Innehållsförteckning för December 2023 från National Geographic Magazine

AT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC we are fortunate to work with incredible photographers who canvass the globe to uncover stories that give us a new understanding of our world. Every day our team of skilled photo editors and designers combs through their images (sometimes thousands for a single story!) to choose the ones that do what great photographs do: convey information, yes, but also compel the eye and fill the heart. Our annual tribute to this work, “Pictures of the Year,” highlights a selection of our editors’ favorite images from photographers in the field. It is not meant to tell a story of the year’s most important moments, but to show what the world, in all its variety and richness, looked like to our contributors. Perhaps unsurprisingly, you’ll still find in these…

THE CANDY WE EAT, the tea we drink, the lotion we use—they all likely contain ingredients from wild plants. While natural ingredients can be beneficial to buyers, the way those plants are harvested could harm ecosystems and workers. In a recent United Nations–affiliated report, medicinal plant experts revealed the risks behind several of them, including Brazil nuts, frankincense, goldenseal, gum arabic, and licorice. Plant derivatives in household products “sit there somewhere in the middle of the ingredients list” on product labels, often going unnoticed, says Caitlin Schindler, lead author of the report. Even if consumers do take note, there’s no information about what’s involved in obtaining or processing the derivatives. Many of these plants are threatened with extinction from overharvesting, disease and invasive pests, climate change, and habitat loss. In…

1 RARE WINDOWS The Endangered Art of Stained Glass For 900 years this style of window has bathed British castles and cathedrals (such as Liverpool’s, below) in colorful, dappled light. But a recent report reveals that fewer than 60 stained-glass makers remain in the United Kingdom, primarily because of rising material costs and fewer study pathways for prospective artisans. A new youth-recruitment drive aims to secure lasting production of these precious panes. 2 AFRICAN PARK CAMEROON’S KORUP RAINFOREST RECENTLY BECAME A UNESCO BIOSPHERE RESERVE. THE MANA RIVER FOOTBRIDGE LEADS INTO THE PARK, HOME TO UNIQUE FLORA AND THE CRITICALLY ENDANGERED CROSS RIVER GORILLA 3 UP IN THE AIR A TRAINED mechanical engineer, Alexander Calder pioneered the mobile, a sculpture that moves via motors or air currents. His 1948 “Dispersed Objects…

JESÚS BERMÚDEZ has deep ties to the Alhambra. Born in the fortress built on an imposing hill in Granada, Spain, he grew up within the palace’s walls. When his father became director of the Alhambra museum in mid-century, the family moved into a house inside the monument. It was “the stage,” as he calls it, on which his days played out, an upbringing that steeped him in its legends and history from an early age—and inspired an enduring devotion to it. For nearly four decades, Bermúdez has been the archaeologist and conservator at the Alhambra, seen as the crowning glory of the nearly 800-year Muslim reign on the Iberian Peninsula. Though he moves through the complex with the easy familiarity of navigating one’s own home, he still manages to impart…

A National Geographic Explorer at Large, Joubert was filming giraffes in Kenya’s Chyulu Hills for an upcoming documentary. To get close without spooking the animals, she spent days in an underground blind near a watering hole. Giraffes came and went, but red-billed oxpeckers routinely stole the show. Swooping from one giraffe to the next, the industrious birds picked off ticks and other parasites, cleaned stray food from teeth, and plucked loose hairs for use in their nests. “Everywhere you look in the natural world,” Joubert says, “there are fascinating examples of adaptation and interdependence.” National Geographic has more than 453 million Instagram followers. Join them here: @natgeo, @natgeotravel, @natgeointhefield, @natgeoadventure, @natgeoyourshot, @natgeotv, @natgeowild, @natgeodocs. WHO A conservation filmmaker and photographer specializing in African wildlife WHERE Southeastern Kenya WHAT Sony Alpha…

GROWING UP ON the shores of Lake Huron in the Canadian province of Ontario, Robert Berdan was never far from water. When he was in sixth grade, he received a toy microscope for Christmas. Some of the first things he saw through its lens were tiny creatures inside droplets he’d gathered from a local pond. He was fascinated with the microorganisms. After eighth grade, Berdan upgraded to a more sophisticated model and realized it was a portal to another world. “The new microscope changed my life,” he says. “I could see so much more.” He began studying photography and buying cameras to fit on his microscope. He captured images of ferns, mushrooms, and trees, and learned how to develop film. He also developed his microscopy skills, so much so that…

Environmental Overharvesting of the plants—along with climate change, habitat loss, and disease—can lead to species extinction. Human Laborers collecting the plants can face a range of difficulties, including environmental hazards, human rights abuses, and poor pay.…

OUR TWO-YEAR INVESTIGATION into captive tigers in America sent us through 32 U.S. states—with some truly disturbing experiences. But as the deadline for our National Geographic story loomed, I still needed a powerful, hopeful image. When we began our reporting in 2017—Sharon, writing; me photographing; and our son, Nick Ruggia, filming—more tigers likely lived in cages in the U.S. than remained in the wild. Estimates ranged from 5,000 to 10,000, but with lax government oversight, no one knew for sure. There was no federal law regulating big-cat ownership. Roadside zoos that allowed tourists to cuddle and shoot selfies with cubs were at the root of what’s been called a U.S. tiger crisis. Captive-bred cats often ended up in the illegal wildlife trade. To maintain a constant supply of babies, tigresses…

THE ALHAMBRA Book tickets at least one to two months ahead. General admission allows access to the Alcazaba, Nasrid palaces, Partal, and Generalife. The visit is mostly outdoors, making spring and fall ideal times. Don’t miss the Courtyard of the Lions fountain and the Courtyard of the Myrtles, with facades reflecting in its pool. (King Charles V’s palace, home to two museums, may be visited without a ticket.) The Monastery of San Francisco, where monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand were initially interred, is now a hotel and restaurant that serves cuisine based on Nasrid court recipes. ALBAICÍN In this winding old quarter, once the center of Granada’s Muslim life, boutique hotels occupy villas from the Nasrid dynasty’s era. Our pick is the 15th-century Hotel Casa Morisca. (An alternative to the Albaicín’s…

Katie Orlinsky During almost a decade of living in and visiting Alaska, Orlinsky has been examining the effects of climate change on the Arctic. Her images of its thawing permafrost appeared in the September 2019 issue of National Geographic, and for this issue she hiked solo for days in a remote stretch of Alaska to document migrating caribou. When a wolf approached briefly, Orlinsky was thrilled for the company, she says. The June 2023 cover story featured her photographs of the world’s first designated wilderness area, in New Mexico. She became an Explorer in 2022. Page 112 Anand Varma In the woods near his childhood home in Atlanta, Varma discovered his passion for being immersed in the natural world. Then he picked up his father’s camera and found a way…

A species of tiny freshwater fish found in the Amazon Basin and in home aquariums around the world was discovered to possess something that a surprising number of people appear to lack: the ability to wait their turn. In a new study published in Scientific Reports, researchers ushered schools of neon tetras (Paracheirodon innesi) through a narrow opening in their tank and found that the fish used queuing to navigate the close quarters without clogging up and impeding passage. The “courteous” creatures, which are only about an inch long, did not collide into one another as they swam near the opening. While the dexterity to exit without bottlenecking has been observed in ants, no other animal was known to have the skill. The study’s authors believe that the neon tetras’…

CLYDE MORRY IS CHASING THE HERD HARD. He jams the throttle down, spitting up a fine curtain of white crystals. I follow and can’t keep up. I turn my own machine this way, that way, flailing over the same frozen ground, but I’m just not that good, and not as hungry as Morry is for the kill, the pounds of savory meat—or the warmth that will flow up into his hands as he butchers the big caribou. For some reason, even though it’s 25 degrees, even though the April wind whipping through this mountain pass pushes the chill down further, Morry never seems to be wearing gloves. “Just slows me down,” he says later. Everything about Morry is quick—his temper, his basketball game, his work with a skinning knife. And…

North American migratory tundra caribou (Rangifer tarandus) Plummeting populations Western Arctic and Bathurst numbers, 15 percent of all migratory tundra caribou today, have been falling for decades. The Porcupine herd has seemed stable; its habitat has less mining development and more protection and food options. Bathurst seasonal journey The herd is increasingly disrupted by development, such as mining roads. A warming climate also has impacts: more violent storms and insects, and more species moving north earlier in the year, including predators. 1 Setting off in spring From April to June the herd migrates north to calve where forage is rich and mosquitoes are not yet active. 2 Summer threats Wolves, bears, and eagles target calving areas for precious sources of protein. A single wolf can eat up to 30 caribou…