National Geographic Magazine - UK August 2024

WHEN MY HUSBAND and I lived in Seattle, we noticed something peculiar on our house’s deck overlooking Puget Sound. In one spot, there was a continual accumulation of what looked to my eye to be mouse poop. But it was both on the deck’s floorboards and on the exterior wall of the house. We couldn’t figure it out. When a pest control company came to investigate, they knew instantly what it was: bats. The design of our house—its steeply pitched roofline with deep overhangs—had created a perfect place for them to roost. It was a favorite launchpad for bats to conduct their nighttime forays to hunt insects. We didn’t try to deter them. Bats occupy an important place in our ecosystems, and watching them fly out into our little valley…

ENVIRONMENT “I was grateful for the opportunity and luck to enjoy such A UNIQUE MOMENT and to be in this fantastic place under a starry sky without light pollution.” MARCIO ESTEVES CABRAL, Photographer ANIMALS “After a week of checking out multiple sea fans for the best examples of pygmy seahorses and coral polyps, I shot this photo at 6 a.m. That’s when everything FINALLY CAME TOGETHER.” BYRON CONROY, Photographer SCIENCE “This image is a celebration of the often OVERLOOKED BEAUTY in the simplest things around us. Who knew sugar syrup could look like an abstract painting in a museum of modern art?” DIEGO GARCÍA, Photographer CULTURE “Branding at Forty Mile Colony is ABSOLUTE ORGANIZED CHAOS. Men and women weave around each other—as well as the horses, cattle, ropes, and red-hot…

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. Nichole Sobecki, p.16 An Explorer since 2021, the Nairobi-based photographer specializes in humanity’s connection to the natural world. She documented cheetah trafficking through Somaliland for our August 2021 issue and Sudan’s ancient past and uncertain future for the January 2022 magazine. This month her feature spotlights the mysterious world of bats. Tomas van Houtryve, p. 5 8 His work spans photography, filmmaking, and art installations. Based in Paris, he’s focused recently on the Seine, for this issue, and the rebuilding of Notre Dame, the subject of his 2022 cover story. He became an Explorer this year. Mary Winston Nicklin, p. 5 8 “The Seine’s stories…

Not everyone falls in love with bats, but those who do fall hard. AS A YOUNG SCIENTIST, Sharon Swartz studied gibbons. But she was intrigued by the fine skeletal structure of bat wings and by the evolutionary trade-offs necessary for mammals to take flight. So she took a detour from her primate research and traveled to Australia to study the large bats known as flying foxes. She recalled one evening when she visited a suburban golf course where roosting bats filled the trees. First one, then a few more, then hundreds of the creatures lifted off as the sun set until, she said, there was “a river of bats in the sky.” The next night Swartz, now a professor of biology and engineering at Brown University, and her colleague trapped…

EXTREME LONGEVITY Although they’re some of the smallest mammals, bats can live up to 10 times longer than expected for their body size. They also almost never get cancer. An ability to shut down their metabolism when at rest is one factor that may boost longevity. TURBOCHARGED METABOLISM Different bat species have different appetites, ranging from insects, fruit, and blood to small animals, including other bats. Pallas’s long-tongued bat has the fastest metabolism recorded in any mammal, burning through more than half its fat stores every day. MAMMALIAN FLIGHT Since the age of dinosaurs, bat wings have developed to fit myriad environments. Short wings are good for hovering in forests; long wings, such as those of Brazilian free-tailed bats, enable these mammals to fly at speeds of up to 99…

When the first known bats appeared during the Eocene epoch, they probably had evolved echo location to hunt insects in the air. Modern descendants such as this Townsend’s big-eared bat have reached the apotheosis of aerial predation. The Townsend’s echolocation calls are quieter than other bats’ and their flight more acrobatic. This series of photos shows one Townsend’s hunt, captured by staff photographer Mark Thiessen in a field tent in Arizona. In just half a second, the bat locates a moth (1), reaches to grab it with a wing (2), and transfers it from the wing to its tail pouch (3). Afterward, the bat will lower its head to retrieve the moth for a mid-flight meal. Aaron Corcoran, a University of Colorado, Colorado Springs researcher and National Geographic Explorer who…