Photograph by Stephen Alvarez, National Geographic
A city of limestone towers rises in western Madagascar. Sharp, steep, and brittle, the maze of rock in Tsingy de Bemaraha national park and reserve has repelled all but a few explorers and scientists, leaving large parts of the region—and countless resident creatures—unknown to humans.
(For more pictures of the amazing colors of our world, buy the National Geographic book Life in Color.)
COLONY OF HEALTHY Tasmanian devils is about to get a new island refuge as part of an attempt to beat the deadly facial tumour depleting the species.
Fourteen devils will this week be the first to move to Maria Island, off the east coast of Tasmania, in the hope they will be quarantined from the disease.
The aim is to establish a self-sustaining population of healthy devils on the island, listed as a national park, where the species is not found naturally.
The move is part of the joint state and federal Save the Tasmanian Devil Program funded with $10 million over five years by Canberra.
“We are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to protecting the Tasmanian devil,” federal Environment Minister Tony Burke said in a statement. “Translocation is one of the methods of last resort and it has to be done carefully with good scientific oversight. It’s part of making sure the Tasmanian devil never goes the way of theTasmanian tiger.”
Photograph by Michael Nichols
Primatologist Jane Goodall bends forward as Jou Jou, a chimpanzee, reaches out to her in Brazzaville, Congo. Goodall revolutionized primatology with her 1960s studies at Tanzania’s Gombe Stream Game Reserve, where she observed chimpanzees making and using tools, a landmark discovery in wildlife studies.
Photograph by Jim Richardson, National Geographic
A chinook salmon digs its nest in the John Day River, a tributary of the Columbia River. Dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers have threatened the species on its migration from annual spawning grounds—a 900-mile journey to the sea.
Photograph by Brett Colvin, My Shot
It can describe a spoon, a fox, or a lining in the clouds. It’s part of our lore and our family histories. But silver isn’t always found in the most obvious places. It might swim by, turn up around a street corner, or appear suddenly with a trick of light.
Here, skin like crinkled aluminum frames the large eye of a tarpon in this macro image. The Atlantic fish, also called the silver king, can reach up to eight feet in length and weigh as much as 350 pounds.
(For more pictures of the amazing colors of our world, buy the National Geographic book Life in Color.)
Just fascinated; I’m 18, just finished my last year of high school. :)
Unhatched fairy-wrens learn a unique call so they can be identified by their mother, research says.
FAIRY-WREN MOTHERS TEACH THEIR incubating young a unique call to gain access to food once hatched, a recent study reveals.
Sonia Kleindorfer of Flinders University, Adelaide, says this prenatal learning is an adaptation that allows fairy-wrens to discriminate between their own babies and those of parasitic cuckoos in their nests.
According to the researchers, the mother begins her incubation call about 10 days after the eggs are laid, and ceases when the first egg hatches.
Females will also teach their mate and any helpers the unique call by singing it to them away from the nest.
“Parents and others attending the nestlings will only feed them if their begging calls contain the learned password,” Sonia says. “Otherwise, the parents simply abandon the nest and start again.”
Subject Matter:
Combination of urea, phosphor acid, ammonia melted
(25x)Technique:
Subject Matter:
Draparnaldia glomerata algae
(200x)Technique:
Subject Matter:
Human colon labelled with a monoclonal antibody against epithelial antigen
(40x)
