Size isn’t everything in the sea. Plus, the latest on the 190-year-old tortoise, the lonely wolf thwarted by the new border wall, Elon Musk’s cat problem, and a rhino’s return to the wild
|  | Thursday, January 27, 2022 | | | | |
| In this newsletter, size isn’t everything in the sea. Plus, the latest on the 190-year-old tortoise, the lonely wolf thwarted by the new border wall, Elon Musk’s cat problem … and a rhino’s return to the wild. | |
|
By Rachael Bale, Executive Editor, Animals
The biggest animal that has ever lived on Earth is more than twice the length of a standard school bus. Its tongue can be as heavy as an elephant, and its heart is as heavy as a car. Having never seen a blue whale in real life, it’s hard for me to imagine what that really looks like.
To orcas, on the other hand, apparently it looks like a decent meal. For the first time ever, scientists have documented orcas hunting and eating a blue whale. “This is the biggest predation event on this planet: the biggest apex predator taking down the biggest prey,” marine ecologist Robert Pitman told writer Claudia Geib. (Pictured above, two orcas swimming in the Caribbean.)
| | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN DAW, AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE JOURNEYS
| | They’re not known as killer whales for nothing (pictured above, biting the tongue of a blue whale calf). They’re incredibly smart and cooperative, teaming up to chase and kill big prey, learning from each other and swapping roles on the fly. They’ve been documented eating just about every other whale in the sea, so why not the biggest one of all, too?
Read more about the discovery here, and don’t miss the drone footage! Here’s a deeper look on how orcas work together.
Do you get this newsletter daily? If not, sign up here or forward this to a friend.
| | | |
| The 190-year-old tortoise: It’s a big birthday year for Jonathan the giant tortoise, perhaps the most famous resident of the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena. He is thought to have been born in 1832, 11 years after Napoleon died in exile in the British colony. Jonathan, however, didn’t arrive on the island from the Seychelles until 1882, when he was gifted to a man who would become St. Helena’s governor. He has spent the last 140 years eating, sleeping, and mating on the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion, CNN reports. See photographs of Jonathan today, in 1947 with 21-year-old Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth II, and even in the 1880s.
Back in the wild: It took six years and 30 operations, but a rhinoceros that lost its horns in a poaching attack is back in the South African bush, the Guardian reports. The rescued 10-year-old bull was named Sehawukele, meaning “God have mercy on us,” after he was found stumbling near a fence in a reserve, so disfigured that he could barely hear or eat.
Shark attacks are up: Unprovoked shark attacks on humans rose sharply in 2021. Scientists blame COVID. Attacks were down in 2020 when people stayed home but rose last year after swimmers returned to the water, Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, told Newsweek.
Elon Musk’s $500 cat beds: Starlink, Elon Musk’s internet company, has more than 1,600 outdoor satellites orbiting through space. However, some of the earthbound Starlink satellite dishes are having an internet speed problem. The satellite dishes have a self-heating feature, which works great at melting snow—but may be why cats are huddling on them to warm up, the Guardian reports.
| | | |
| | Balance in battle: Three birds are seen here, but the flock is made up of a hundred or more white ibises. They gather around a pond on the South Carolina coast every night at sunset to squawk, squabble, and fight for their desired perch. Here’s an American white ibis from photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark, a collection of 12,000 vulnerable species. | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY CLAUDIO CONTRERAS, NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY | | | Stopped at the border: That would be a rare Mexican gray wolf, thwarted in his attempts to head northward looking for a mate. The impediment was a section of a new 30-foot-high border fence, replacing a low porous fence that had been meant to stop cars and trucks from illegal crossings. After heading 23 miles west to get around the fence, the wolf gave up and turned back south, Douglas Main reports. (Pictured above, in a forest clearing, one of the endangered wolves, which once roamed widely throughout the Southwest United States as well as northern Mexico.) | | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY JENNIFER HAYES
| | Recovering lost history: Nat Geo Explorer Tara Roberts says 12,000 ships carried captive African people to America. About 1,000 of them wrecked. Up to 1.8 million African people lost their lives on the long journey to America. Fewer than 10 of the ships have been found (pictured above, a 1700s-era shipwreck off the U.S. Virgin Islands that may have had enslaved people aboard). “I wanted to help bring those stories up from the depths,” Roberts told Nat Geo’s Storytellers Summit on Wednesday. Roberts joined a group of Black divers on a three-year project to discover this history. Today, catch the premiere of Roberts’ new Nat Geo limited podcast, Into the Depths, on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen. The story will be the cover of the March edition of National Geographic and the subject of a Nat Geo television series. Among the stories explored: the discovery of the Clotilda, which was carrying enslaved African people when it sank off Alabama.
| | | |
| 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 david.beard@natgeo.com. Have a good weekend ahead. | |
| SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS | | We'd like to hear from you! Tell us what you think of our emails by sharing your feedback in this short survey.
| | | |
Clicking on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and National Geographic Channel links will take you away from our National Geographic Partners site where different terms of use and privacy policy apply.
This email was sent to: mitch.dobbs.pics@blogger.com. Please do not reply to this email as this address is not monitored.
This email contains an advertisement from:
National Geographic | 1145 17th Street, N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036
Stop all types of future commercial email from National Geographic regarding its products, services, or experiences.
Manage all email preferences with the Walt Disney Family of Companies.
© 2022 National Geographic Partners, LLC, All rights reserved. | | |
//
