EXPLORATION
On a mission to catalog subterranean biodiversity, National Geographic Explorer and cave biologist Iva Njunjić collects invertebrates from the cold, clear water inside Kaimakias Cave, in Greece’s Agrafa mountains. “It’s the essence of a hidden, mystical place,” says photographer Sotiris Kountouras, who rappelled down a cliff with Njunjić to reach the underground waterway.
WILDLIFE
In El Tanque, Costa Rica, where development is fragmenting the tropical forests, brown-throated sloths are navigating a landscape with dwindling habitat. After this one caused a traffic jam while crossing a busy road, photographer Emmanuel Tardy followed it. “The moment is etched in my memory,” he says, “watching this sloth moving slowly across land that was no longer truly its own.”
SCIENCE
Using a powerful laser-scanning microscope, biologist Amaia Alcalde Antón captured images of the…
