Wild Animals Life National Geographic

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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Nat Geo Video: Snow Leopard of Afghanistan

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.

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Nat Geo - Exploring the Wildest Places on Earth

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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.

Nat Geo: Best Wild Animal Photos of 2012

 

Overall Winner

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic

Emperor penguins rocket toward an exit hole in the ice in the winning picture of the 2012 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, announced last Wednesday. 

To get the shot—taken in Antarctica's Ross Sea for a new National Geographic article—photographer Paul Nicklen used polar survival skills he'd learned as a child among the Inuit on Canada's Baffin Island. Nicklen began by lowering himself through a hole in the ice and breathed through a snorkel while waiting for the penguins to return from foraging.

"They soared underwater like fighter jets in a dogfight," Nicklen told National Geographic's Luna Shyr. "Then they'd fly out, land, push down with their bill, and stand up, going back to that slow, waddling bird. It was a privilege to see." (Get more behind-the-scenes details.)

In a statement, competition judge David Doubilet said "Bubble-Jetting Penguins"—which also took top honors in the Underwater Worlds category—"draws us in for a glimpse of the emperor penguin's private world at the end of the Earth. I love this image, because it shows perfectly organized, infinite chaos. My eyes linger over it trying to absorb everything that's going on here." (See more emperor penguin pictures by Paul Nicklen.)

Now in its 48th year, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is an "international showcase for the very best nature photography," according to the website for the contest, run by London's Natural History Museum and Wildlife magazine.

Each year an international jury of photographers judges tens of thousands of entries in 18 categories.
—Ker Than 

 

Eric Hosking Portfolio Award

Photograph courtesy Vladimir Medvedev, VEWPOY

Vladimir Medvedev was driving through Canada's Jasper National Park when he spotted a red deer stag lying in the grass by the highway. The photographer pulled over and swiftly positioned his tripod and snapped this picture just as a truck thundered by.

After taking the picture, Medvedev left as quickly as possible to ensure the deer's peace. "The stag may have been inconspicuous, but I wasn't," he said in a statement. "As long as I stayed there, he was no longer invisible. So I left straight away, so as not to betray his presence."

The shot, titled "Life in the Border Zones," won Medvedev the Eric Hosking Portfolio Award, intended for photographers aged 18 to 26 who submit portfolios of their best work.

 

Commended, World in Our Hands Award

Photograph courtesy Paul Hilton, VEWPOY

Workers at the Donggang fish market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, process frozen shark fins to help meet a growing worldwide demand for shark-fin soup.

"It was sobering to think how many sharks had been killed to produce this pile of fins for a soup that isn't even healthy," photographer Paul Hilton said in a statement about his picture, titled "The End of Sharks." The image was a runner-up for the World in Our Hands Award, focused on the "relationship between people and the environment."

An increasingly popular dish among the middle-class in China, shark-fin soup is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of sharks annually, scientists say. Many sharks are taken solely for their fins and then thrown back in the ocean, where it takes several hours for the fish to die.

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Nat Geo - Extreme Weather Photos

 

Volcano Lightning, Iceland

Photograph by Sigurdur H. Stefnisson, National Geographic

Lightning cracks during an eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010.

The eruption’s ash clouds delayed European air travel for nearly a week.

Storms over volcanoes contain the same ingredients as storms over your hometown—water droplets, ice, and occasionally hail. The interaction of all of these elements creates an electrical charge that sparks lightning. Active craters add ash to the mix.

(Related: “Iceland Volcano Pictures: Lightning Adds Flash to Ash” and “Pictures: Volcano Lightning, Illuminated.”)

For an in-depth exploration of extreme weather events around the world, read National Geographic magazine's September feature "Weather Gone Wild."
--Tasha Eichenseher

 

Volcano and Waterspout, Hawaii

Photograph by Steve and Donna O’Meara, National Geographic

The eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano inspires the formation of a waterspout in this undated photo.

Waterspouts can emerge the way traditional tornadoes do, but not always. Many are created when near-surface winds suddenly change direction under a cloud that is producing a growing updraft. Unlike a tornado, a waterspout vortex and funnel cloud are created from the ground, or water, up.

(To learn more about volcanoes, see our video Volcanoes 101 and volcano photo gallery.)

(See more pictures of a recent Kilauea eruption: “Kilauea Volcano Pictures: Hawaii Eruption Spurts Lava.”)

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Nat Geo - Photo Gallery: Bears

Wet Polar Bear

Photograph by Paul Nicklen

With their slightly webbed paws and powerful muscles, polar bears are excellent swimmers. Their favorite meal is seals, but they will eat anything they can catch, even scavenging through garbage in areas where their habitat overlaps with humans.

 

Brown Bear Hunting

Photograph by George F. Mobley

A brown bear hunts for fish in Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge on an island off the southern coast of Alaska. A male Kodiak brown bear can rear up some 10 feet (3 meters) and, at 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms), move at speeds as high as 35 miles (56 kilometers) an hour.

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Nat Geo: Birds of Prey (Photos)

Young Eagle

Photograph by Jacky Gerritsen, My Shot

Young eagle with an attitude

Horned Owl

Photograph by Joe Dubberly, My Shot

A horned owl stopped by to get a closer look at me. What I found most amazing was the curiosity of these little guys to the activities of humans.

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Nat Geo - Photo Gallery: U.S. Road Trips

 

The Ozarks, Arkansas

Photograph by Peter Essick

Bathed in moonlight and swollen with floodwater, the rush of Haw Creek Falls announces the return of spring to Arkansas's Ozark National Forest. These rugged mountains, which daunted early travelers, now serve as the backdrop for a deciduous forest that, in autumn, bursts into a kaleidoscopic palette of colors.
Did You Know? In 1861, Arkansas seceded from the Union to join the Confederate States of America. Take our quiz on the U.S. South to learn more.

 

Vermont Cheese Trail

Photograph by Jean Snide, My Shot

Autumn colors tint the land around a hay barn in Berkshire, Vermont. Almost 1.5 million acres (610,000 hectares) of Vermont land are dedicated to agriculture. Dairy farming is the primary agricultural industry here, but Vermont is also the largest producer of maple syrup in the U.S.

Did You Know? Calvin Coolidge's father and namesake, John Calvin Coolidge, opened the Plymouth Cheese Factory with other local Vermont farmers in 1890. Learn more about Vermont cheese with our seven-question quiz.

 

Mount Hood, Oregon

Photograph by Marc Muench, Getty Images

Climbers approach the peak of Mount Hood, the highest mountain in Oregon at 11,245 feet (3,427 meters) and the second most climbed mountain in the world, after Japan's Mount Fuji.

Did You Know? Mount Hood's last major eruption occurred in the 1790s, although residents reported minor explosive activity in the mid-1800s. Take our Mount Hood Quiz and learn more.

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