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HOW THESE ADORABLE SLOTHS ARE SAVED

Thursday, January 13, 2022

In this newsletter, giraffe populations are growing; bird flu cancels Israel’s hunting season; in praise of the most successful explosive-detecting rat; and ... can dogs distinguish different languages?

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUAN ARREDONDO

By Rachael Bale, Executive Editor, Animals

In Colombia, there’s a man believed to be responsible for capturing and selling as many as 10,000 sloths into the pet trade over a three-decade career before finally being caught. His name is Isaac Bedoya, and Nat Geo writer Natasha Daly went to Colombia to track him down—and find out whether the sloth trade is still thriving.

You’ll have to read her story to find out what happened, but there’s a lot that didn’t make it into the piece—especially about the helpers, the people working to rehabilitate rescued sloths.

The luckiest sloths are sent to AIUNAU, a private foundation in Medellín: There’s Tolu, a tiny three-toed sloth named for a town on the Caribbean coast, brought in by someone who found him, or bought him. There’s Ohitos, a sloth rescued by police as a newborn after his mother was beaten with sticks and chased away by children. (Pictured, at top, a young man offers a baby three-toed sloth for sale to passersby on a highway in Altos de Polonia, in northeastern Colombia; below, Paula Villada cares for rescued sloths Fundación AIUNAU.)

Most rescued sloths, however, go to local, government-run wildlife centers, which are staffed by passionate, dedicated people laboring with few resources to help animals. Daly visited one, and saw that many cages were barren, while others were cramped—a result of too little space and too little funding. “Coming face to face with the animals there was really hard to see,” Daly says, “but meeting the people who dedicate their lives to nursing baby sloths back to health was really moving. It was them that gave me hope.”

(Pictured above, rescued two-toed sloths snack on apple slices at Fundación AIUNAU. The founder has rehabilitated and released more than 300 sloths back into the wild. Three times as many haven’t survived.)

This story, funded in part by the Society for Environmental Journalists, is part of Wildlife Watch, an investigative reporting project between National Geographic Society and National Geographic Partners. Read more Wildlife Watch stories here, and learn more about National Geographic Society’s nonprofit mission at natgeo.com/impact.

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THE BIG TAKEAWAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY SHANNON WILD, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Good giraffe news: A comprehensive survey has found about 20 percent more giraffes in Africa than did the last major estimate in 2015. The biggest rise—44 percent—is among Masai giraffes, found mostly in Tanzania and southern Kenya. The higher numbers stem from conservation efforts and more accurate survey data. Though urgent challenges remain, such as poaching and habitat fragmentation, “when conditions are good for giraffes, they can rebound in incredible ways,” ecologist Michael Brown says. ecologist Michael Brown says. “All they need is a chance.” (Pictured above, two male giraffes in South Africa’s Madikwe Game Reserve.)

Subscriber exclusive: How foes together worked to save rare giraffes

Quiz: How much do you know about giraffes?

TODAY IN A MINUTE

It’s our anniversary: January 13, 2022, marks National Geographic’s 134th birthday. How better to mark it than by seeing a selection of images our photographers have captured from around the world? Enjoy!

Good boy! Do you speak gibberish to your dog? A study by Hungarian researchers suggests your animal may be able to distinguish between speech and nonsensical talk. It might even know the difference between Spanish and Hungarian. Of course, that doesn’t mean they always understand exactly what you’re saying, Scientific American reports.

No hunting: Israel has canceled the final month of its five month-long hunting season. The reason? It is trying to contain a severe bird flu outbreak that’s killed as many as 8,000 wild cranes and sparked concerns about infection among threatened bird species, Nat Geo’s Dina Fine Maron reports.

Coming to Antarctica: Invasive species, carried by ships, could disrupt the continent’s fragile ecosystem, a study shows. Ships from about 1,500 ports travel to and from Antarctica every year, and invasive species often hitch a ride, lead researcher Arlie McCarthy says. “They can create entirely new habitats that would make it harder for those amazing Antarctic animals to find their own place to live,” she tells the BBC.

R.I.P. Magawa: He was a decorated hero who sniffed out landmines with his tiny nose over the course of his career in Cambodia, saving many lives in the process. A Tanzania-born African giant pouched rat, Magawa retired last year as the most successful explosive-sniffing rat the nonprofit APOPO trained. He died this week at age eight, NPR reports.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY @DAISYGILARDINI

What’s for dinner? Arctic foxes in Svalbard, Norway, well adapted to the harsh environment, will eat whatever’s available. During the summer, that’s rodents (like voles and lemmings), birds, birds’ eggs, and fish. They will even eat berries, and they don’t dislike seaweed. During the winter, when prey animals are scarcer, the foxes often scavenge carcasses left by wolves and even polar bears—or dig up food they buried during the summer.

Related: How another fox species survived

THE LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY RONAN DONOVAN

Approaching: Ronan Donovan shot the above photograph through a window of an abandoned home in western Uganda. To live there was to constantly feel at risk of attack by wild chimps, Ntegeka Semata told Donovan, a filmmaker, mountaineer, and Nat Geo Explorer. As humans cleared their forests for farming, hungry chimps were forced to turn to crop-raiding to survive. One day the unthinkable happened: A chimp ran off with the family’s two-year-old; the toddler later died. Donovan returned to the small village three years after the tragedy to capture how the Sematas felt and found fear and acceptance. See his story and photos.

The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, has funded Explorer Ronan Donovan’s work since 2014. Learn more about the Society’s support of its Explorers.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

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]. If you want our daily newsletter, sign up here. Have a good weekend ahead.

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