Asia & The Pacific
Huge numbers of seabirds blanket the rocky landscape of the Russian Far East. The birds perch on high, windswept cliffs that rise to seemingly infinite heights, making their habitat inaccessible to other animals that would want to hunt them. As a result, the birds prosper in massive, dense colonies.
Conservation
As someone who loves wild, natural places, you’ve heard plenty of dire environmental alerts and communications. There are more tigers in people’s backyards than there are tigers in the wild. Rhinos are being poached to the point of extinction. The last Galapagos giant tortoise from Pinta Island has passed away.
Conservation
By any measure, Bhutan is a spiritual place, known for how it assesses the quality of life of its citizens, phrased as “gross national happiness (GNH).” The term, in fact, was coined in 1972 by Bhutan’s then King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who used it to signify his commitment to social progress.
Nature & Wildlife
Ever wonder who creates those plant- or animal-identification outdoor apps and how designers know which questions they need to ask in order to help you make a positive ID?
Videos
Campephilus imperialis (the imperial woodpecker) may have been the largest woodpecker that ever lived. The last documented sighting of this two-foot-tall bird happened in 1956 in the state of Durango, in the high-altitude, old-growth pine forest of the Sierra Madre in Mexico.
Travel Tips
It’s less than a week before Christmas, and I’ll bet by now you’re beginning to feel “gadgeted out,” tired of being bombarded with all of the e-mail, internet and TV ads for nifty electronics, smartphones, e-readers and apps. I think nature lovers, in particular, feel the commercialization of the holidays even more than others.
Nature & Wildlife
Denali National Park and Preserve, established in 1917 as Mount McKinley National Park, is known the world over for its stunning scenery, wild and remote frontier regions, and Denali—at 20,320 feet, the highest point in North America.
Videos
We humans have long feared the dark. That’s where scary monsters hide and criminals lurk. So that’s why, for most of our history on the planet, we’ve been trying to dominate the night by filling it with light. In many cases, illuminating our nights has worked.
Nature & Wildlife
Can our starry skies be saved before they reach the brink of extinction?
Nature & Wildlife
If you dread overseas flights because you always land intolerably tired and exceedingly hungry, I have some facts that might help you put such ordeals into perspective. It was recently discovered that a female bar-tailed godwit flew 7,145 miles from Alaska to New Zealand—without taking a single break for food or drink.
Nature & Wildlife
One of the many joys of spring that I look forward to is the return of migratory birds to our yard.
Videos
Typically, a dog is the animal a mail carrier has to worry about most while doing his or her job. Not so in Centerville, Massachusetts. It’s a wild turkey this intrepid driver has to watch out for.
