This article is an adaptation of our weekly Animals newsletter that was originally sent out on June 10, 2021. Want this in your inbox? Sign up here.
By Rachael Bale, ANIMALS Executive Editor
Four years ago, I celebrated one of the most memorable birthdays I’ve ever had. Somewhere in Madidi National Park, in the Bolivian Amazon, after the sun went down and the mosquitoes came out, I sat around a campfire with a group of park rangers, an interpreter, and a filmmaker as they poured me cup after cup of cheap singani, Bolivia’s national liquor. They sang me Happy Birthday in both English and Spanish, and then we all jumped in the Madidi River.
Then they said to be careful of the caimans.
I was there to report a story about jaguar poaching. The filmmaker, my friend Elizabeth Unger, had told me about the rising illegal trade in jaguar teeth, which are often smuggled to China. I wanted to find out about it for myself. The park’s director, Marcos Uzquiano (pictured, above left), is at the forefront of efforts to stop the poaching, so he took us into the forest on patrol.
We didn’t see any jaguars or poachers (or caimans!), but I started to get a sense of what a massive challenge he and his small, under-resourced team are up against. Their dedication—and the scale of the emerging problem—was stunning.
My story published in National Geographic in 2017, but Liz, a Nat Geo Explorer, continued working on her documentary, investigating the trade and tracking the major players. From Bolivia to China to the U.S., back and forth, over and over, for four more years, she kept at it. And now, it’s officially complete: Tigre Gente premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival tomorrow. Liz made me promise not to watch it until this weekend at her launch party, so I’m holding out a few days longer. You can buy a ticket to stream it at home, starting tomorrow.
(Above, jaguar teeth are used for the same purposes in China as tiger teeth. The teeth are turned into necklaces worn as status symbols, or in the belief that they protect the wearer from evil.)
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INSTAGRAM PHOTO OF THE DAY
Those eyes: Yes, the boomslang’s venom disables the blotting-clotting process in humans, but it’s a timid snake that lives mostly in the trees and very rarely bite humans unless they’re trying to touch or capture it. Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Mattias Klum, who took this image in Cameroon, says the venom and DNA from these snakes may help us learn more about combatting heart disease. You may not like snakes, but more than 300,000 people liked this image on our Instagram page.
TODAY IN A MINUTE
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A bird? A plane? A frog? It’s the size of a cat and it flies. Two new species of the flying squirrel, one of the least known mammals on Earth, have been discovered in the Himalaya, Nat Geo reports. “That there were two relatively large animals that had gone unreported shows how little we know about the natural world,” squirrel expert John Koprowski says. Pictured above is the Yunnan woolly flying squirrel, which lives in the mountains of southwestern China.
Deep freeze: It’s the toughest and tiniest animal you’ve never heard of. The microscopic bdelloid rotifer has been revived after slumbering in the Arctic permafrost for 24,000 years. Russian scientists found the multicellular creatures in a core of frozen soil extracted from the Siberian permafrost using a drilling rig, the New York Times reports.
Long trek over: A herd of elephants has packed its trunks and traveled 300 miles to settle in a Chinese metropolis. It’s unclear why the elephants have arrived in town, but they’ve captivated residents and experts, who believe they may be searching for a new home. A Yunnan government notice said the herd has “caused trouble 412 times,” the BBC reports.
Back on the list: The Biden administration has called for new protections under the Endangered Species Act for the lesser prairie-chicken of Texas and New Mexico, the Washington Post reports. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it’s proposing to grant protection for the bird, a move that could stymie oil and gas development in the Permian Basin, environmental attorneys say. In 2016, a court ruling removed the bird from the list of threatened species.
One drone: That’s all it took for roughly 3,000 elegant terns to abandon at least 1,500 eggs and a reserve in Southern California where they have nested for years. The May 12 drone crash at Bolsa Chica underscores the problems of the flying machines in fragile areas where the seabirds seek refuge, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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THE BIG TAKEAWAY
Thailand without tourists: Closed to most foreign tourists since March 2020, Thailand’s elephant camps, zoos, and sanctuaries are facing a financial crisis. Some camps have had to send their animals away. Many are struggling to feed them. “When I go to these camps that are temporarily closed, and I look at [the elephants’] physical and mental state, I almost feel that some would be better off dead,” Edwin Wiek of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand tells Nat Geo. Tong Pornpitcha Kaewtrakulpong, pictured praying before Buddhist monks above, is the owner of Elephants’ Home and Nature. She often asks for donations from supporters on Facebook to feed the elephants.
Wildlife Watch, funded by the National Geographic Society, shines a light on the commercial exploitation of wildlife and other valued resources. Learn more.
IN A FEW WORDS
Animals don't hate, and we're supposed to be better than them.
Elvis Presley, "King of Rock and Roll"
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THE LAST GLIMPSE
A whale of a journey: Scientists say a gray whale has swum more than 16,700 miles–or halfway around the world. The 40-foot male traveled from the North Pacific to Namibia, trumping the previous record set by a leatherback turtle. When zoologist Simon Elwin first heard of a sighting of a gray whale (pictured above in Alaska's Prince William Sound) in the Southern Hemisphere, he was skeptical. “It’s like someone saying they saw a polar bear in Paris—technically it could get there, but it just doesn’t seem very realistic,” he tells Nat Geo.
This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard and Monica Williams, with photo selections by Jen Tse. Have an idea or a link? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com.
