Wild Animals Life National Geographic

Raccoons Get Trapped in Garbage Bin

Nat Geo - Oct. 15, 2014 - Watch two raccoons get trapped in a garbage bin trying to grab some goodies. National Geographic grantee Suzanne MacDonald created experiments to observe the problem-solving skills of urban-dwelling raccoons. One setup involved hiding food inside a garbage bin and securing its lid with a bungee cord. When a group of raccoons tries to access the food, two get trapped inside.

Watch the Video!

Pictures: Cheetahs of the Kalahari

 

Sibling Squash

Photograph by Gus Mills

National Geographic Big Cats explorer Gus Mills is examining cheetahs in the arid environment of the Kalahari. The cheetahs are tracked using San trackers, radios, and DNA analyses. This data helps park managers ensure the continued existence of the cheetahs and future monitoring. It also serves as an example for the conservation of the species in other arid regions. With National Geographic's support, Mills was able to complete his fieldwork and research.

Pictured: A three-week-old cub squashes one of its two litter mates during a brief visit by Mills to the den while the mother was out hunting. Mills and his team need to count the cubs and collect DNA from fur samples in order to establish paternity. Such brief interactions do not disturb the cheetahs, and they have never observed any adverse reaction by the mother or cubs.    

Read More & Watch the Slideshow!

Nat Geo - A Perfect Storm of Cute: Cheetah Cubs Grow Up With Puppy

Prepare for a cute overload: The Dallas Zoo has paired two cheetah cubs with a black Labrador retriever puppy. 

The two male cubs are part of the zoo’s public outreach program, and the hope is that the puppy will act as a friend, companion, and calming influence on the shy cats. (Related: “Q&A: Unlikely Animal Friendships.”)

“Cheetahs are timid by nature,” said Sean Greene, vice president of guest experiences at the Dallas Zoo in Texas. By pairing them with a puppy, which is used to being around humans, trainers expect the dog’s calm demeanor will rub off on the cats. Eventually, all three animals will be part of the zoo’s public outreach programming, so they can raise awareness of the endangered status of cheetahs.

All three babies are eight weeks old. The two male cubs—named Winspear and Kamau—were born at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia on July 8. Kamau weighs about seven pounds (three kilograms) and his brother Winspear weighs about nine pounds (four kilograms).    More

Surrounded by Fire - Rare video captured up close in a fast-moving forest fire

Nat Geo - The Serengeti Lion (Interactive Video)

See lions hunt, play, roar, and fight for survival in a new online experience from National Geographic. "The Serengeti Lion" explores the lives of these big cats as never before, through the words and memorable visuals of photographer Michael "Nick" Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson.

Watch the Interactive Video!

Nat Geo - 18 Amazing, Intimate Camera Trap GIFs of Serengeti Animals

Nat Geo - Biologist Craig Packer has headed the Serengeti Lion Project since 1978. The director of the Lion Research Center and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota has spent countless hours on the Serengeti plains, studying lion ecology, genetics, health, and other factors. (Hear some of Packer’s expert commentary in the interactive Serengeti Lion experience and read more in “The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion.”)

Packer spoke to National Geographic on the phone from Zanzibar, where a Muslim call to prayer could be heard in the background. “I was always puzzled as to how lions fit into the broader context of the Serengeti,” Packer said.

“They have the reputation as the king of the beasts, but what does that really mean?” he asked.

Read More & View the Photos!

3 Ways You Can Avoid Sharks

How Should We Respond When Humans and Sharks Collide?

As vacationers head to the beach this holiday weekend, an expert says communities are taking a variety of approaches to keep swimmers safe.

Nat Geo - Would you go swimming where there's recently been a shark attack? It's a quandary that shark attack expert Christopher Neff, a doctoral researcher at the University of Sydney, strives to understand.

Neff has studied how the public and governments respond to shark bites in North America, Australia, and Africa. He says that with more and more people using the ocean, the way we talk about shark attacks and the methods governments use to reduce the risk of shark bites have evolved over time.

Following several shark attacks reported in the U.S. last month—off the coasts of Texas, Hawaii, California, and South Carolina—Neff spoke to National Geographic via email about how communities around the world are responding to similar incidents, and what the thousands of Americans heading to a beach this Fourth of July weekend can do to reduce their chances of encountering a shark.

How rare are fatal shark bites? How can people heading to the beach this holiday weekend stay safe?

The International Shark Attack File has noted that, based on their 2000 data, we have a 1 in 11.5 million chance of being bitten by a shark.

My position is not that sharks are cuddly and we should be friends, but that they can be dangerous and a healthy respect for them is important.

I have a "Three What's" rule that I use when I go to the beach because I want to remind myself that I am stepping into a dynamic and wild ecosystem.

First, I ask, "What's the weather?" because swimming while it's overcast or stormy isn't a good idea. 

Incoming storms can cause the tide to stir up baitfish, and we want to avoid getting in the way of sharks and their prey. It's recommended that bathers stay out of the water for 24 hours after a storm, not just [until] the next morning.   More

Nat Geo - The Hidden Life of Wolves

Nat Geo: Live Eagle Webcam

Nat Geo - You're looking at a live webcam featuring a bald eagle nest in Washington, D.C. The nest is home to a bald eagle pair and their chicks, which hatched in March 2013. You'll see the adults bringing fish from the Anacostia River to feed their young. The two chicks are covered with black juvenile feathers—they won't sport their characteristic white heads until they are four or five years old.

About the Eagles

The nest featured here is about five feet wide and made mostly of sticks. It sits about 80 feet up in a tree on the grounds of the Metropolitan Police Academy. Installing the webcam, provided by National Geographic, was Chief of Police Cathy L. Lanier's idea. She has long been interested in the eagle pair that chose the academy grounds for its home. "It is fitting and exciting that our national bird has made a home on the Metropolitan Police Department's Academy grounds," said Lanier. "We look forward to viewing the eagles in their habitat."

The eagles are thought to be the same pair that has nested in the area for several years, says Craig Koppie, raptor biologist at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Chesapeake Bay field office in Annapolis, Maryland. Koppie is an advisor on the Earth Conservation Corps eagle restoration project, which also oversees a second bald eagle nest in Washington.

Bald eagle nests usually contain one to three dull-white eggs, and the parents take turns incubating them. Eggs hatch in about five weeks, and hatchlings are covered with soft, fluffy, light-gray feathers. “Generally the female stays on the nest while the father’s job is to bring in the food,” Koppie says. Food for this pair of eagles is generally fish—catfish, shad, or perch—plucked from the Anacostia.

Read More & Watch the Webcam!

Nat Geo, 125 Year Celebration - The Highest Points of Exploration (Photos)

In 1960 Joseph Kittinger jumped from an open-air gondola 18.5 miles high wearing a duct-taped suit. He set a record for the highest jump and lived to tell the tale in the December 1960 issue of National Geographic.

Photograph by Volkmar K. Wentzel, National Geographic

View the Slideshow!

Nat Geo Video - Polar Bear Mom and Cubs

Nat Geo Pictures - Wolves

Photograph by Joel Sartore

The wolf is the largest member of the dog family. With thick, shaggy hair and a bushy tail, it looks a lot like a German shepherd dog. Wolves have long legs to run great distances and powerful jaws to grab prey and hold it. The gray wolf pictured here lives at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota.

View the Slideshow!

Nat Geo Video: Snow Leopard of Afghanistan

The Exorcist Twist - How Owls Twist Their Heads Almost 360 Degrees

Nat Geo - In an Exorcist-style display of flexibility, owls can rotate their necks a maximum of 270 degrees without breaking blood vessels or tearing tendons.

To the untrained eye, it looks like a case of movie magic, but scientists at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine now have data to explain the eerie skill that has baffled birders for years. (Check out National Geographic’s backyard bird identifier.)

1 / 7

1 / 7

Whereas people and other animals can simply move their eyes to follow an object or use peripheral vision to scan a room, owls must turn their heads for the same effect. These birds have fixed eye sockets, which means their eyeballs can’t rotate, forcing them to stretch their necks—a seemingly supernatural feat.

“In the case of birds, their systems are designed to handle that amount of movement,” said Eric Forsman, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service, who was not part of the study.

More

Nat Geo - Excellent Vintage Photos

 

Great Pyramid and Sphinx, Giza

Photograph by Hans Hildenbrand, National Geographic

Men on camelback ride past the Sphinx and Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt.

 

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

Photograph by Walter Edwards, National Geographic

A man and woman look out at the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial.

View the Slideshow!

Nat Geo - Top 25 Photographs from the Wilderness

 "Curious cub" by guide Kyle de Nobrega at Lion Sands Private Game Reserve. "Nothing quite like the curiosity of a cat."

 

 

Kyle de Nobrega

 

Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist and marginalized by the demands of sustained development in emerging markets. Guides, rangers, researchers, ecotourists, photographers, artists and conservationists around the world apply themselves everyday to sharing, studying, photographing, writing about, protecting, conserving and celebrating the “wild” with their guests, co-workers, colleagues, and local communities. These amazing photographs are a window into their world, a world where the lions, elephants, orangutans and leopards still reign supreme and we can dream of that perfect morning in the wilderness…View the Pics!

Nat Geo - Exploring the Wildest Places on Earth

Watch the Slideshow!

Nat Geo Big Cat Week - Snow Leopard of Afghanistan

 

The Snow Leopard

Photograph by Tom Brakefield / Getty Images

A Snow Leopard walking on snow.  This big cat lives in the mountains of Central Asia.

 

Lovely Leopard

Photograph by Stuart Berman / Getty Images

A closer look at the Snow Leopard's face.  This type of leopard's fur is long and thick.

View the Slideshow!

Cincinnati Zoo Cheetah Sets New World Speed Record in 100 Meter Run

 

National Geographic -

Sarah, an 11-year-old cheetah at the Cincinnati Zoo, set a new world speed record this summer during a shoot for National Geographic magazine. She first earned the title of world's fastest land mammal in 2009 when she covered 100 meters in 6.13 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 6.19 seconds set by a male South African cheetah named Nyana in 2001. On June 20, 2012, Sarah shattered all 100-meter times when she posted 5.95 seconds. By comparison, Sarah's 100-meter run was nearly four seconds faster than the world's fastest man, Usain Bolt of Jamaica, whose fastest time for the same distance is 9.58 seconds. Sarah's top speed was clocked at 61 mph.

Her run was photographed for a November 2012 National Geographic magazine article that will include never-before-seen high speed photographs and video of cheetah movement.

Cameras captured the record-breaking run on Sarah's first attempt on a specially designed course certified by the Road Running Technical Council of USA Track & Field.

Sarah and the Cincinnati Zoo's other four cheetahs in the Cat Ambassador Program regularly run at the Zoo's Regional Cheetah Breeding Facility. The documentation of the run was supported in part by National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative — http://www.causeanuproar.org — a long-term effort to halt the decline of big cats in the wild.

Cheetahs are endangered and their population worldwide has shrunk from about 100,000 in 1900 to an estimated 9,000 - 12,000 cheetahs today. The Cincinnati Zoo has been dubbed "The Cheetah Capital of the World" because of its conservation efforts through education, public interpretation, and the captive cheetah breeding program. The Zoo's Regional Cheetah Breeding Center is one of only four similar facilities in the United States managed by the Species Survival Plan. In total, there have been 64 cheetah cubs born in Cincinnati.