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BUILDING TRUST WITH MEERKATS

Saturday, July 31, 2021

In today’s newsletter, celebrating the fragile Kalahari and legendary wildlife photographer Beverly Joubert; examining a graveyard juxtaposition.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOMAS P. PESCHAK

By Whitney Johnson, Director of Visual and Immersive Experiences

Taking photographs for National Geographic allows you to unlock your wonder and explore your curiosity. Thomas Peschak was able to do both on a monthslong assignment in the Kalahari desert of southern Africa.

Hiking through the desert, Tom notes that the translation for Kalahari means a waterless place. The biologist-turned-photographer adds: “I don’t know how the animals do it. Somehow, pangolins, meerkats, and cheetahs survive here, at the edge of the impossible.”

Tom, a Nat Geo Explorer who has won multiple World Press Photo and BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards, gets at the heart of the story he photographed for National Geographic’s August issue: How can animals survive in a world that is getting hotter, and in some places, drier? Along the way he developed a genuine affection for the meerkat (pictured above)—a kind of desert mongoose that relies upon the different roles of a group, from child-rearing to sentries, to endure.

VIDEO BY OTTO WHITEHEAD

“When I started photographing this group of meerkats, they were nervous and often cautious around me,” Tom told field cinematographer and assistant Otto Whitehead. “So every day, I would talk to them, repeating the same words and phrases day in and day out. And after three weeks they napped, and ate, and finally played undisturbed in my presence.”

What did Tom say to the curious meerkat in the video clip above? Check out the full video, embedded in this story, to find out. Read on to see Tom’s other discoveries from the Kalahari:

Chambered nests: Massive bird nests made by sociable weavers in camel thorn trees may be decades old, sheltering generations through the Kalahari’s extremes. Hungry Cape cobras and boomslangs often enter the chambered nests looking for chicks to eat.

Move along! In Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa’s largest private reserve, lions in one section keep giraffes and grazing animals such as antelope moving. This eases strain on grasses, which in times of more heat and less rain could give way to inhospitable thorny thickets.

Yum? Researchers Wendy Panaino (at left) and Valery Phakoago search a hole dug by an aardvark to analyze the nutritional value of the insects these shy, nocturnal animals eat. Understanding the Kalahari’s food chain helps Tswalu’s managers find the sweet spot for the number of animals the reserve can support.

Reintroducing predators: In spring 2020 a clan of spotted hyenas arrives at Tswalu. Reintroducing predators is key to keeping this managed wilderness in balance. Established in the 1990s, the reserve is a remnant island of the natural Kalahari, which has been carved up by farms, roads, and iron ore and manganese mines.

Big appetite: Emerging from their burrows after dark, ground pangolins will each eat about 15,000 ants and termites in a night—5.5 million in a year. Insect abundance depends on healthy grasses, the thread that binds life on these nutrient-poor sands. Without summer rains, the greening will fail. Despite rainfall that ended a seven-year drought, the long-term prospects for survival of many of these Kalahari animals is uncertain.

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INSTAGRAM OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY @BALAZSGARDI

Tradition: We think we know what cowboy life is like. But what’s it like for Erlinda Arce, who stays at home while others ride the range of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula? She wakes before dawn to prepare coffee and breakfast over a mesquite-fueled stove. Much of her day will be spent preparing meals for the family, typically meat stews with beans and tortillas (pictured). Extra time is dedicated to making blocks of goat cheese that the family sells to support itself. A Nat Geo story found ranchers perplexed that the next generation wasn’t eager to follow in their footsteps.

THE BIG TAKEAWAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY MUHAMMAD FADLI

The tractors tell the story: Sometimes it is the juxtaposition that makes an image striking—or unsettling. Indonesia, fast becoming an epicenter for COVID-19, faces a critical shortage of COVID-19 vaccines. Deaths are rising. In the foreground of this image, photographer Muhammad Fadli shows relatives pouring rosewater and offering flowers at a recent COVID victim’s grave in North Jakarta. In the background, workers dig new graves.

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THE LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY BEVERLY JOUBERT

A protector: Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Beverly Joubert has dedicated her life to documenting the wildlife of Africa. She also has advocated for the conservation of Africa’s big cat species, notes senior photo archivist Sara Manco. Why did Sara choose this previously unpublished 2011 photo from Kenya’s Mara Plains for today’s newsletter? “I love this image of elephants for its departure from many of her other compositions by focusing on the larger group and incorporating more of the landscape itself.” In 2018, Beverly photographed (and Nat Geo’s Douglas Main wrote about) a section of Botswana where lions have miraculously reclaimed the land.

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard and Monica Williams, and Jen Tse selected the photographs. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Rita Spinks, Alec Egamov, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea, a link, or a story to share? We’d love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for reading!

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