National Geographic Magazine

october | what’s coming

NAT GEO FILMS The Cave: Tending Syria’s war wounds in secret wards In a hidden underground hospital in war-torn eastern Ghouta, Syria, pediatrician Amani Ballour (above) and her staff risked their lives to provide medical care to the besieged local population. In The Cave, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Feras Fayyad tells the harrowing true story of “Dr. Amani,” her colleagues, and her patients. The film, which just had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, is in theaters this fall. TELEVISION Watch the search for evidence of Amelia Earhart’s last landing Follow explorer Robert Ballard—known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic shipwreck—to a remote Pacific island where he hopes to solve the mystery of aviatrix Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. The expedition employs cutting-edge devices in its search, in a two-hour documentary that premieres October…

saving animals by telling their stories

A NAKED MOLE RAT. That was photographer Joel Sartore’s first model in 2006 when he began making studio portraits of animals in captivity. The purpose: to capture for posterity species that someday might be extinct. To reflect the project’s life-preserving mission, Sartore named it Photo Ark. By the time you read this, Sartore expects to have portraits of nearly 10,000 animals in the Ark. He plans to keep going to 15,000, which could take another 10-15 years. We asked him about his project, which we’re featuring in this special issue on endangered wildlife. Of the species you’ve photographed that have since gone extinct, what’s one of the most memorable? I’d say the Rabbs’ fringe-limbed tree frog, Ecnomiohyla rabborum. A few years ago there was one left alive, a male, at the Atlanta Botanical…

fragile life in freshwater

the backstory

DAVID HERASIMTSCHUK often spends as many as 10 hours in water not much warmer than freezing. He floats and bobs in a dry suit, clutching his camera—and waiting. You wouldn’t know it from his extreme patience, but he’s actually in a rush. “Many of these species have been around for millions of years,” he says, “and it’s only in the last hundred that they’ve started to vanish.” Herasimtschuk is a photographer and cinematographer for Freshwaters Illustrated, a conservation nonprofit that sends him around the world to document imperiled wildlife in lakes, rivers, and creeks. Scientists believe that more than 20 percent of freshwater fish species are threatened or already extinct, as dams constrain migration routes and habitats are made inhospitable by pollution runoff and rising water temperatures. These losses affect humans too.…

cat vs. bird: the battle lines

THE DISCOVERIES OF TODAY THAT WILL DEFINE THE WORLD OF TOMORROW MY CAT, BERNSTEIN, likes bird-watching almost as much as I do. Bernstein is an easygoing three-year-old short-haired tabby whose other passions include laser pointers, elastic hair bands, and dental floss. And me, I’m a 33-year-old short-haired blond who has always been, petwise, a cat person. Bernstein and I often hang out together in the living room, appreciating the natural order of hummingbirds and chickadees outside our window. Bernstein was a tiny kitten, unable to eat or open his eyes, when he was rescued after being abandoned in a barn. (His littermate, Woodward, remains with the journalist friend who rescued them.) He’s one lucky cat—and I’ve wondered if his genial personality might be due, at least in part, to everlasting gratitude for…

cat proliferation, by the numbers

Left unfixed, Oliver and Bella—America’s favorite cat names—get frisky by six months old and can produce multiple litters each year, with predictable results. In the U.S., about 90 million cats live with their human caretakers; another 30 million to 80 million roam wild, from back alleys to remote deserts. In Australia cats have become such deadly and prolific predators that they threaten to extinguish whole species of indigenous birds, reptiles, and small mammals. To prevent that, the Australian government launched a drive in 2015 to kill two million feral cats by 2020. Worldwide, approximately half a billion cats—give or take a couple hundred million—populate six continents, 118 of the world’s 131 main island groups, and the farthest reaches of the internet. To find a more successful invasive species, you’ll need a mirror.…