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THREE BIG WINS FOR ANIMAL LOVERS IN 2021

Thursday, December 9, 2021

In this newsletter, Will Smith goes 3,300 feet below the ocean’s surface; honeybees socially distance, too; new frog discoveries; and … will the wolf survive?

PHOTOGRAPH BY NICHOLE SOBECKI, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

By Rachael Bale, ANIMALS Executive Editor

Tracking the threats to wildlife sometimes feels like a continual uphill slog. But not always. Today, I want to take a moment to highlight a few things from 2021 that animal lovers can celebrate. Consider these:

1. Animals now have their own COVID-19 vaccine: Lions, tigers, hyenas, gorillas, and other animals at zoos across the United States have been infected, but thanks to a vaccine from a veterinary pharmaceutical company called Zoetis, which initially tested its vaccine in cats and dogs, zoos have some 10,000 doses to vaccinate more than a hundred species, Natasha Daly reported.

2. South Africa announced it’s ending its captive lion farming industry: It’s pretty much what it sounds like. On private farms throughout the country, as many as 12,000 captive lions are held, often in overcrowded and inhumane conditions, to supply cubs for tourism, lions for trophy hunts, and bones for traditional medicine in Asia. In May, the country’s environmental minister announced it would no longer issue permits for such activities, Rachel Fobar reported.

3. Several popular tuna species are no longer moving toward extinction: This news surprise came in September. Modern commercial fishing has driven many tuna species toward the brink of collapse, but the unexpectedly fast recovery of two bluefin, a yellowfin, and an albacore tuna species thanks to a decade of efforts to end overfishing is something to celebrate, writer and Nat Geo Explorer Jason Bittel reported. (Also: How you can pick the most environmentally friendly cans of tuna.)

PHOTOGRAPH BY NORBERT WU, MINDEN PICTURES

But those are just three examples. There are more, as well as a batch of illuminating discoveries that we’ll dig into in a later newsletter. Here's to more good news in 2022.

(Pictured at top, captive lions on a South African “farm” in 2019; above, Atlantic bluefin tuna, whose numbers are recovering strongly, in the Mediterranean off Sardinia.)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY @RENAN_OZTURK

Treetop beauties: That’s how Nat Geo Explorer Bruce Means describes the two frogs in the image above, catalogued during a National Geographic expedition to a cloud forest in Guyana. A distinct character of the tree frog Nesorohyla kanaima is its coal-black irises, making its entire eyes black. The tadpoles, born in fishless mountain streams, have completely black eyes, too. Photographer Renan Ozturk says the eyes of each of the little frogs “was like a universe in itself where you could get lost!”

See: Renan Ozturk battle testing a new camera on Guyana’s Tepui rock formations

TODAY IN A MINUTE

Ribbet-ing discovery: Speaking of frogs, two new species have been scientifically recognized in large Australian cities. The newly named slender bleating tree frog (Litoria balatus) and screaming tree frog (Litoria quiritatus) are now distinguished from the newly coined robust bleating tree frog (Litoria dentata). Although similar in appearance, and in their piercing calls, the frogs are genetically very different, according to conservation biologist and Nat Geo Explorer Jodi J.L. Rowley. “I was very lucky to be part of the team that formally named this species,” she writes. See and hear the animals.

RIP Medina Spirit: The winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby, Medina Spirit, died after collapsing during a workout at Santa Anita Park in California this week. Bob Baffert, trainer of the three-year-old colt, said in a statement that the horse died from a heart attack. Medina Spirit's victory at the Kentucky Derby this year was clouded after a post-race drug test found a steroid commonly used to treat pain and inflammation in horses, NPR reports. It’s considered an illegal substance on race days. (Related: Why is horse racing so dangerous?)

Toxic to animals: When a container ship caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean in May, Sri Lanka was concerned about the spill of hazardous chemicals and fuels onboard. However, the U.N. says the most “significant” harm to the environment came from the spillage of 87 containers of nurdles, or lentil-size plastic pellets. Nurdles often are mistaken for food by seabirds, fish, and other wildlife. Read more in Field & Stream.

Honeybees socially distance, too: Just like humans, honeybees avoid each other during plagues. A recent study out of the University of Sassari, in Italy, found that the insects in hives infected by parasites set up their own form of lockdowns. It might behoove humans to take note, the Guardian writes.

THE BIG TAKEAWAY

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR DISNEY+

Light show: Nat Geo Explorer Diva Amon and actor Will Smith were 3,300 feet below the ocean’s surface off the Bahamas, their world plunged into darkness after they killed the lights on their submersible. In moments, deep-sea organisms put on a fabulous show of bioluminescence. It's a highlight of Smith’s new Nat Geo series, Welcome to Earth, streaming on Disney+. Amon, a Trinidadian marine biologist, says the stunning light show happens regularly in some little-explored depths of the sea. “It’s probably the most common form of communication on the planet,” Amon tells Nat Geo. (Pictured above, from a submarine below the Atlantic, Smith observes a swimming sea cucumber.)

ALL EPISODES STREAMING NOW ON DISNEY+

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSICA SUAREZ

America’s wolf: That’s how the red wolf is known. It’s the only large predator whose historic range is found entirely within the United States. That range is now down to a small part of eastern North Carolina, and the number of wild wolves is down to about 20. Three were killed by cars in the past year; another was shot. But some efforts to reintroduce captive-born red wolves have succeeded, Nat Geo reports. (In the photo above by Nat Geo Explorer Jessica Suarez, a male red wolf named Apollo howls alongside his family at Reflection Rising Arboretum and Nature Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.)

WILL THE WOLF SURVIVE?

This newsletter was curated and edited by David Beard, Monica Williams, and Jen Tse. Do you have an idea or a link for the newsletter? Let us know at [email protected].

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