Desert Wildlife, Atacama Desert, Chile, 2003 Photograph by Joel Sartore
Birds perch on a cactus as a gray fox warily stands below in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Rain rarely falls on the Atacama’s coastline, but dense fog known as camanchaca is abundant. The fog nourishes plant communities from cactuses to ferns.
(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, “The Driest Place on Earth,” August 2003, National Geographic magazine)
Manoki Indian, Amazon River Basin, Brazil, 2007 Photograph by Alex Webb
A Manoki Indian in a feathered headdress and beads glides down a stream in Brazil’s Amazon River Basin. The Manoki are one of about 170 indigenous Amazonian peoples whose homelands are imperiled by an intense land rush in the Amazon fueled by the timber, agriculture, and cattle industries.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, “Last of the Amazon,” January 2007, National Geographic magazine)
Bathing Snow Monkey, Japan, 1995 Photograph by Jodi Cobb
Japanese macaques, also called snow monkeys, live farther north than any other non-human primates. Their thick coats help them survive the frigid temperatures of central Japan’s highlands. But when the mercury really plummets, they go to plan B: hot-tubbing in the region’s many thermal springs.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, “Geisha,” October 1995, National Geographic magazine)
Green Grappler Moth Caterpillar, Maui, Hawaii, 2003 Photograph by Darlyne Murawski
Sensitive hairs and nerves on the back of the green grappler moth caterpillar detect the slightest touch of prey. Lightning-fast reflexes and six needle-tipped claws spell the end for this termite in Maui, Hawaii.
(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, “Killer Caterpillars: Built to Eat Flesh,” June 2003, National Geographic magazine)
Boatyard at Sunset, Yscloskey, Louisiana, 2001 Photograph by Medford Taylor
A mauve sunset blankets a boatyard in Yscloskey, Louisiana, in 2001. This and nearly all the other fishing hamlets in the marshlands of St. Bernard Parish southeast of New Orleans were flattened in the summer of 2005 by Hurricane Katrina’s 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge. Years later, the region’s fisheries and oil and gas industries are still rebuilding.
(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, “ZIP USA: Delacroix, Louisiana,” July 2001, National Geographic magazine)
