Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i National Geographic Magazine

AS A BOY growing up in Argentina’s Buenos Aires Province, Pablo “Popi” García Borboroglu was enchanted by his grandmother’s tales of her youthful visits to the teeming penguin colonies of Argentine Patagonia. He was a 19-year-old tour guide when he first glimpsed one, and it dawned on him then how important it was to share with others his sense of awe, inspiring them to protect penguins and their habitats. A hemisphere away, Bertie Gregory came to a similar realization as a teenage wildlife photographer roaming the English countryside. Today, at 31, he’s an accomplished wildlife filmmaker and lead storyteller behind the new National Geographic series Secrets of the Penguins—on which he worked with Borboroglu, now a marine biologist and founder and president of the Global Penguin Society. For their efforts,…

LIVELIHOODS “Strength, freedom, and LOVE FOR THE SEA. Khajoou embodies them all, floating freely on the water, looking like she’s not afraid of anything.” ARCHAEOLOGY “When SUNFISH found something interesting, it would come back to the boat to guide the team back to the spot. It spent the rest of the time as our DIVE BUDDY and communication link to the surface.” COMMUNITY “The Friday night rodeos are an AUTHENTIC glimpse of the rural mountain life I knew as a kid—from bull riding to singing the national anthem to eating cotton candy.” NATURE “Lake Magadi’s mineral deposits create a spectacle of incredible shapes: lacelike spirals, shells, and whirls. But after storms roll in, the formations VANISH beneath the water, awaiting their next transformation.” SPORT “I started attending HIGHLAND GAMES with the…

1 Evaluate a tissue sample A specimen from the ear of a Yucatan pig is carefully reviewed, or sequenced, to ensure there are no issues that will interfere with the gene-editing process. 2 Delete problematic pig genes Using the gene-editing technology CRISPR, eGenesis scientists must alter the tissue sample to prevent the spread of viral disease and potential organ rejection. That means removing four pig-specific genes. 3 Make it more human Scientists then insert seven human genes into the sample’s DNA that will protect the future kidney from inflammation, cell damage, and coagulation—and also trick the human immune system into accepting the foreign organ. 4 Insert the modified DNA The edited DNA is then fused with the nuclei of fetal pig cells. Scientists implant these developing embryos into a sow…

A fragile equilibrium under threat Rising temperatures and changing rain patterns due to climate change have exacerbated existing threats, which can have a ripple effect across the delicate oasis ecosystems. Drought Less rainfall and increased drilling lower water tables and raise fire risks. Bayoud disease A fungal pathogen has killed significant portions of critical palm groves. Soil salinity Salt from pumped groundwater accumulates in the soil. Migration Ecological stress causes community caretakers to flee. Desertification Vacated land returns to desert; sand pollutes water, fields, and towns.…

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. Learn more about the Society’s support of Explorers at natgeo.com/impact. To photograph this month’s feature on beavers’ ecological footprint, Donovan visited landscapes shaped by the under-appreciated animals in Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and his home state of Montana, where he lives in Bozeman. A field biologist by training, he has also shot for Audubon, the New York Times Magazine, and Modern Huntsman. An Explorer since 2020, Kilito photographed oases in Morocco and Saudi Arabia for this month’s story on the threatened desert areas. Kilito lives in Rabat, Morocco, and his work has been published in the Atlantic, El Pais, and the British Journal of Photography. This…

BENEATH SEA URCHINS’ exterior spines, rounded skeletons called tests are jewels of color, texture, and symmetry. There are hundreds of urchin species, and they’re found in every ocean on Earth, from the intertidal zone to more than four miles below the surface. In 2018, Anders Hallan, a research associate at the Australian Museum in Sydney, began photographing urchin skeletons that had washed up on beaches or been collected by divers and those on fishing or research vessels. He created the composite image at left over the course of a week in 2024 using 76 individual photographs. The project comes at a perilous moment for these creatures. Since 2022, sea urchins have been plagued by a scuticociliate, a single-celled pathogen that eats away at the animals’ soft tissue and makes their…

THE EAST TROUBLESOME fire erupted on October 21, 2020, whipped by strong winds and fueled by drought-parched forests. The fire roared through northern Colorado’s spruce and fir woods; it leaped roads and rivers and the Continental Divide, scaling mountain passes above tree line. It incinerated historic buildings in Rocky Mountain National Park and homes in Grand County, killing two people. Ultimately, it torched nearly 200,000 acres, making it the second largest fire in Colorado’s history. In the end, just about the only thing the East Troublesome didn’t consume was beaver ponds. This was not entirely surprising. Beavers, of course, build dams that store water—and water, as you may know, doesn’t burn. But the benefit the semiaquatic rodents provide goes further than that. In a study published weeks before the East…