Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i National Geographic Magazine

KEYTRUDA immunotherapy + chemotherapy (pemetrexed and a platinum) for advanced nonsquamous, non–small cell lung cancer that does not have an abnormal EGFR or ALK gene. “A year after my diagnosis, I couldn’t be happier with my results. Where I am now compared to a year ago, it’s a story worth sharing.”—Katy KEYTRUDA will not work for everyone. Results may vary. A clinical trial compared patients with advanced nonsquamous, non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received KEYTRUDA in combination with chemotherapy (410 patients) with those who received chemotherapy alone (206 patients). Patients in the trial did not have an abnormal EGFR or ALK gene and had no previous drug treatment. WHEN TREATED WITH A COMBINATION OF KEYTRUDA AND CHEMOTHERAPY: MORE PATIENTS LIVED LONGER 69% of patients taking KEYTRUDA with chemotherapy were…

ONE OF THE WORLD’S most endangered marine animals is a pintsize porpoise known as the vaquita. It exists only in the Gulf of California off Mexico. No one knows exactly how many are now alive; by 2018 fewer than 19 were left, researchers estimate. Unless the species’ decline can be slowed, vaquitas likely will become extinct before 2021, which raises the question: How did we let this happen? A stocky creature about four and a half feet long, the vaquita is the smallest of the cetaceans, a family that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Dark pigment edging vaquitas’ eyes gives them a bovine look; in Spanish, the animal’s name means “little cow.” Shortly after scientists discovered the species in 1950, they realized it was in trouble. Vaquitas were regularly drowning…

I BEGAN MY CAREER covering conflicts. Starting at 26, I found myself in places such as Kosovo, Angola, Gaza, Afghanistan, and Kashmir. My reason for going, I told myself, was to document the brutality. I thought the most powerful stories were those driven by violence and destruction. While the importance of shining a light on human conflict shouldn’t be minimized, focusing only on that turned my world into a horror show. But slowly, as I covered conflict after conflict, it became clear to me that journalists also have an obligation to illuminate the things that unite us as human beings. If we choose to look for what divides us, we will find it. If we choose to look for what brings us together, we will find that too. Those years…

OF ALL THE LARGE AFRICAN MAMMALS that wildlife veterinarian Pete Morkel has had to capture over his career—lions, forest elephants, white rhinos—giraffes are the most stressful. “With other animals, you’re trying to give just enough anesthetic to immobilize them, but with a giraffe, we use a total overdose to chemically knock them off their feet,” the sun-leathered 59-year-old tells me as I stalk him stalking a two-year-old female giraffe somewhere in the Nigerien bush, about 60 miles east of Niamey, Niger’s capital. He is wearing a camo hat and a pair of torn, purple-checkered boxers that he’s been wearing as shorts for the past several days. Morkel has loaded his dart gun with a dose of etorphine, an opioid about 6,000 times more powerful than morphine. Once it penetrates the…

A NAKED MOLE RAT. That was photographer Joel Sartore’s first model in 2006 when he began making studio portraits of animals in captivity. The purpose: to capture for posterity species that someday might be extinct. To reflect the project’s life-preserving mission, Sartore named it Photo Ark. By the time you read this, Sartore expects to have portraits of nearly 10,000 animals in the Ark. He plans to keep going to 15,000, which could take another 10-15 years. We asked him about his project, which we’re featuring in this special issue on endangered wildlife. Of the species you’ve photographed that have since gone extinct, what’s one of the most memorable? I’d say the Rabbs’ fringe-limbed tree frog, Ecnomiohyla rabborum. A few years ago there was one left alive, a male, at…

MORE THAN A QUARTER of all species assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature are considered threatened. Many species have moved through several of the IUCN Red List categories—from least concern to vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, and ultimately extinct. But every once in a while, a species takes a step away from the brink—in other words, it’s downlisted. That doesn’t always happen without help. Conservation measures over the years helped improve the status of 13 animal species worldwide in 2018 (five are shown here). Such downlistings are worth celebrating, but some scientists worry that they’ll slow the momentum required to keep an animal safe. In assessments so far in 2019 where the status changed, in every case the species declined. FUNCTIONALLY EXTINCT POPULATIONS DON’T HAVE ENOUGH MEMBERS TO…

WHEN NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALES migrate along North America’s eastern seaboard, they run a gantlet of fishing lines in their path. Today 83 percent of the population shows signs of entanglement, a leading cause of death for this endangered species. Fishing for crab and lobster involves placing traps (also called pots) on the ocean floor and marking the spot with a surface buoy that’s connected to the traps with a sturdy line. But the lines routinely harm whales; they cut into flesh and impede the whales’ diving, surfacing for air, and feeding. To CT Harry of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a remedy seems clear: “Fishing without vertical lines is what’s going to save this species.” 1 Encountering traps Right whales, which see mostly in black and white, often…

LIFE, BESIEGED Most of the animals shown on these pages are among the more than 28,000 species of animals and plants that the International Union for Conservation of Nature says are threatened with extinction. That number actually understates the risk. Since 1964, when the IUCN established a “red list” of threatened species and began compiling data gathered worldwide, the list has become the preeminent global database of endangered life and an essential tool for conservation policy. Yet the IUCN has been able to assess only about 106,000 species of the more than 1.5 million species of animals and more than 300,000 plants that scientists have described and named—which they estimate is less than a quarter of what’s really out there. A recent intergovernmental report on the biodiversity crisis estimated that…

Some 110,000 giraffes roam throughout Africa, down from a million in the 1700s. Scientists had long believed that all giraffes belonged to a single species, but new DNA research has identified four distinct species. Top threats to giraffes include habitat fragmentation, deforestation, war, and poaching. Spotting differences NORTHERN GIRAFFE The Kordofan and Nubian, subspecies of northern giraffes, are most threatened, living mainly in war-torn countries. Northern giraffes lack spots on the lower legs. RETICULATED GIRAFFE Reticulated giraffes get their name from their clearly defined patches. There is some evidence that their numbers—although low—are stabilizing in Kenya. MASAI GIRAFFE Of the four main species, Masai giraffes have the darkest complexion. Thirty years ago this species was the most populous, but it’s since been reduced by half. SOUTHERN GIRAFFE The southern giraffe…

DAVID HERASIMTSCHUK often spends as many as 10 hours in water not much warmer than freezing. He floats and bobs in a dry suit, clutching his camera—and waiting. You wouldn’t know it from his extreme patience, but he’s actually in a rush. “Many of these species have been around for millions of years,” he says, “and it’s only in the last hundred that they’ve started to vanish.” Herasimtschuk is a photographer and cinematographer for Freshwaters Illustrated, a conservation nonprofit that sends him around the world to document imperiled wildlife in lakes, rivers, and creeks. Scientists believe that more than 20 percent of freshwater fish species are threatened or already extinct, as dams constrain migration routes and habitats are made inhospitable by pollution runoff and rising water temperatures. These losses affect…

SOME SCIENTISTS contend that we’re heading toward what would be the sixth mass extinction in the history of life on Earth. Human activity has increased the rate of extinction by several orders of magnitude. A recent UN report says around one million species “are now threatened with extinction, many within decades.” That prospect is grim but not inevitable. Across the world, scientists are using new technologies and unorthodox approaches to bring species back. From lending a hand in breeding to training dogs to sniff out rare gorillas, scientists are taking extraordinary measures to save the animals they love. 1. GOLDEN POISON FROG ENDANGERED Marketing options Coveted by amphibian collectors, this frog has been heavily poached. Conservationist Ivan Lozano captive-breeds a naturally occurring variant of the species—black-foot terribilis, a gold frog…

TO SEE ALL THAT’S HOPEFUL and appalling about the way we treat sea turtles, there’s no better place to start than the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah hotel. This shimmering tower of blue and white glass is shaped like the jib of a sailboat bound for shore. It rose two decades ago on an artificial island amid the steel forest of construction cranes that is Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates. A royal suite, at 8,396 square feet, comes with a private cinema and 17 pillow options. A weekend stay can top $50,000. I have come here, though, to see its nonpaying guests. Passing a fleet of white Rolls-Royces, I meet British expat marine biologist David Robinson. We take an elevator down to a parking garage and walk by Lamborghinis…

PRIVATE COLLECTORS’ PASSION FOR PALEONTOLOGY MEANS THAT DINOSAURS AND OTHER FOSSIL GIANTS CAN TURN UP ALMOST ANYWHERE. AT A MOTEL IN THE MIDDLE of Tucson, Arizona, a head and neck surgeon in cowboy boots and blue jeans is sitting by the pool and rhapsodizing about fossilized skulls. He brought one along in his carry-on luggage on the flight into town, and he’s plainly thrilled by the perfect state of the braincase and the openings where cranial nerves once ran. “I can see the optic nerve that gave vision,” he says, as if the skull’s former occupant still lives. “I can see the abducens nerve, which allowed lateral eye motion, and the trigeminal nerve, which gave sensation to the skin of the face.” The surgeon has asked not to be identified in…