Conservation
Arachnids—such as scorpions, harvestmen (daddy longlegs) and spiders—often trigger feelings of fear or disgust. Despite such reactions, these animals play an essential role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. They act as vital food sources, master pest controllers and drivers of human and soil health.
Nature & Wildlife
Ethereal ghosts, bodiless brains, spooky spiders, hairy wolves, slimy eyeballs, creepy cyclops, shadowy bats and severed limbs. What more could you want for Halloween? I’m guessing not much, and there’s a one-stop shop for all of it: science.
Nature & Wildlife
One of the scariest movies I have ever seen is the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. In 1985, it was followed by the flick Return of the Living Dead. That movie created the pop-culture trope that zombies specifically crave and shout for brains.
African Safaris
With its bulbous shape and canopy resembling an upside-down root system, the baobab tree symbolizes the African continent. Its origins are also the stuff of legend…literally.
Nature & Wildlife
As soon as the month of October starts, your thoughts probably turn to spooky fun as we lead up to October 31 and Halloween.
Latin America
National Geographic called Brazil’s Pantanal “the Wild Wet,” an appropriate name for a vast area of untouched wetlands teeming with wildlife. The region harbors one of the greatest concentrations of wildlife in South America, including 159 mammal species.
Nature & Wildlife
I’m not a fan of escaping winter; in fact, I think it’s an endangered “species” that we need to cherish while we still have it. But millions of birds appear to disagree with me. Every year, they migrate in huge flocks to escape the season.
African Safaris
When it comes to wildlife, the term ‘pygmy’ refers to animals that are smaller in size than their more typical counterparts. In many cases, these reduced measurements also result in them being unbelievably cute.
Nature & Wildlife
Antarctica has always been—for lack of another, less trite description—“otherworldly.” It’s clear, clean air and wild, untouched mountains hardly seem part of this planet. But that depiction of the icy continent is usually meant in a metaphorical sense. Now, however, it has taken on a more literal meaning.
African Safaris
Often referred to as the “eighth continent,” the island nation of Madagascar has developed its own distinct ecosystems and extraordinary wildlife since it split from the African continent an estimated 160 million years ago. Approximately 95% of Madagascar’s reptiles, 89% of its plant life and 92% of its mammals exist nowhere else on Earth.
Conservation
Wildfires are complicated. On one hand, they can be extremely destructive forces. On the other, they are natural events that certain animals and plants have evolved to depend on for ecological balance. And then, you have to add climate change into the equation.
Latin America
It’s no surprise that Costa Rica is a country filled with beautiful natural ecosystems. Its coasts are bustling with marine life, and its interior is blanketed with some of the most biodiverse forests in the world. More than half of Costa Rica is now forested, but that wasn’t always the case.
