Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i National Geographic Magazine

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORERS These contributors have received funding from the National Geographic Society, which is committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world. Esther Horvath, p.116 Named an Explorer in 2024, Horvath has been documenting scientific expeditions in Earth’s coldest places for nearly a decade. This month, she focused on women working at an epicenter of climate change in Svalbard, Norway. Tomas van Houtryve, p.88 Utilizing a variety of tools, including drone videography, the photographer has been covering Notre Dame’s restoration since the terrible fire in 2019. Based in Paris, he became an Explorer earlier this year. Elizabeth Royte, p.60 Royte’s previous rattlesnake encounters involved cautiously navigating around them on hikes. Until this feature, “I never before had the luxury of closely observing these animals with an expert.”…

IN EGYPT’S VAST DESERT, Siwa Oasis supports a town of 35,000 people. It also attracts tourists who come for camel rides, sandboarding, ancient ruins, and salty lakes. But these bodies of water are a sign of trouble in paradise. Before the 1980s, Siwa’s only source of water was 200 naturally flowing springs. To expand agriculture in the region, farmers drilled thousands of wells to access groundwater in the aquifers below. The wells supplied more water for irrigation, but without a well-planned drainage system in place, excess water produced salty drainage lakes and caused waterlogging and salinization of the soil. Ironically, too much water in this desert attraction is leading to the deterioration of agriculture, killing cash crops like date palms, which are crucial to creating the humid microclimate of the…

LLAMAS SEEM TO GRAZE EVERYWHERE in Peru’s mountains, but none are quite as memorable as the herd at Choquequirao. Fashioned out of white rocks and embedded in gray schist walls, two dozen beguiling llamas have stood fixed in stone for centuries. “There is nothing else like this in the Andes,” says Gori-Tumi Echevarría, who specializes in prehistoric rock art and has worked at the sprawling pre-Columbian archaeological complex since 2005, a year after the llamas were discovered. “It was an artistic innovation that occurred prior to the 16th century and was never repeated.” In the Andes of southern Peru, Choquequirao is a cousin to the more frequently visited Machu Picchu, just 27 miles northeast. The complex of structures was created by Inca architects; it includes ceremonial halls, chambers that once…

THEY HAD NAMES such as Tom the Terror, Wockle, Bounce, Dirty Face, and Bilgewater. They traveled thousands of miles on the most storied warships with some of history’s saltiest sailors. They were valued members of the crew, even issued custom miniature uniforms for photographs and their own tiny hammocks for catnapping. They were the cats that served in the world’s navies. Ship cats are not a recent phenomenon. They have been serving on ships for almost as long as humans have been going to sea. Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings depict them hunting from boats sailing down the Nile, and cats made their way across the Mediterranean aboard Phoenician and Greek trading vessels. Cats’ hunting prowess on land made them valuable companions at sea. Rodent infestations caused major problems on ships…

ANIMALS “Capturing this moment in the Masai Mara is a quiet reminder that in the vastness of the savanna, every interaction, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, is part of a grander story.”AMISH CHHAGAN, photographer An oxpecker attempts to land on a Masai giraffe’s neck shortly after a tropical storm. These birds eat parasites that can cling to larger animals. CELEBRATIONS “When photographer Joshua Irwandi asked me to shoot his WEDDING, I was flattered. He and the bride would wear Cio Tao dress, so we found inspiration in old photographs of his grandparents’ wedding.”MARTIN WESTLAKE, photographer Faylien Imelda’s attire—including kembang goyang flowers made of gold, silver, and brass—for her wedding in Indonesia honors her Peranakan Chinese heritage. TRAVEL “When encountering this rather unusual roadside attraction in Bohol, Philippines, for the first time,…

TAKING THE PLUNGE Atka Bay, Antarctica A young emperor penguin jumps off a 50-foot cliff for its first swim. The species normally breeds on low-lying sea ice, but some colonies have been found on higher and more permanent ice shelves, behavior likely to become increasingly common with climate change. Left by their parents a month earlier, the chicks must fend for themselves and find food by hunting in the sea. Photograph by BERTIE GREGORY TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART Russellville, Arkansas On April 8, a total solar eclipse occurred across North America from Mexico to Canada. In the path of totality, this southern city hosted Elope at the Eclipse, where more than a hundred couples said “I do,” including Nicholas Blackwell and Katie Baucom (far left, with their children). After…

THE SIMILIPAL TIGER RESERVE covers more than a thousand square miles in eastern India and is home to the world’s only wild population of pseudo-melanistic tigers, also called black tigers for their extra-wide stripes. The unique color pattern results from a genetic mutation found solely in the Similipal population—about half of the 27 tigers living here are black. Similipal tigers are skittish and shy; even longtime residents of the villages within the reserve told Prasenjeet Yadav they had never seen one. To photograph the tigers, Yadav set up camera traps with infrared triggers on 24 trails, three of which ultimately saw regular tiger activity. However, the tigers often seemed to sense a change on the path and headed off-trail, out of the camera’s range. “Even if my camera was camouflaged,”…

Prime meridians by era of main use Third century B.C. (earliest use of latitude and longitude) to A.D. 1600 A.D. 1600 (age of modern mapmaking) until full adoption of Greenwich meridian in 1914 TODAY GEOGRAPHERS use the time-honored system of intersecting lines to pinpoint places on the globe. Latitude, running west to east, has always had a convenient origin: the Equator, which divides Earth into Northern and Southern Hemispheres. But longitude, running north to south to determine what is east or west, started without such an easy demarcation. Early cartographers chose their own zero line, or prime meridian, often centered on their capital. And that worked—until it didn’t. The myriad prime meridians led to confusion in maps and sea charts, timekeeping, and global maritime commerce. At the 1884 International Meridian…

FLORIDA’S AVIAN ICON has been largely missing since the early 1900s, after hunters targeted the native population of flamingos to satisfy a craze for extravagant, feathered hats. While one colony was reintroduced in Miami in the 1930s and Caribbean storms have occasionally brought wild flamingos to parts of the United States, the birds hadn’t really stuck around—until about a hundred accidental tourists blown in to Florida by last year’s Hurricane Idalia decided to do just that. Five of the fresh arrivals had tags indicating that they hailed from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Decades of conservation efforts there and elsewhere in the Caribbean have restored large colonies and boosted the wild population of American flamingos from 21,000 in the early 1950s to an estimated 260,000 to 330,000 today. Now coastal restoration, especially…

TELEVISION THE DEADLIEST TSUNAMI in history cut a path of destruction across 14 countries 20 years ago this December. National Geographic’s new four-part documentary series Tsunami: Race Against Time revisits those heart-stopping events, minute by minute, with harrowing tales of courage and survival. Through video footage and gripping personal accounts, the series follows the scientists who worked to understand the impact of the Indian Ocean disaster as it unfolded, the fearless rescuers who risked their lives to save others, and the journalists who shared the tragedy with the world. Episodes premiere November 24 on the National Geographic channel before streaming on Hulu and Disney+. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY Honoring Inspirational Storytelling Photographer and National Geographic Explorer Thomas Peschak spent nearly 400 days capturing the hidden wonders of the Amazon, for which…

In northwest Saudi Arabia, the artistic heritage of the AlUla oasis is literally carved into the landscape. From the enigmatic rock art of the Neolithic era, through the colossal statues of the Dadanite and Lihyanite kingdoms, to the monumental architecture of the Nabataeans, AlUla was already steeped in artistic tradition when a new and distinctive art form began to emerge—Islamic art. After the founding of Islam in 610 CE, the religion spread rapidly, and, in time, became associated with a recognizable style of artistic expression. Because of Islam’s Arabic roots, its art has often been associated with Arabia. The reality is far more complex: Islamic art drew little on Arabic artistic traditions. The Islamic faith is a way of life: Religion touches almost every aspect of the daily experience, as…

ONLY TWO northern white rhinoceroses remain on the planet, both females protected by armed guards around the clock at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The subspecies of white rhino has been hunted to functional extinction for its horn, coveted for carvings and unproven medicinal uses. But a promising solution has emerged. In January, scientists from an international project called BioRescue announced that they had for the first time achieved a pregnancy after using in vitro fertilization (IVF) to transfer a southern white rhino embryo into a southern white rhino surrogate. (Southern white rhinos, once near extinction themselves, are now the most populous species of rhino thanks to over a century of conservation efforts.) The success was bittersweet: Before scientists could confirm the pregnancy, the surrogate mother died from an unrelated…

JASPER DOEST WAS documenting an international effort to protect transborder wildlife corridors when he heard that an elephant had been killed the night before by a car on the M10 highway outside of Sioma Ngwezi National Park. A passenger in the vehicle also died. Elephants must cross the M10 to reach the Zambezi River, their only water source during hot, dry months. Human-animal interactions are increasing as roads, villages, and farms encroach upon habitat for elephants and other wildlife. In addition, climate change raises temperatures and alters rainfall patterns, forcing animals and humans into more frequent competition for resources like water. In the past, locals saw only the occasional elephant, but now, they told Doest, the animals raid their crops and leave paths of destruction as they move through villages…

THE NIGHT OF near-continuous rattlesnakes was mellow: the temperature pleasant, the humidity low, the beer cold. Under a crescent moon, the electric golf cart rolled silently over hilly paths. When our headlights illuminated a venomous snake, Matt Goode would hop out—a drink in his right hand, a snake stick in his left—and calmly present the creature for my inspection. Unlike the amped-up fellows on YouTube snatching hissing vipers from beneath wooden boards, Goode never shouted “Dude!” It was early September, and the herpetologist’s field season was winding to a close. For over 20 years the University of Arizona research scientist and his students have been capturing snakes, including western diamondback rattlesnakes, tiger rattlesnakes, and black-tailed rattlesnakes. They have found more than 7,000 so far on the cart paths of Oro…

BETTINA HAUPT FORMER STATION MANAGER, AWIPEV ARCTIC RESEARCH BASE Scientists collect data from polar locations to understand how the world is changing. The weather balloon Haupt holds typically carries a radiosonde, an instrument that measures temperature, humidity, and pressure. One is released every day at Ny-Ålesund research station, in Svalbard, Norway. Haupt says such research is critical to “our chances to survive as a species in the long run.” BODIL HAUGVIK COMMUNITY SHOP MANAGER, KINGS BAY AS Unexpected items make life at the station easier. Haugvik works for the Norwegian state-owned company store supplying residents with toiletries and some essential goods, including warm socks and chocolate. She’s holding a baritone horn, an instrument she learned to play as a child and picked up again recently. Instruments Haugvik purchased have made…