Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i National Geographic Magazine

David Liittschwager, p.1 16 An Explorer since 2018, the San Francisco-based photographer has traveled around the globe to document the natural world—even the surprising biodiversity found within a single cubic foot. This month’s story on the sea creatures that thrive at depths with little light is his 17th for the magazine. Rubén Salgado Escudero, p.48 Born in Spain and now living in Mexico, Salgado Escudero focuses on the human condition, including the realm of the ancient Maya for this feature. His photographs have been exhibited worldwide and published in outlets such as the New York Times and the Guardian. He became an Explorer in 2018. Isadora Kosofsky, p.90 A resident of Los Angeles, Kosofsky embeds herself in the lives of those she photographs. For this month’s feature on dementia, her…

THE TWO ARCHAEOLOGISTS, both National Geographic Explorers with research posts at Tulane University, had collectively spent decades working in the jungles of Central America. Grueling heat and humidity, as well as encounters with deadly wildlife and armed looters, were inextricably part of discovering the treasures of the ancient Maya, a civilization that flourished for thousands of years and then mysteriously vanished beneath the dense forest. And so, it seemed ironic—almost unfair—that their biggest discovery would come while huddling around a computer in an air-conditioned office in New Orleans. While his colleague Francisco Estrada-Belli looked on, Marcello Canuto opened an aerial image of a tract of forest in northern Guatemala. At first, the screen showed nothing but treetops. But this image had been made with a technology called lidar (short for…

SOURCES: FRANCISCO ESTRADA-BELLI AND MARCELLO CANUTO, TULANE U.; NICHOLAS DUNNING, U. OF CINCINNATI; JESSICA J. CHRISTIE, EAST CAROLINA U.; KAZUO AOYAMA, IBARAKI U.; MARCO ANTONIO CERVERA OBREGÓN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND HISTORY OF MEXICO; TRACI ARDREN, U. OF MIAMI; SIMON MARTIN, U. OF PENNSYLVANIA…

ON THE ROLLING DECK of a 56-foot-long research vessel in California’s Monterey Bay, Karen Osborn peers into a cooler filled with sloshing seawater and a galaxy of twitching life-forms. Moments earlier, this living constellation emerged from a net that had been slowly towed around 1,500 feet down, through an inky realm of near-total darkness. “It’s a good catch,” she says. Most intriguing is a hand-size squid that gleams ruby red. Strawberry squid, as they’re known, are well adapted to their habitat. Their red color, when absorbed in the sunless deep, fades into a brownish black, blending them into their surroundings. Occasional flashes of bioluminescent light that shimmer across their bodies startle intruders. And their mismatched eyes look in two directions at once: One, huge and yellow, gazes upward, detecting silhouettes…

CULTURE “The post-Taliban generation, which once experienced RELATIVE FREEDOM, now grapples with a future under a regime that has abruptly diminished those freedoms.”KIANA HAYERI, photographer ANIMALS “Documenting the RESCATE ROSADO project was an intense experience. The most amazing part was observing the powerful efforts to reverse this situation and sensitize the population about having these migratory birds FLYING FREE.”FERNANDO FACIOLE, photographer SPACE “Ines was in that moment representing for me ALL THE HUMAN RACE facing the mystery of space and the challenges to come. I utilized multiple light sources, resulting in the human presence being ILLUMINATED as if there were multiple suns.”PAOLO VERZONE, photographer ENVIRONMENT “The initial thrill of discovery was soon tempered by the sad realization that this cave only existed because of CLIMATE CHANGE.”JASON GULLEY, photographer…

Thunderclouds rolled across Kenya’s Masai Mara savanna as the spotted hyena cubs played, tumbling over each other in the wet grass. The cubs’ mother lounged nearby, rising occasionally to discourage a bigger one-year-old from joining the little play group. When the older animal approached again, one of the pluckier cubs took a cue from its high-ranking mom and stood tall, trying its best to look intimidating. That action seemed comical, but both animals knew their place. The larger, lower ranking hyena stopped short, then bowed its head and slunk off. Photographer Jen Guyton recorded this scene with an infrared camera, allowing an intimate look into hyenas’ nocturnal behaviors. In doing so, she provided a small window into the intriguing structure of hyena society, where all members inherit their place in…

POISON DART FROGS, members of the Dendrobatidae family, wear some of the most brilliant and beautiful colors on Earth. Depending on their habitats, which extend from the tropical forests of Nicaragua to Brazil, the amphibians can be yellow, silver, orange, pink, green, blue, or black. Their elaborate designs and hues are deliberately ostentatious to ward off potential predators. And if hungry animals dare take a bite, they’ll quickly discover their meal is highly poisonous. A two-inch-long golden poison frog, for example, contains enough toxin on its skin to kill 10 adult humans. The Indigenous Emberá people of Colombia have carefully gathered the frogs’ poison for centuries to use on the tips of their blowgun darts when hunting—hence the family’s common name. Poison dart frogs are also unusual among amphibians for…

SOURCE: ELIOT MILLER, CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY Geographically widespread and a feeder regular, the downy woodpecker can often be spotted in encounters with other North American bird species. The data below highlight two factors that influence social rankings between the downy and other species.* *DATA COLLECTED BY ABOUT 9,500 CITIZEN SCIENTISTS WITH PROJECT FEEDERWATCH BETWEEN 2016 AND 2022…

TRAVEL BEHIND THE SCENES with seven of the world’s most extraordinary visual storytellers in Photographer. Each episode of this new six-part series spotlights a photographer capturing exceptionally powerful images. Those featured include Muhammed Muheisen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner whose conflict coverage led him to work with child refugees, and partners Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, whose sea-life images amplify ocean conservation. The photographers discuss how they got their start behind the camera, how they stay focused in extreme circumstances, and what it really takes to create a memorable image. Photographer premieres March 18 at 8/7c on National Geographic and the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY Seeking Greater Understanding Animals continue to adapt, despite unprecedented challenges. To understand how, the Society launched the Wildlife Intelligence Project,…

FOR THIS month’s cover story on spotted hyenas (page 18), Jen Guyton was determined to do something different and innovative. “Going into this story, I knew that I wanted to go against that trend of taking photos of hyenas during the day,” she says. So she photographed the primarily nocturnal animals at night. To avoid spooking them with bright spotlights or flashes, she used infrared lights, which hyenas can’t see. National Geographic photo engineers also supplied her with an armored, remotely operated robot that was retrofitted with cameras after an earlier career in bomb disposal. Dubbed Ed by the engineers, the robot helped Guyton capture intimate images, including a portrait that became one of our 2023 Pictures of the Year.…

SOURCES: KAY HOLEKAMP, MICHIGAN STATE U.; LILY JOHNSON-ULRICH, U. OF ZÜRICH; CYBIL NICOLE CAVALIERI, MICH. STATE U. MUSEUM…

Lidar data captured by aircraft flying above the Maya heartland are unveiling a web of cities and suburbs that were far more populous and interconnected than previously suspected. At Tikal, a Maya mega city that once dominated northern Guatemala, archaeologists have recorded signs of more than 11,900 structures extending out from the city’s core. SOURCE: FRANCISCO ESTRADA-BELLI, TULANE UNIVERSITY…

THIS PAGE IS A PORTAL. No, really, it is: Our annual Best of the World list is a gateway to the streets of Paris, the snowy Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, the ancient rock art of Algeria. To help us engage with places more deeply and meaningfully, we drew on National Geographic’s global community of experts to create a ranked list of great adventures. This year we expanded our recommendations online to include the hotels, restaurants, cultural spots, and wellness retreats that we love, as well as the game changers who inspire us to explore and the gear we don’t want to leave home without. (Scan the QR code at the end of this article to dive into the treasure trove of travel intelligence in our Best of the World hub.)…

JACKIE VORHAUER and her sister noticed their mother’s behavior begin to change in 2012. Nancy Vorhauer, a glass artist in her early 70s, forgot to call Jackie on her birthday. She lost her phone. She didn’t pay her bills. She made multiple copies of her keys. As Nancy’s symptoms intensified, Jackie made trips from her Los Angeles home to Millville, New Jersey, to check on her mother. One evening, Jackie arrived to find the apartment locked. A few hours later, at about 10:30 p.m., Nancy showed up with a rolling suitcase containing a stack of bus schedules, a cat toy, a broken Christmas ornament, and a handful of glass marbles—Nancy’s signature art pieces. “Hey Jack,” she said casually to her daughter. “What are you doing here?” Nancy later told her…