L. M. Witmer, C. A. Forster, D. W. Krause, P. M. O’Connor, P. Dodson, and F. Ravoavy. 1998. Predatory dinosaur remains from Madagascar: implications for the Cretaceous biogeography of Gondwana. Science 280:1048-1051.

Schweitzer, M. H., J. A. Watt, R. Avci, C. A. Forster, D. W. Krause, L. Knapp, R. R. Rogers, I. Beech, and M.  Marshall.  1999.  Keratin immunoreactivity in the Late Cretaceous bird Rahonavis ostromi. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19(4):712-722.

Q: Monarchs are floating through neighborhoods across the United States this spring. Where are they coming from and where are they going?

Almost every monarch butterfly east of the Rocky Mountains spends the winter near the tops of forest-clad mountains in central Mexico, about 100 kilometers west of Mexico City.  Now that we’ve just passed the spring equinox, the tight aggregations of butterflies are breaking up and the monarchs are flying north to the abundant milkweeds across the southern United States, from Texas to Florida. These butterflies are looking for patches of milkweeds, where mated females will lay their eggs and most of them will die, leaving their offspring to continue to find and use milkweeds distributed all the way to southern Canada.

Photo by Lincoln Brower, Sweet Briar College

Photo by Stephen B. Malcolm

Top Photo: Basking male and female Danaus plexippus — the northern monarch species — in Michoachan, Mexico. The northern and southern species appear almost identical, except that the trailing edge of the northern type’s forewing is black, while in the southern species it’s orange. Northern monarchs are migrating from Mexico to the northern United States and Canada this spring.

Bottom photo: A male Danaus erippus (southern monarch) feeds on nectar near Tucuman, Argentina. Do these southern monarchs migrate?

Q: What kinds of hurdles do these migrating insects face throughout their range, and are they struggling as a species?

Monarchs do not appear to be struggling as a species because they have a worldwide distribution, but they are confronted by a series of hurdles throughout their life histories. These include both legal and illegal forestry activities in Mexico at the overwintering locations and intensive agriculture in the U.S., Canada and northern Mexico, where monarchs are impacted by both genetically modified crops and the use of insecticides and herbicides.

We also think that the butterflies are being impacted by global climate change both through shifts in available carbon dioxide that change milkweed chemical defenses and changes in temperature regimes that lead to depletion of adult butterfly fat reserves. Increasing urbanization of North America as human populations increase also leads to disappearance of critically important milkweed habitat and milkweed host plant diversity.

Q: What can the average person do to provide support to the monarchs that cross their path?

The most popular measures include “butterfly gardening” — planting attractive milkweed host plants for larvae and flowering nectar resources that help adults store the fat they need for migration and overwintering. But it is important to plant milkweed and nectar plants that occur in your neighborhood rather than species that you can buy online or might have collected elsewhere.

Different milkweeds and nectar plants influence the success of monarchs, and we think that they are responsible for the extraordinary migratory life history of monarchs.  For example, in the northern U.S., it makes most sense to grow the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, which has a delightful scent and very showy flowers. They can be quite invasive, but in a dedicated butterfly garden with barriers to stop the underground spread of the unusual stems of this species, the plant can be controlled.

Other attractive species include butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, and swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, but these two species have regional forms, and it may be important to use local seed.

In the southern U.S., perhaps the best species is the green milkweed, Asclepias viridis. The most easily grown milkweed species is Asclepias curassavica, also known as blood flower for its showy red and yellow flowers, but this species is really from South America, and I don’t think it should be used intentionally to feed wild monarch larvae in North America.

Photo by Stephen B. Malcolm

Photo: Larva of Danaus erippus — the southern monarch — with Danaus gilippus, a relative of the monarch, feeding on a common milkweed plant near Campinas, Brazil.

Q: Your research especially focuses on the southern monarch found in South America, the little-known sister species of the northern variety. When was this species discovered and how?

The southern monarch butterfly was named Danaus erippus by Cramer in 1775, but until 2007 it was thought to be a subspecies of the northern monarch, Danaus plexippus, because the two butterflies are startlingly similar in appearance, the only difference apparently being that the trailing edge of the forewing of plexippus is black, but in erippus it is orange.

However, in 2007 the two species were shown to be distinct, although they are extremely closely related. So because the two species are very brightly colored and common, they have been known since Linnaeus started to catalog species diversity in Sweden in the 18th century. However, unlike plexippus, which has received a large amount of attention from researchers, almost nothing is known about erippus in South America.

Q: The southern monarch has a puzzling migration pattern, correct?

We know a great deal about migration in plexippus and overwintering in both Mexico and along the coast of California and the seasonal movements of this handsome butterfly. However, for erippus in South America, we only know from a series of anecdotal papers by Hayward that the butterfly shows seasonal movements in Argentina.

In North America, monarchs exploit approximately 120 species of Asclepias milkweeds as larval host plants, but in South America monarchs only have access to six or perhaps eight species of Asclepias. The butterflies also fly south in the autumn along the eastern edge of the Andes Mountains in Argentina, a very puzzling phenomenon that takes them to colder latitudes for the winter.

Last April we spent two weeks watching 40,000 to 50,000 monarchs a day flying south along the foothills of the Andes, just west of Tucumán in north western Argentina. So far, we haven’t a clue about where they are going for the winter, although we have seen them clustering and nectaring like northern monarchs in the valleys of the eastern Andes near Tucumán. In Bolivia we think that the monarchs may show an altitudinal migration that may perhaps also result in some butterflies migrating south into Argentina for the winter.

Photo by Stephen B. Malcolm

Photo by Stephen B. Malcolm

Photos: A male Danaus erippus (southern monarch) and a female (lower photo) warm up before setting out to find nectar sources near Tucuman, Argentina. The female southern monarch’s wing color is darker than that of the male.

Q: Unlike the northern monarch, the southern monarch has a very low diversity of available host plants. What is the comparison of the two species’ life histories showing about the role of plant diversity and dispersion in the evolution of migration?

As indicated above, northern monarchs have a very wide choice of available milkweed species, and we think that the northern, common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, is very important to monarch breeding and migration success. We also think that southern milkweed species are important for the effective defense of the butterflies and their larvae against predators such as birds, mice, wasps, ants and perhaps parasites because the butterfly larvae eat and store toxic chemicals called cardenolides that they use to poison natural enemies. This is perhaps the main reason why monarch butterflies are so brightly colored — by advertising their toxicity they are largely left alone by enemies.

In our research in South America, we are hypothesizing that these factors are also important. For example, we have found the southern monarch exploiting a very toxic, high-altitude milkweed called Asclepias barjoniifolia, at 4,000 meters altitude. It would be exciting if the distribution of this plant species encourages altitudinal migration in southern monarchs because butterflies that feed on this plant are especially toxic to predators.

Photo by Barbara Cockrell

Photo: Professor Stephen B. Malcolm of Western Michigan University near Sucre, Bolivia, with a favorite plant of the southern monarch butterfly. Malcolm is on the trail of the southern monarch, only recently identified as a separate species from the northern, closely related sister species known in the United States.

By Barbara Moffet

Q: The northern bald ibis was considered extinct in Syria for more than 70 years, according to the scientific literature. Tell us about how this legendary bird was rediscovered — and when and where.

We rediscovered the bald ibis on a remote cliff of the Syrian desert in April 2002, following clues from local hunters and Bedouin nomads as part of a general fauna survey of the area. The birds were the oriental subspecies of northern bald ibis, which had not been seen for many years.

Q: How many individuals were found?

We found seven breeding adults in 2002. Since then, thanks to protection efforts, 24 chicks successfully have fledged. But we estimated that only 20 percent survived the migration and dispersal period to return back to their breeding site.

Northern bald ibises at their wintering grounds on the Ethiopian highlands in November 2008. (Photo courtesy of G. Serra.)

Ibis heiroglyph found in Karnak, Egypt. (Photo by Gérard Ducher/Wikimedia Commons)

Q: This bird is a bit famous in Egypt — it goes back thousands of years to the time of the ancient Egyptians, correct? Can you say a bit about the historical representations of the northern bald ibis and the legend surrounding it?

The northern bald ibis as a species was revered as a deity by ancient Egyptian dynasties, as evidenced by its unmistakable hieroglyph. The ibis, as a family of birds with a curved bill, was considered a symbol of wisdom by Egyptians. This myth is still found nowadays among the desert nomads in the region.

Q: Your interest is to turn around the severe decline of this species, but one complication for conservation is that this bird doesn’t stay in one place — it migrates twice a year. Talk about the trip it takes and how you were able to determine where it winters.

We care for this bird as a symbol and flagship for the rampant ecological degradation and desertification of the Syrian steppe, which is driving so many people into poverty and hardship. But preventing extinction of a long-range migratory bird, starting from few surviving individuals, is something attempted with success only in the United States so far (e.g. whooping crane). We managed to discover in 2006 that these ibises cross eight countries twice a year in their migratory flight from Syria desert to Ethiopia highlands (thanks to a grant from the National Geographic Society and working in cooperation with RSPB and Birdlife).

Q: The northern bald ibis has had some unusual champions — some public officials?

Mrs. Assad, the Syrian First Lady, played a crucial role in making the satellite tagging operation become reality in 2006. Thanks to this operation we discovered the ibis migration route and the wintering grounds. Mrs. Assad also was instrumental in recruiting the Turkish First Lady and the Turkish Ministry of Forestry last year to help start a key ibis transnational cooperation between the two countries.

The Syrian First Lady visiting the ibis nesting site in May 2010. (Photo courtesy of the Office of the Syrian First Lady.)

Northern bald ibises in flight at their wintering grounds on the Ethiopian highlands in November 2008. (Photo courtesy of G. Serra)

Q: What are some of the key threats to the bird, and how are you addressing those?

Hunting at breeding grounds in Syria, which had been extremely detrimental, was curbed, due to efforts of the Syrian Desert Commission. We still need to minimize disturbance by people during breeding. The IUCN West Asia is trying to develop an ibis protected area in Palmyra, Syria, according to international standards. The Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society have helped us determine that there is no short-term threat at the wintering grounds in Ethiopia.

Using satellite tracking and National Geographic support we have recently identified the two most likely severe causes of the huge mortality of immature ibises along western Arabia: hunting and electrocution by electric cables.

This discovery has important and general conservation implications, as the ibis migratory route along western Arabia is a major flyway used by other threatened soaring birds.

A first-year juvenile perched on an electric cable in southern Saudi Arabia. (Photo by M. S. Abdallah)

Q: You had a major conservation success last summer at the Palmyra breeding grounds. Please explain.

In July 2009 we had tagged with sat transmitters two immature birds in Palmyra, Syria. One of them was named Julia in honor of Mrs. Julia Marton Lefevre, the director general of IUCN, who had visited the colony earlier in the spring. At the end of the first day of migration, on 20 July 2009, as soon as the birds reached the village of Tabarjal in northern Saudi Arabia, Julia was shot down (see photo taken by the hunter himself). I even met the hunter who had killed Julia (see photo).

Last moment of life of ibis Julia, photographed by the hunter himself, in northern Saudi Arabia, July 2009. (Photo courtesy of Saudi Wildlife Commission.)

Staff from the Saudi Wildlife Commission talking with the hunter who had shot Julia in July 2009, during the National Geographic expedition in March 2010. (Photo courtesy of G. Serra.)

Last summer we managed to carry out a test at the breeding grounds in Palmyra, Syria, the first of its kind. Two chicks born in captivity in Turkey, belonging to the same genetic stock, were released at the wild colony (see photo, with wild birds on top of the cage containing the birds to be released). And amazingly they followed one of the wild adults for almost 1,500 km along the migratory route up to southern Saudi Arabia. This test was successful, despite considerable doubts we had. (We had been discussing on how to carry out this delicate operation for many years.) This conservation operation had also international politics implications, as it was made possible by direct intervention of the first ladies of the two countries.

An adult bald ibis perched on the aviary containing the captive-born birds ready to be released at the breeding site of the wild colony in Syria, July 2010.  (Photo by L. Peske)

Some days ago, Zenobia, an adult female, safely arrived in Palmyra, Syria, as the first of the colony. It was Prince Badar bin Saud, head of the Saudi Wildlife Commission, who informed us that a hunter from the same group of those who had killed Julia in 2009 had met Zenobia a few days before in the middle of the vast Saudi northern desert; this time, instead of shooting, the hunters recognized it was a bald ibis and they just took a picture! In fact, raising awareness of Saudi hunters along ibis migratory route seems one of the most urgent short-term objectives.

Female Zenobia during satellite tagging at Palmyra, Syria, in 2006. (Photo courtesy of G. Serra)

Q: Is conservation of the northern bald ibis your full-time job? How did you get interested in this not-so-pretty creature?

No, it is not a full-time job, Yes it is, but because this project was plagued by a chronic lack of funds, I was forced to do a lot of volunteering. This bird is a fascinating one, not only because of the deep symbolic value attached to it by the civilizations of the region during millennia but also because of the contrast between its wrinkled and bald appearance close-up and its elegance and beauty when in flight over the desert. Like the famous albatross of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner: clumsy while walking on the deck of the ship, beautiful while flying over the ocean.

Credits: Syrian First Lady, Syrian Desert Commission, Prince Bandar and the Saudi Wildlife Commission, Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Environment, IUCN, BirdLife, RSPB, Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society

Partners and credits: Syrian and Turkish First Ladies, Prince Bandar bin Saud, Syrian General Badia Commission, Saudi Wildlife Commission, Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Environment, IUCN West Asia, BirdLife ME, RSPB, Waldrappteam, Mr Lubomir Peske, Alpenzoo, Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society, National Geographic Society, Italian Development Cooperation, Monaco Foundation.

Barbara S. Moffet is a senior director of communications at the National Geographic Society. She specializes in shining a spotlight on the Society’s numerous grant recipients, who do field research around the world.

Blog posts by Barbara Moffet >

Q: We’ve heard about some vandalism that occurred several days ago at the Cairo museum. (Pictures: Ancient Egyptian Artifacts Damaged in Looting.) What about the key sites outside of Cairo?

There are reports from several areas outside Cairo that have sustained damage or looting. On the other hand the major sites in Luxor and Aswan seem to be safe, and are even open to visitors. Other, especially rural areas of Egypt are very quiet, and life goes on pretty much as usual.

The head of the mummy of King Tutankhamun, from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, first published in 2009 in National Geographic magazine. The mummy has survived the current unrest intact.

NGS stock photo by Kenneth Garrett

The funerary mask of King Tutankhamun, from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It has escaped damage in connection with protests in the city.

NGS stock photo by Kenneth Garrett

Q: What are some of the most unique and valuable treasures of Egypt?

The contents of the tomb of Tutankhamun are of course among the most famous archaeological treasures in the world, but what I am really worried about are the things that have not yet been studied, have not yet been published, or have not been mapped or excavated. Through random digging by looters we are losing valuable information on Egypt’s history and culture. An excavation is a one time opportunity: it can only be done that once, and if it is not executed or recorded properly the information is lost forever.

Q: How do average Egyptians view their patrimony?

In general Egyptians are very proud of their cultural heritage, something that was beautifully illustrated by the human chain protecting the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. There is a strong feeling that Egypt is unique in the world, and that there is a direct line between the forebears of the Pharaonic period, and present day Egyptian families. It is expressed, for instance, in personal names such as Nefertiti, Ramses, or Menat, given by both Coptic and Muslim parents to their children as a reflection of this pride and appreciation of a glorious past.

A nested set of coffins from King Tut’s tomb, also thought to be safe. The coffins are housed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the richest collection of Egyptian antiquities.

NGS stock photo by Kenneth Garrett

Statues of Tutankhamun and Ankesenamun at Luxor Temple, Luxor, Egypt. Ancient sites there are thought to be safe.

NGS stock photo by Kenneth Garrett

The Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile River. The valley was the principal burial place of major royal figures of the Egyptian New Kingdom, including King Tut.

NGS stock photo by Kenneth Garrett

Q: What is the nature of your own research in Egypt, and has it been affected by the uprising?

My own research, which by definition is cooperative, involving researchers from at least ten different countries (including of course Egypt), concentrates on the Fayum, an oasis 60 miles southwest of Cairo. In the past days I have mainly tried to find out whether my colleagues and friends are OK. I have asked one of my Egyptian colleagues to check whether there is any damage to the area we work in, but frankly speaking I don’t expect there to be. I am working in settlements, rather than tombs, and we excavate mostly ancient garbage, rather than ‘precious’ objects. I hope to go back to Egypt as scheduled in September.

Barbara S. Moffet is a senior director of communications at the National Geographic Society. She specializes in shining a spotlight on the Society’s numerous grant recipients, who do field research around the world.

Related News Watch blog posts:

Looted Treasures Recovered, Egypt’s Antiquities Chief Reports

UN Calls on Egypt to Safeguard its “Cultural Identity”

Young Egyptians Rally to Protect Egypt’s Ancient Heritage

Plundering of Tombs, Museums, Antiquities Widespread, Egyptian Official Reports

Ancient Treasures Looted, Destroyed in Egypt’s Chaos

Ancient Egypt
A collection of National Geographic Magazine photos and features about the world’s greatest trove of ancient treasures.