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On the night we sailed across the Equator the sun set fire to the sea and sky, creating a dramatic setting for the shadowy dormant volcanoes lining the horizon around us. It was a memorable moment celebrated over a glass of champagne on the bridge deck of National Geographic Endeavour. We were roughly midway through…
Following tests on smaller islands, the government of Ecuador today begins the second phase of dropping massive amounts of specially designed poison on a Galapagos island thought to be infested with nearly 200 million invasive rats. Introduced centuries ago by pirates, whalers and other visitors, the rodents wreak havoc among the wildlife of Galapagos by preying on eggs and hatchlings of bird and reptile species.
When the African penguin made a comeback to the South African mainland in the 1980s, most people were thrilled that the embattled bird was again breeding in places other than on a few rocky islets off the coast of Cape Town. Fences and viewing platforms were erected to protect the penguins from tourists flocking to…
As rising temperatures continue to shrink the extent of Arctic summer sea-ice, there has been much speculation as to why the ice cover on the opposite side of the planet has expanded slightly in recent years. Now British scientists have found the explanation–and it’s related to climate change. Using data gathered by U.S. military satellite-tracking…
National Geographic Magazine Editor in Chief Chris Johns has been on some pretty big photo shoots, but this one, he says, took the cake for sophistication, human effort on every front, and cutting-edge technology. He made the comment in the Cincinnati Zoo video (above) of what it took to film the setting of a new…
Hillary Clinton to ask intelligence community to look into illegal wildlife trade; pledges $100,000 to launch new global system of enforcement.
Some 250,000 giant tortoises once roamed the Galapagos islands. But taken for meat by pirates and whalers, their populations collapsed to near extinction. We visit the Charles Darwin Research Research Center to see how the giant tortoise has been restored, and we visit scores of wild tortoises in their natural habitat in the highlands of Santa Cruz Island.
In 1835 Charles Darwin arrived on Floreana Island in the Galapagos, noting in his journal that it had long been frequented, first by buccaneers, latterly by whalers–and then political dissidents exiled from mainland South America. The giant tortoises Darwin saw on Floreana have since been extirpated from the island and the prisoners and pirates exist only in history. But the scenery he described remains much the same, and a tradition of leaving mail in a “post office barrel” for collection and delivery by passing ships has endured for two centuries.
In the lighthearted NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ANGRY BIRDS: 50 True Stories of the Fed up, Feathered, and Furious (National Geographic Books; ISBN 978-1-4262-0996-3; on-sale date: Sept. 25, 2012; $13.95 paperback), author and avian expert Mel White reveals fascinating facts about angry bird behavior and tips on how to stay clear of the furious fowl. “Each amusing anecdote, which…
Alex Chadwick is Host and Senior Correspondent for The Public Radio Energy Series BURN: An Energy Journal . His two-hour election special “The Power of One,” airs in the coming week and looks at how individuals, new scientific ideas, grassroots initiatives and potentially game-changing inventions are informing the energy debate in this Presidential election year, and redefining…
We’ve heard of coral dying, but did anyone imagine that dead humans could contribute to keeping reefs alive?
This is the second post in my account of a ten-day exploration of the Galapagos, on board the National Geographic Endeavour. In the first post, I described our arrival on the island of San Cristobal and our first visit to a Galapagos beach. We awoke on the first full day of our expedition to…
Bewitched, enchanted, beguiling. Those are just some of the terms explorers across five centuries have used to describe the Galapagos, an unmatched archipelago of islands drifting in the vastness of the open ocean, in the middle of nowhere.
In an effort to engage children in both fitness and recycling, National Geographic Kids magazine is attempting to break two Guinness World Records titles today and tomorrow. “Through the magazine’s Run for the Planet program, in coordination with the prestigious Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) Healthy Kids Fun Run, people all over the world will attempt…
Just in time for Halloween, our new book, Tales of the Weird: Unbelievable True Stories, was released this week.
A new species of freshwater fish found in Mexico has several interesting – and perhaps cringe-inducing – characteristics, including four hooks on the male genitalia, North Carolina State University said this week.
Four white rhinos were poached for their horns in a privately owned nature reserve in South Africa this week, taking the total number of rhinos killed illegally in the country this year to around 400. The total number of rhinos poached in South Africa in all of 2011 was 448, compared with 333 in 2010.
Virus hunters published a paper today in the science journal PLOS Pathogens, describing how a team spanning a number of institutions identified a deadly virus unknown to exist until it killed three people within a few days in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They used sophisticated technologies and techniques to detect the new virus, which could cause fatal hemorrhagic fever outbreaks similar to Ebola. Research like this can isolate viruses before they can cause epidemics.
A Cebu priest known for his collection of religious icons carved from ivory may have incriminated himself with his revelations on the illegal trade in an investigative report appearing in National Geographic and reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippine newspaper reported on its front page today. Monsignor Cristobal Garcia could face up to…
National Geographic’s undercover investigation into how the global religious market for ivory is a driving force in the slaughter of thousands of African elephants has prompted extensive media coverage — and calls for an official inquiry — in the Philippines. Bryan Christy reported in the October 2012 issue of National Geographic that he traveled to the…
By Jonathan Alderfer, National Geographic Birding Books Editor Three hundred years ago, in 1712, an unheralded Englishman named Mark Catesby arrived in America. His trip began with a visit to Williamsburg, Virginia, but the discovery and description of the little-unknown flora and fauna of the Colonies became his obsession and he stayed for seven years.…
The panda cub born a week ago at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., was found dead early today.
As bird populations plummet worldwide, will Earth become the Planet of the Spiders? Research on Guam, a 30-mile-long U.S. island in the Pacific, found that arachnid populations increased as much as 40-fold in the wake of insect-eating birds being eaten into oblivion by invasive brown treesnakes.
Five outstanding female scientists were granted 2012 L’Oréal USA Fellowships for Women in Science at a ceremony in New York City this week. Each Fellow receives up to U.S.$60,000 to continue post-doctoral research. The program also offers professional development workshops for the Fellows to help them build networks with accomplished female leaders in corporate, academic,…
Elephants are being illegally killed across Africa at the highest rates in a decade, and the global religious market for ivory is a driving force. “Ivory Worship,” the cover story in the October issue of National Geographic, offers the first in-depth investigation of this untold story. For a behind-the-scenes perspective on this story, we interviewed…
