National Geographic USA - December 2021

12.
2021
FREE POSTER GREAT MIGRATION OF THE SERENGETI
Life on our planet

is driven by hidden
forces. We’re still
exploring them.
EARTH
WELCOME TO
W AT C H ‘ W E L C O M E T O E A RT H ’
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GETTING TO KNOW
EARTH ANEW
F R O M T H E E D I TO R PA G E
SUSAN GOLDBERG NO. 01
In Tanzania’s Serengeti
National Park, two male
lions take a break in a
dry lake bed.
before you turn the page—but I will

say that the chapter on smell features
a process we’ve used just once before in
National Geographic’s 133-year history:
a “scratch and sniff” sample. Check
page 26 to see what that’s about. Then
there’s the chapter documenting life
on the Serengeti, amazing storytelling
that features the photography of Charlie
Hamilton James.
“I’ve been going back and forth to
the Serengeti for 25 years, and it’s never
lost its wonder to me,” Hamilton James
says. “There simply isn’t anywhere bet-
ter on Earth to photograph wildlife.”
Cumulatively, he’s spent more than two
years there for National Geographic to
to appreciate a beautiful sunset?
W H O H A S N ’ T PAU S E D capture the epic annual migration of
Or listen to the wind rustling through the trees? By about 1.3 million wildebeests—a swarm
W the sea, there are mesmerizing tides and a salt-air if ever there was one.
scent; in the sky, dazzling formations of birds, and Also included in this issue, in print
endless stars. and online: a Serengeti poster with
Behind all those experiences are the natural forces that power maps and illustrations by Nat Geo art-
our planet. They give rise to the sounds, smells, and sights we ists and cartographers.
perceive; the life that swarms around us, moving at every speed. Each month, we aim to transport
Those phenomena are the focus of this special issue and of a six- you to places you’ve never been and to
part National Geographic television series, starring Will Smith show you the world anew. I hope you
and available on Disney+. think this issue more than fills the bill.
In print and broadcast media and on digital and social platforms, Thank you for reading National
this project shares one title: Welcome to Earth. That’s an oddly Geographic. j
appropriate greeting, addressing us as if we’re strangers to a place
we think we know well. But we may find that we don’t know it well at The National
all, as Welcome to Earth invites us to look at the planet in new ways. Geographic series
Welcome to Earth is
In this issue, six chapters explore one phenomenon each, such as available on Disney+
color, sound, speed, and pattern. I don’t want to give away too much December 8.
PHOTO: CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES

WELCOME TO
EARTH
N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
VOL. 240 NO. 6
D AT E
DEC. 2021
During the months that wildebeests chase seasonal rains around East Africa’s greater Serengeti region in their annual
migration, they’ll make repeated, dangerous transits of the Mara River at traditional crossing points like this one in Kenya.
We don’t have a sleigh
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But we do deliver millions
of packages in a single day.
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[OHUHU`VULLSZLTPNO[ZLLTSPRLTHNPJI\[HJ[\HSS`
P[»ZV\YLUOHUJLKPUMYHZ[Y\J[\YLH[^VYR
Spread the cheer at usps.com/holidays
)HZLKVUWHYJLSZZOPWWLKIÌ\ZPULZZLZ[VJVUZ\TLYYLZPKLU[PHSHKKYLZZLZMYVT5V]LTILY[V+LJLTILYVM
ON THE COVER
Egrets, other hangers-on trail
migrating wildebeests in Tanzania.
4 PATTERN
IN NATURE, EVEN THE
PATTERNS CAN HAVE
PATTERNS, AND THEY’RE
EVERYWHERE: AS MATE
BAIT, CAMOUFLAGE, OR
LIVING WORKS OF ART.
S T O RY, P H O T O G R A P H S
BY J O E L SA R T O R E
IT’S ALL AUDIBLE! READ

ABOUT (AND LISTEN TO)
SHIFTY SNAKE RATTLES,
WILDLIFE SHEET MUSIC,
WEB VIBES, AND MORE.
BY H I C K S W O G A N ,
JA S O N B I T T E L , A N D
J O R DA N SA L A M A
20 COLOR
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
CREATE A CANVAS
WHERE ORGANISMS
CAN GROW IN A
RAINBOW OF HUES.
BY M AYA W E I - H A A S
P H O T O G R A P H BY
STEPHEN WILKES
CAN SCIENCE RECLAIM

THE SMELL OF A FLOWER
EXTINCT FOR MORE
THAN A CENTURY? SURE,
RESEARCHERS SAID.
LEARN HOW THEY DID IT—
AND SMELL THE PROOF.
BY SA R A H G I B B E N S
30 SPEED
FORCES THAT SHAPE THE
PLANET MOVE AT MANY
DIFFERENT SPEEDS. ONE
THAT’S ACCELERATING
AT AN ALARMING RATE:
GLACIAL MELT FROM
CLIMATE CHANGE.
BY M I C H A E L G R E S H KO
34 SWARM
THE SWARM OF
WILDEBEESTS IN THE
SERENGETI’S MASS
MIGRATION IS ONE OF
EARTH’S GREATEST
SPECTACLES.
P H O T O G R A P H S BY
C H A R L I E H A M I LTO N JA M E S
F R E E P O ST E R : T R A C K I N G T H E G R E AT S E R E N G E T I M I G R AT I O N
PATTERN
STO RY A N D P H OTO G R A P H S BY PA G E
JOEL SARTORE NO. 04
SPIRALS. STRIPES. SYMMETRIES. THROUGHOUT NATURE,

PATTERNS HELP ANIMALS BLEND IN OR STAND OUT.
A crazy quilt of patches

covers a Masai giraffe’s
neck at the Houston Zoo
in Texas.
OPPOSITE: This scale-

covered pinwheel is a
veiled chameleon’s tail,
which the animal curls
into a tight spiral when
it’s startled.
PHOTOGRAPHED IN LINCOLN, NEBRASKA (CHAMELEON)

S E CT I O N
PAT T E R N
The contrast of light and dark helps animals stand out, blend in, or deter would-be predators.
Question mark cockroach, black-and-white ruffed lemur, Malaysia giant tree
C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T:
nymph butterfly, Timneh parrot, rusty-spotted genet, clown knifefish
PA G E
NO. 07
Carnaby’s black cockatoo, black-necked swan, Malayan krait, Xingu River ray,
C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T:
Eastern Florida diamondback terrapin, ocellaris clownfish
ANIMALS ON PAGES 6-7 PHOTOGRAPHED AT BUDAPEST ZOO, HUNGARY; JURONG BIRD PARK, SINGAPORE; HENRY DOORLY ZOO AND AQUARIUM, OMAHA, NEBRASKA; PALAIS DE
LA PORTE DORÉE TROPICAL AQUARIUM, PARIS; MELBOURNE ZOO, AUSTRALIA; MELAKA BUTTERFLY & REPTILE SANCTUARY, MALAYSIA; LINCOLN CHILDREN’S ZOO, NEBRASKA;
SEDGWICK COUNTY ZOO, WICHITA, KANSAS; MILLER PARK ZOO, BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS; BREVARD ZOO, MELBOURNE, FLORIDA; DALLAS WORLD AQUARIUM, TEXAS
S E CT I O N
PAT T E R N
Which hopper on this page is most poisonous?

The red little-devil poison frog, top right. Clock-
wise from there, the rest are only mildly poisonous:
tiger-striped leaf frog, Limón harlequin frog, Rio
Pescado stubfoot toad, sun glass frog.
PA G E
NO. 09
Most frogs are nocturnal, but poison frogs are active during the daytime, when their eye-catching
colors and patterns can warn predators to steer clear. Clockwise from top, variable poison-arrow frog,
little-devil poison frog, harlequin poison frog (both yellow-and-orange-spotted and yellow-spotted),
blue dyeing poison dart frog.
FROGS ON PAGES 8-9 PHOTOGRAPHED AT AMPHIBIAN FOUNDATION, ATLANTA; HOUSTON ZOO; CENTRO JAMBATU, QUITO, ECUADOR; NATIONAL AQUARIUM,
BALTIMORE; AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
S E CT I O N
PAT T E R N
Caterpillars’ colors, shapes, and behavior are their tools for survival. Eyespots and bark- or leaflike
camouflage help the larvae blend in with their surroundings; spines or barbs that are venomous—or
PA G E
NO. 11
that at least look menacing—may deter predators. Their spines had better protect these orange lace-
wing caterpillars as there’s no blending into the leaves for them.
PHOTOGRAPHED AT MELBOURNE ZOO, AUSTRALIA

S E CT I O N
PAT T E R N
S
some
SOME LIKE IT BOLD;
like it subtle. Some show A PHOTO ARK FULL
off and others blend in.
Some of our favorite ani- OF PATTERNS
mals are known for their
patterns. What’s a tiger, or a zebra,
without its stripes? The National
For patterns pitting color against Geographic Society,
color, birds seem to win the prize. committed to illumi-
nating and protecting
The paradise tanager, the red-crested
the wonder of our
turaco, the green twinspot, and of world, has been a created the 25-year
course the macaw: All wear colors with funder since 2012 of project—now the
abandon, reds and greens and blues the Photo Ark project National Geographic
side by side in vibrant designs. founded by National Photo Ark—to use
Angelfish glow as if neon under Geographic Explorer images to inspire
Joel Sartore. An author, people to help save
water. Chameleons can change their
a teacher, and a con- threatened species
hues. Poison frogs dare to clothe them- servationist as well as a and habitat.
selves in the most unnatural of blues photographer, Sartore ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY
and yellows—effective in discouraging
predators, experts presume.
In the world of animal wardrobes,
B E LOW: A lizard that it isn’t just for self-
all these species are show-offs.
lives in Australia’s hot, defense. It also helps
Yet color need not be part of the dry interior, the thorny the reptile capture
plan. Black, white, and gray can offer devil has a spiny, moisture from conden-
ample variety. armored exterior—but sation on its body.
PHOTOGRAPHED AT MELBOURNE MUSEUM, AUSTRALIA

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S E CT I O N
PAT T E R N
The highly venomous Malayan krait

is unassuming in colorless bands. A
South American swan’s snow-white
body is topped with a coal-black head.
The clown knifefish seems to wear
black-and-white portholes down its
silver sides. While some birds proclaim
themselves in color, the Timneh parrot
and the Carnaby’s black cockatoo stick
to cool gray.
Other patterns borrow from the
background, strategies for blending
in and staying unseen. The chain
catshark’s murky mottling mirrors
shifting patterns of dark and light on
the ocean floor. Splitfins shimmer like The okapi is
A B OV E : rainforests in the
sunlight on water. striped like a zebra, Democratic Republic
Wood turtles’ shells sport elegant but its closest rel- of the Congo uses its
mosaics, picking up earth tones of the ative is the giraffe. 18-inch tongue to eat
This reclusive native more than a hundred
leaf litter where they scuttle. A grass
of dense, humid species of plants.
mouse striped like the stubble it calls
home, a katydid as brightly veined as
the leaves that fall around it, a whip
snake’s scales in hues of the rainforest
it winds through—all exhibit patterns
from the environments they inhabit.
The animal kingdom offers patterns
Parts of this photo
in abundance. Some we interpret to
essay are drawn from
have a purpose, but others seem like Sartore’s new book,
arbitrary shapes and colors combined Photo Ark Wonders, on
with abandon—nature’s artistry. j sale at shopdisney.com.
PHOTOGRAPHED AT WHITE OAK CONSERVATION, YULEE, FLORIDA

SOUND
ISSUE
WELCOME TO EARTH
DON’ T JUST GIVE THESE PAGES A LOOK— GIVE THEM A LISTEN. USE YOUR PHONE’S CAMERA TO
SCAN THE QR CODE WITH EACH ARTICLE TO HEAR THE SOUNDS IT DESCRIBES.
PA G E
NO. 14
spiders use their legs to feel

L AC K I N G S H A R P E Y E S I G H T,
vibrations in their webs. A web’s silken strands have
different lengths and tensions and, as a result, different
frequencies. The resident spider is attuned to those fre-
quencies to detect prey, potential mates, or threats. Now, a group
of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology aims to
convey a bit of that Spidey sense to humans. With 3D laser imaging
based on cobweb cross sections (above), the MIT team mapped
the web of a tropical tent-web spider. To the strands, the scien-
tists assigned musical tones audible to humans. They also built
a virtual reality interface that lets users “play” the spiderweb like
an eerie-sounding stringed instrument. “We’re trying to give the
spider a voice,” said MIT’s Markus Buehler—and, maybe someday,
communicate with the arachnid via vibrations. — H I C K S W O G A N
PHOTOS: M. BUEHLER, T. SARACENO, I SU, ET AL. (WEB); ALAMY STOCK PHOTO (SPIDER)
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S E CT I O N
SOUND
SNAKE USES ITS

RATTLE SPEED
TO FOOL FOES
If you
can hear
the raspy
ch-ch-ch
produced by a
rattlesnake’s tail,
WHAT’S A SONGBIRD
then you’ve already
wandered too
close. Or is that just
what the snake
wants you to think?
By analyzing sound
WITHOUT ITS SONG?
waves, scientists A S P E C I E S ’ S U RV I VA L M AY R E S T O N E L D E R S
T E AC H I N G YO U N G M A L E S M AT I N G C A L L S .
learned that west-
ern diamondback (Anthochaera phrygia)
T H E R E G E N T H O N E Y E AT E R
rattlesnakes vibrate is a critically endangered songbird in southeastern
their tails slowly Australia. Only a few hundred are left, and some
when a threat is young males aren’t around older ones enough to
far away but shift Listen to the songs learn their songs. A research team based in Canberra
of the endangered
into a quicker, high- recently reported that 27 percent of male honeyeaters
regent honeyeater.
frequency rattle as were singing flawed renditions, while 12 percent
didn’t know their mating calls at all and had adopted
a threat nears. This
those of other species—not what female honeyeaters
acceleration tricks
want to hear. The team has exposed captive young birds
the human ear into to older birds’ recorded songs—and even to wild-caught
thinking the ser- older males—in hopes that this music therapy will teach
pent is closer than youngsters the right tunes to preserve the species. It’s
it actually is. a reminder that populations and cultures rise and fall
—JA S O N B I T T E L together, like the notes of a song. — H I C K S W O G A N
NOTING THE CALLS OF THE WILD

The whistling of a nightingale. The howl of
a gray wolf. The kazoo-like calls of emperor
penguins. To keep his ear trained during
a COVID-19 lockdown, French-German
composer Alexander Liebermann began
transcribing sounds of the animal kingdom
into sheet music that he posts online. What
started as a joke has resonated with fans, he
notes, and become “something bigger.” — H W
PHOTOS: KIM TAYLOR, NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY (SNAKE); JAN WEGENER, BIA/MINDEN PICTURES (BIRD); MIRA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO (WOLF); ALEXANDER LIEBERMANN (SCORE)
S E CT I O N PA G E
SOUND NO. 18
THE SOUNDS
OF HUMANITY
Latin pop
in Peru,
a call to
prayer
in Iran, the nightly
news in Norway’s
Arctic. All these
sounds emanate
from Radio Garden,
a website that
links to thousands
of radio stations
streaming live from
places large and
small—and bringing
listeners to the
most distant of
destinations. With
WHALE SONGS ACT AS AN

origins in a 2016
exhibition project
commissioned by
ULTRASOUND OF SEAFLOOR
the Netherlands
Institute for Sound
and Vision, Radio
Garden now aims
LONG REGARDED AS INTERFERENCE ON QUAKE RECORDINGS, to plant “seeds”
C E T A C E A N C A L L S C O U L D H E L P M A P T H E E A R T H ’ S C R U S T. of global connec-
on the ocean floor, seismographs relay
F RO M LO C AT I O N S tions through the
data to scientists on land who monitor earthquakes. Besides sounds of humanity.
picking up seismic activity, the instruments often capture —J O R DA N SA L A M A
the songs of nearby whales. Typically, researchers delete
Listen to a those whale sounds during analysis. But scientist Václav
humpback Kuna, then with Oregon State University, hit upon a new
whale’s song
translated application as he listened to the calls of a fin whale, which
into a human can be as loud as a large ship and detected up to 600 miles
musical away. Seismographs record the initial signal from a fin
score, from
our May 2021
whale and then an echo after the sound has penetrated the
issue. seafloor, gone as deep as one and a half miles beneath the
floor, and bounced back upward. By studying the echoes’
frequencies, scientists can gain a type of low-resolution
ultrasound of the Earth’s crust. It’s not unlike how energy
companies deploy air guns to scan for underwater oil and
gas deposits—except whale sounds are naturally occur-
A DJ spins at Amsterdam’s
ring, free of charge, and less disruptive to marine life. In Radio Radio club, also the
researcher Kuna’s view, “It’s a win-win.” — H I C K S W O G A N online radio station RRFM.
PHOTOS: JORDI CHIAS, NPL/MINDEN PICTURES (WHALE); JORIS VAN GENNIP, LAIF/REDUX
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S E CT I O N
COLOR
A PHOTOGRAPHER’S LONG,
AMAZING DAY WITH A VOLCANO
Stephen Wilkes documented an eruption
in Iceland for 21 hours straight, making images
of the fiery scene as day turned to night.
can be felt as
A VO LC A N O ’ S C O LO R S
A much as seen. At the Fagradalsfjall

volcano in Iceland, about 19 miles
from the capital, Reykjavík, the hottest
lava radiates whitish yellow but cools
to orange, red, and eventually midnight black. This
“extraordinary dynamic range” is one of many col-
orful phenomena that photographer Stephen Wilkes
observes in his May image of the eruption, at left.
The image shows the landscape transition from day
to night in a single frame. Wilkes created the effect by
compiling 70 of the 1,123 photographs he took from a
single vantage point over 21 hours. The composition
starts on the lower right with a photo taken at 1:54 p.m.
and progresses diagonally to the upper left, blending
together Wilkes’s favorite moments. “I’m re-creating
my memory, in many ways,” he says.
The process of making the image was a whirlwind.
After an overnight flight to Iceland, Wilkes passed a
The National COVID-19 test and ate a quick lunch before boarding
Geographic Society, a helicopter to scout sites. He chose a steep hill to the
committed to illuminating east of Fagradalsfjall; from there, by his calculations,
and protecting the wonder the setting sun would line up with the fiery volcanic
of our world, has funded peak. Steady 45-mile-an-hour winds buffeted Wilkes
Explorer Stephen Wilkes’s
and his team as they drove stakes into the ground to
photography and story-
telling about the natural anchor the camera’s tripod. Then Wilkes settled in to
world since 2017. track the ever changing scene. The precariousness
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY of the rocky slope underfoot forced him to stand the
entire day and night—but tired legs and frigid fingers
didn’t distract him from the volcanic light show.
As the sun sank toward the horizon, the volcano
fell quiet, and Wilkes watched with rising concern:
“I do all this planning,” he notes, “but at the end of
the day, I just have to react to what’s in front of me.”
Just when it seemed his plans were foiled, the vol-
cano sputtered back to life, and Wilkes got the much
anticipated image.
Watching the deepening colors of the sunset
Scan this QR code to
above the golden lava from the volcano—a union of
watch a behind-the-
scenes video on how forces that have shaped our planet’s surface since its
Wilkes and his team infancy—he says he felt an almost spiritual connection:
made this image. “That is where it all began.” — M AYA W E I - H A A S
SOLANGE DUHAMEL turned her University of Arizona, came to study: the birth
back to the wind as it whipped of new land. Many people see volcanic erup- S E CT I O N
S nearly sideways across the rocky tions solely as forces of death and destruction,
COLOR
Icelandic landscape this past and their capricious blasts certainly can wreak
April. She shielded her face havoc. But eruptions also create a blank can-
from pellets of hail, waiting for the storm to vas that gives way to a rainbow of life.
end. Yet Duhamel couldn’t help but stare in Volcanoes have produced more than 80 per-
awe at the scene unfolding before her. cent of the rock on Earth’s surface today, both
A more subtle rainbow comes to life
A stream of incandescent lava poured from above and below water, blasting out craters
under some volcanic surfaces. There,
the mouth of the nearby Fagradalsfjall vol- and building mountains, islands, and plateaus.
subterranean cavities offer niches
cano, which had been erupting for weeks, Eruptions dredge up nutrients from the bowels
where microbes may thrive, perhaps
nearly filling the valley where Duhamel stood of our planet, spreading them in rock and ash
partially fed by nutrients and organics
with jet-black rock. As hail collided with the that eventually break down, when on land,
percolating down from above. Some of
lava field’s still sizzling surface, it instantly into fertile soils. The steps to release these
the colonies are visible to the naked
vaporized, rising in wisps of fog. nutrients come from the combined efforts
eye—but shine ultraviolet light on the
The hazy cloak that covered the landscape of wind, water, and microbes. Together they
underground walls, and a microbial
only enhanced the otherworldly feel of the transform the volcanic landscape’s shades of
galaxy bursts forth. “You can see lit-
process that Duhamel, an environmental gray into rusty red and mustard yellow soils
tle individual colonies and the films
microbiologist and biogeochemist at the that soon explode with verdant plant life.
showing up in glorious color,” says
Jen Blank, an astrobiologist at NASA’s
Ames Research Center.
Fagradalsfjall volcano’s violent
awakening on March 19 gave Duhamel
a golden opportunity to study one of
the earliest steps in lava’s transforma-
tion: the microbial colonization of the
cooled surface.
C O O L E D L AVA R O C K is
initially sterile because
C it emerges from the earth
at temperatures hotter
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS CREATE A CANVAS than 2,000 degrees Fahr-

enheit, far too hot for life to survive.
FOR LIFE IN EVERY HUE, FROM By collecting weekly samples on the

surface, Duhamel and her colleagues
COLOR
TINY MICROBES TO TOWERING TREES.
hope to pin down what appears there
and when. “It’s pretty rare to be able
to study a volcanic eruption from the
beginning,” she says. iron oxides, one of which
Even once cooled, fresh expanses of water partially drive bot
lava rocks aren’t very hospitable to life. But some microbes also
Volcanic ash and rocks are rich in mag- “The microbes, in many w
nesium, iron, calcium, potassium, and University’s Jeffrey Marlo
more, but these nutrients aren’t readily to study the microbial tra
available for use. Many vital ingredients Key to this colorful tran
for life, such as nitrogen, are also scarce, volcanic glass, which for
so the pioneering microbes must be both ash and parts of the
resourceful. Some early movers may be soils form and the hue they
microbes that consume nitrogen from content, vegetation, and
the air, converting that gas into forms found where the land is d
that are easier for other organisms to are full of iron. In cool, we
use and setting the stage for later arriv- an excess of organic matt
als. “You can see it as a collaboration of The weathering gives wa
life,” Duhamel says. are usually the first to arri
Meanwhile, the rock and ash slowly greens, vibrant oranges,
BY PA G E start to break down, made visible actually a partnership be
through chemical changes to the them to survive in harsh
M AYA W E I - H A A S NO. 23
metals trapped within. Of particular Their tiny, rootlike structu
importance is iron, which weathers to the rock, preparing it for
PA G E
NO. 25
In Hawaiian lava caves, colors

that emerge after volcanic
eruptions include a yellow-gold
coating of microbial colonies
(far left) and blue and purple
oxidation on cooled drips of
once molten rock.
islands and patches expand as they

grow increasingly lush. “You will end up
with a mosaic of different successional
stages,” says Catalina González Arango,
a paleoecologist at the University of the
Andes in Colombia.
VO LC A N I C E RU P T I O N S
craft a canvas not only
V for life aboveground but
also for life belowground.
Basaltic lava is poor in
silica, making it runny, as seen at
Fagradalsfjall or Hawaii’s Kilauea. As
the molten rock flows like a river,
upper layers may cool to form thick
crusts that insulate the stream below.
But if the flow is diverted or the erup-
tion ends, it leaves behind what’s
known as a lava tube.
The caves initially may seem like
empty black husks, but a close inspec-
tion reveals many subtle hues from
microbes. In some tubes, colonies of
Actinobacteria spread in thin golden
h we commonly know as rust. Wind and
h the physical and chemical changes. VOLCANOES’ biofilms that repel water, Blank says.
Other microbes seem to grow along
can transform the metals in the rock.
ways, are the painters here,” says Boston
MANY COLORS MAY with tiny white branches of “cave
coral” or tawny polyps. Shining ultra-
ow, who is collaborating with Duhamel
ansformation of volcanic minerals.
OFFER CLUES violet light reveals even more hid-
den diversity glowing in neon blues,
nsformation is the rapid breakdown of
ms as lava rapidly cools and makes up
TO WHAT LIES oranges, and greens.
Volcanoes’ many colors—both
e rock. Yet the speed at which volcanic
y take on rely also on temperature, water
BEYOND OUR aboveground and belowground—
reflect the collaboration of geology
more. Red soils, for example, often are
ry and sparsely vegetated and the rocks
PLANET—AND HELP and life that shaped our planet as we
know it today. That interplay likely
et environments with abundant plants, SCIENTISTS IN THEIR will continue long into the future. It
HUNT FOR
ter turns the soils yellow or brown. may also give clues to what lies beyond
ay to waves of larger forms of life. Lichens our home world, helping scientists in
EXTRATERRESTRIAL
ive as speckled sheets and frills of dusty their search for extraterrestrial life.
mustard yellows. These organisms are Perhaps these scenes that seem so
etween fungi and algae, which allows
environments where plants often fail. LIFE. otherworldly could, in fact, be found
on other worlds. j
ures generate acid that helps break down Maya Wei-Haas is a staff science writer at
larger forms of life. What start as small National Geographic.
PHOTOS: KENNETH INGHAM

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BY
SMELL
SARAH GIBBENS
TELEPHONES WERE A new invention, the Model T Ford

was selling briskly, and William Howard Taft was U.S.
T president the last time anyone might have smelled
a Hibiscadelphus wilderianus tree blooming in the
wild. A distant cousin of Hawaii’s famous hibiscus
flowers, the tree was native to the southern slope of Mount Hale-
akala, on the island of Maui. It’s likely that H. wilderianus went
extinct between 1910 and 1913, judging from reported sightings of
it dying along with other tree species that ranchers had slashed
to clear space for cattle.
More than a century later, a group of scientists would wonder
whether extinction was truly the end of the species’ story. What
if this plant no longer seen in the wild—found only between dry
pages in an archive—could be brought back to life, at least partially?
“We were sitting around and thinking, What if we could do
Jurassic Park?” says Christina Agapakis, the creative director at
Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based biotech company. “It was this
sort of dreamy conversation, and we thought maybe we could.”
Within five years, they had opened an aromatic window to the
past. Using DNA reconstruction and synthetic biology, they resur-
rected the tart juniper scent of the vanished Hawaiian tree’s bloom.
See the facing page for a scratch-and-sniff sample of the recon-

structed H. wilderianus fragrance and descriptions of two
other plants whose scents were retrieved.
Resurrecting a smell isn’t just about smelling something that no
longer exists, says Sissel Tolaas, a researcher and artist whose Smell
Research Lab in Berlin worked with Ginkgo on the plant project.
“Through smell you engage with memory and emotion,” she says.
Calling forth a long-lost smell is a way of experiencing the extinct
feelings it might have sparked, a whiff of the past.
Today an estimated 40 percent of Earth’s plants are in danger
of going extinct, according to a 2020 report by the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew. Many more will disappear before scientists even
realize they exist.
wasn’t easy. Agapakis and her

B R I N G I N G B AC K W H AT WA S L O S T
team first had to find enough of their targets’ remains. Scientists in
the fictional Jurassic Park tapped a mosquito preserved in amber;
Agapakis first hypothesized permafrost might contain preserved
remnants of extinct plants. When that proved a dead end, she
tried the Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries, a 20-minute
drive from Ginkgo’s headquarters. In Harvard’s collection of dried
ILLUSTRATION: KATY WIEDEMANN. SOURCE: KENNETH R. WOOD, NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN
THIS TREE LAST BLOOMED ON A
HAWAIIAN SLOPE MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO.
NOW SCIENTISTS HAVE RESURRECTED
ITS EXTINCT FRAGRANCE. TAKE A WHIFF!
PA G E
NO. 27
SCRATCH AND SNIFF HERE

HIBISCADELPHUS WILDERIANUS
This flowering tree native to ancient
lava fields in Maui is believed to have
gone extinct between 1910 and 1913.
It’s part of a continuing biodiversity
loss that has wiped out nearly 11 per-
cent of Hawaii’s endemic plant taxa,
a 2019 study found.
Ginkgo Bioworks also worked to

reconstruct the scent, and the
extinction story, of two other plants:
O R B E X I LU M ST I P U L AT U M
The small flowering plant, commonly
known as Falls-of-the-Ohio scurfpea,
was presumed extinct in 1881. Like
the Hibiscadelphus tree in Maui, the
scurfpea was wiped out by develop-
ment: A river dam project flooded
its last known habitat in Kentucky.
Its flower’s re-created scent smelled
“citrusy and candy-like” to project
artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg.
L E U C A D E N D RO N G R A N D I F L O RUM
Commonly known as the Wynberg
conebush, the small white-flowered
plant is native to South Africa. After
its habitat was taken for vineyards,
it was last seen in 1806. Research for
Ginkgo’s project revealed two differ-
flower ent specimens labeled as Wynberg
bud pistil conebush, throwing into doubt the
plant’s identification. What Tolaas
reconstructed smelled “deep and
tobacco-y” to Ginsberg. Meanwhile,
South African conservationists hope
to bring back the indigenous plant:
By safely burning part of the land
dried seed pod that once was conebush habitat, they
with exposed seeds stigma may unlock dormant seeds in the soil.
S E CT I O N PA G E
SMELL NO. 28
plant specimens pressed between the

large beige pages of books, 20 extinct
plants were logged. The herbarium
allowed Agapakis to take samples from
14; three were chosen for resurrection.
Hibiscadelphus wilderianus was one.
The second, Orbexilum stipulatum,
last seen on a Kentucky river island,
was presumed extinct in 1881. The
third was labeled as Leucadendron
grandiflorum, native to South Africa
and last seen in 1806. A sample the size
of a pinkie fingernail was taken from
each of the three plants and sent to the
University of California, Santa Cruz
Paleogenomics Lab, where geneticists
sequenced the plants’ DNA.
Just a small sample of the Harvard herbarium specimen of Hibiscadelphus
WHEN AN ORGANISM wilderianus was needed to identify the extinct plant’s scent molecules.
dies, sunlight, water, and
W microbes immediately Tolaas reconstructs smells from molecules the way a writer
begin to degrade the DNA uses letters to construct words. She references her smell library, a
in its cells—so to recon- collection 25 years in the making that includes 10,000 molecules
struct it, scientists must piece together and compositions, organized in small jars and a database. Refer-
the fragments of DNA that remain. encing the molecules sent from Ginkgo, she figured out what scent
Molecular biologist Beth Shapiro, who they might produce by matching their molecular structure to the
oversees the paleogenomics lab, likens structure of the smells in her library and in other collections. Over
the process to “a trillion-piece puzzle.” eight months, she tinkered with the formula—highlighting or
The author of How to Clone a Mam- de-emphasizing certain notes—to create her unique interpretation
moth, Shapiro is a pioneer in analyzing of how the plants might have smelled.
and reconstructing ancient DNA. “I am not adding anything that is not there,” Tolaas says. “I’m
She and her team used an expansive playing with the facts.”
digital database of known DNA to She sent back 10 different variations of the Hawaiian plant’s smell
identify the genetic fragments from and six variations for the Kentucky and South African plants. Each
the extinct plant samples, and then version was a slightly different arrangement of the scent molecules
pieced together the genes of plant in the three plants and produced a range of smells they may have
enzymes responsible for making emitted in the wild.
scent molecules. When Agapakis smelled the extinct scents for the first time, she
With the help of synthetic biology was moved. “We’re smelling something that’s lost forever. That
company Twist Bioscience, the dig- hits you emotionally,” she says. “You don’t want to think about
ital reconstructions were printed as extinction most of the time and how grim that is. Imagine the
synthetic DNA sequences. Back at diversity we’re losing every day. Imagine all that magic that’s there.”
Ginkgo, these sequences encoding The synthetic biology used to revive extinct scents is the next
the smell-producing enzymes were frontier in innovation, Agapakis says. So far, Ginkgo Bioworks has
inserted in yeast, which grew and pro- had a hand in creating microbes that replace chemical fertilizers,
duced scent molecules. Yeast is a pow- concocting skin-care products with living bacteria, and cultivating
erhouse in the field of synthetic biology, proteins used in meat alternatives. Agapakis foresees integrating
Agapakis says, used to make everything synthetic biology into daily life the way electronics and wireless
from medicine to food flavoring. internet are now everyday tools.
Ginkgo then sent the list of mole- In that future, she wonders aloud, “What if we could have a
cules to Tolaas’s Berlin lab, where the ‘living’ everything?” j
artistic part of this art-and-science
project began. Sarah Gibbens is a staff writer covering the environment.
PHOTO: GRACE CHUANG AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY HERBARIA

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N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C P H OTO A R K
C R E AT E A L E GAC Y O F YO U R OW N
SPEEDBY
MICHAEL GRESHKO
SINCE 2000 THE WORLD’S

GLACIERS HAVE SHED MORE THAN
5.3 TRILLION METRIC TONS OF
WATER, REMAKING LANDSCAPES
AND RAISING SEA LEVELS.
BOB MCNABB IS one of

the keepers of a number
B that even he can’t fully
comprehend: 267 billion
metric tons of water. To
explain a quantity of this size, the
Ulster University glaciologist must
use analogies.
Depending on how you look at
it, 267 billion metric tons of water is
roughly half the volume of Lake Erie.
Or six months of discharge from the
Mississippi River. Or all the water in
a 10-foot-deep swimming pool that’s
the size of Ireland. “It’s really hard to
grok,” McNabb tells me.
If we could imagine all that water—a
pool as big as Ireland—could we also
imagine that much ice melting every
year for the past two decades?
Ultimately the enormous number
that McNabb helped derive is a speed:
the speed at which Earth’s more than
200,000 glaciers are being undone.
From 2000 to 2019, glaciers other
than the Greenland and Antarctic ice
sheets lost an average of 267 billion
metric tons of water each year, give or
take 16 billion metric tons, according
to research McNabb co-authored in
the journal Nature. Melting accelerated
over that span, from 227 billion metric
tons a year in the early 2000s to 292 bil-
lion metric tons a year from 2015 to 2018.
It’s one thing to try to reckon with
the speed of this loss, and another to
PA G E
NO. 31
2007
2016
Comparisons
from 2007, 2016,
and 2021 of the
Rhône Glacier
in Switzerland
show the extent
of glacial ice melt
in those short
2021
spans of time.
PHOTOS: JÜRG ALEAN
(ALL)
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S E CT I O N PA G E
SPEED NO. 33
understand what is being lost. Glaciers

flow across more than a quarter million
square miles of our planet, fed by high-
land catchments of snow that pressure
and time turn into rivers of ice. In parts
of the world, such as the Andes and
high-mountain Asia, glacial melt pro-
vides a critical freshwater source. Other
regions, such as the European Alps,
rely on the ice forms as tourist attrac-
tions and mountaineering hot spots.
Glaciers’ frozen tongues also help
articulate our shared sense of place. To
the Maori, New Zealand’s Franz Josef
Glacier is Kā Roimata o Hine Hukat-
ere, the fallen tears of a snow maiden
mourning the death of her human
lover. In Iceland, records going back
centuries recount glacial advances A geologist and a hydroelectric engineer work on a weather station at the
that swallowed up farmland and even Olivares Alfa Glacier in Chile, where freshwater reserves are dwindling.
knocked a church flat. More than any-
thing, glaciers are “part of the land- But solely focusing on the global picture diminishes just how
scape humans have evolved with,” says dramatic local changes have been. Nepal’s deepest lake, fed by
glaciologist Bethan Davies of Royal glacial melt, started forming by the mid-1960s. In a study pub-
Holloway, University of London. “To lished last year, Davies found that as a percent of its current area,
lose them is to lose something critically Patagonia’s ice is now receding faster than it has in 11,000 years.
important to people’s well-being.” We’ve also gained painful clarity on who is to blame. In April one
study estimated that our greenhouse gases have caused practically
I N T H E L O S S E S they sus- all glacial loss since 1850, and possibly more than 100 percent
tain, glaciers take on because some glaciers might have grown without human meddling.
I even more importance. Glaciologist Lauren Vargo of New Zealand’s Victoria University of
Eventually glacial melt Wellington has found that our loading of the climatic dice made
bleeds into the oceans. recent losses to that nation’s Brewster and Rolleston Glaciers about
There it has added more than half an 10 times likelier than they would have been otherwise.
inch to observed sea-level rise since Today’s swift changes to the world’s glaciers can’t be undone all
2000—more than Greenland’s contri- at once. Individual glaciers’ response times to rising temperatures
bution to rising seas over that same vary, but the global signal is clear: Glacial melt hasn’t caught up
span and over double Antarctica’s. yet with the warming that our emissions to date have locked in.
That we can quantify this vast global Even if we were to quit burning fossil fuels today, glaciers would
melting is a testament to huge scien- shed mass for several more decades before stabilizing.
tific advances. Since the early 2000s That said, glaciers’ fate from the middle of the century onward
satellite data have become more plen- will hinge on how quickly we decarbonize here and now. In May
tiful and easily accessible, which has a team led by King’s College London climate scientist Tamsin
let glaciologists build digital elevation Edwards announced that under governments’ current emissions
models for even the world’s hardest- policies and pledges, warming through 2100 would cause glaciers
to-reach glaciers and monitor their to add another five inches of sea-level rise. If we moved with greater
volume. Today’s computers process urgency and capped warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius—the Paris
enormous sums of data and can sim- Agreement’s goal—losses would be halved.
ulate glaciers’ advances and recessions “We’re on track to have substantial losses from global glaciers
with high fidelity. When combined at the moment—but it’s not too late,” Davies tells me. “We know
with observations collected at glaciers what we have to do to get there: We need political will.” j
since the 1800s, these methods provide
a clear view of our reeling cryosphere. Michael Greshko is a staff science writer.
PHOTO: TOMAS MUNITA, BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

PA G E N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
NO. 34 WELCOME TO EARTH
THE SERENGETI MIGRATION IS ONE OF EARTH’S GREAT SPECTACLES,

VITAL TO LIFE IN A LAND OF AMAZING VISTAS AND VIBRANT CULTURES.
The swarm of more than a million migrating AN INTRICATE

T wildebeests in the greater Serengeti ecosys-
tem is a breathtaking scene—and one that is
WEB OF LIFE
BY PA U L A K A H U M B U
crucial to wildlife throughout East Africa.
The Kenyan scientist
C H A R L I E H A M I LTO N JA M E S photographs this says the Serengeti
timeless journey, while PAU L A K A H U M B U, P E T E R GW I N , and and its wildlife are
YVONNE ADHIAMBO OWUOR write of the personal, ecological, symbols of pride,
but she worries about
and cultural issues that shape a region whose delicate what could be lost.
balance of nature faces increasing threats. PAG E 4 6
D AT E
DEC. 2021
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES

T H E W I L D E B E E ST, PHOTO ESSAY: VOICE OF THE FOREST PHOTO ESSAY:
A N U N L I K E LY K I N G GUARDIANS BY Y V O N N E A D H I A M B O FOR WILDLIFE, A
BY P E T E R G W I N OF THE LAND OWUOR FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL
The king of the Seren- Rich traditions and A journey into a pristine For creatures across the
geti isn’t the lion. It’s the pressures on crucial mountain wilderness Serengeti ecosystem,
awkward-looking wilde- natural resources and a meeting with life is a constant search
beest, an antelope are the backdrop for its Maasai overseer to find food—and avoid
whose migration fuels daily life in the greater offer lessons about life becoming a meal for
a complex ecosystem. Serengeti region. and land. another animal.
PAG E 5 8 PAG E 7 2 PAG E 9 8 PAG E 1 0 6
Wildebeests plunge
down a steep bank
along the Mara River
during their quest
for water and fresh
grassland. Some
1.3 million each year
follow seasonal rains
in a clockwise loop
from Tanzania into
Kenya and back—the
largest land migration
on the planet.
Every February, before
they begin a grueling
trek north, wildebeests—
along with the many
zebras that travel with
the herd—gather to
graze and calve on the
short-grass plains near
the southern border of
Serengeti National Park
in Tanzania. Half a million
young wildebeests are
born here each year, an
average of 24,000 a day.
Calves can walk within
minutes of birth.
For thousands of years
wildebeests have
threaded across the
plains of East Africa.
The herds have no
natural leader, but
trails help guide
them—like a group
memory of previous
treks. In their annual
journey they form
one megaherd, sur-
rounded by smaller
ones that split off to
find good grazing.
Driven by hunger and
a primal urge to move
forward, the wilde-
beests lope along,
shoulder to shoulder,
haunch to haunch.
Their muscles are so
efficient that they can
travel for up to five
days without stopping
to drink. The scent
of a lion or cheetah,
however, can scatter
the herd in an instant.
AN INTRICATE
WEB OF LIFE
BY PA G E
PA U L A K A H U M B U NO. 46
D AT E N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
DEC. 2021 WELCOME TO EARTH
IN THE POPULAR from the Maa word for “endless plain”—is deceptive. The
I imagination, the
Serengeti ecosystem
Serengeti is many landscapes, including savanna, woodland,
and riverine forests.
is an ancient African It’s a place like no other on the planet, with the last thriving
landscape of sweep- populations of some animals. And it’s a place where humans
ing golden plains, unchanged for have lived in balance with animals since the beginnings of our
eons. Towering giraffes move grace- species. But some of the animals that we have come to know
fully in step. Elephant herds wade so much about—and many others that remain mysteries—are
through waves of grasses. Lions at risk of disappearing as we humans increasingly lay claim to
chase down spiral-horned antelope their habitats and heat the climate.
in gory hunts. Zigzagging lines of For scientists like me, the Serengeti is both a time capsule
wildebeests and zebras are perpet- of an immemorial age and a bellwether for our future. As
ually on the move. And the people comforting as it may be to see it through familiar images and
who live in the Serengeti, the Maa- story lines, we need to understand it as an intricate web of life
sai and others, if they are acknowl- that depends on landscapes well beyond the parks, reserves,
edged at all, are generally portrayed and conservancies we’ve set aside.
as exotic figures clinging stubbornly Like most East Africans, I never visited the Serengeti as a
to archaic pastoral traditions. child. It was for tourists, a place seen by us as out of reach and
These representations bear some irrelevant to our lives. But unlike many, I was lucky, even as a
likeness to the actual place, but they child growing up in Nairobi in the 1970s, to see some of Kenya’s
fail to capture the complexity of a wildlife in the wild. To keep order in the house, my mother
vast ecosystem that ranges from would lock me and my brother out and tell us not to come
northern Tanzania to southwestern home until dinnertime. We’d explore the nearby forest, climb
Kenya and is home to thousands of trees, swim rivers, wade through swamps. One day we spotted
plant and animal species. Even the a cute animal that looked like a gigantic guinea pig, way up in
name, Serengeti—believed to come a fig tree. A neighbor pulled up, rolled down the window, and
explained that it was a hyrax and that it was a distant relative more than a million wildebeests on
of the elephant, a fact that blew our little minds. the banks of the Mara River seems
Discovering our fascination with animals, he told us to proof the migration is robust, but
bring him any we could catch alive, and he’d tell us about the long-term trends tell a different
them. We brought him snakes, lizards, birds, frogs, mice, story. Nationwide, large mammal
and, once, a giant pouched rat, which I was sure was a new populations have plummeted.
discovery. This man of infinite patience was Richard Leakey, Jackson Looseyia, a Maasai tour
the paleoanthropologist, then the director of the National operator and cohost of the TV show
Museum of Kenya. Big Cat Tales, told me that within
Several years later, when I was 15, I somehow persuaded my the past decade he and his fellow
parents to let me join some students on a scientific expedition guides have noticed 10 species that
across northern Kenya, a remotely inhabited place where have disappeared or almost dis-
it was possible to die from thirst, banditry, or lions. For an appeared: greater kudu, common
entire month we were mostly on our own, happily cataloging duiker, bushbuck, bushpig, giant
the plants and creatures we saw. This experience forged a forest hog, oribi, colobus monkey,
deep desire to spend my life immersed in nature. A few years sable antelope, roan antelope, and,
later, when my mother sent me off to secretarial school, I ran of course, black rhino. Most of these
away and went to see Leakey. He found me an internship that animals aren’t at the top of tourist
launched me toward my dream of becoming a ranger. lists but are crucial barometers for
the health of the ecosystem.
in my 20s,
I F I N A L LY V I S I T E D T H E S E R E N G E T I In the 1990s we saw the collapse
when I was working for the Kenya Wildlife Ser- of the wildebeest migration in
I vice. Young and naive, I once asked American the Athi-Kaputiei ecosystem just
scientists in the Masai Mara National Reserve south of Nairobi. We didn’t even
whether they had any Kenyans on their team. realize what was happening until
“Yes, of course,” they said, “our driver and our cook.” it was too late. Today the same
This flouted research permit rules, but back in Nairobi my thing appears to be unfolding on
boss just shrugged. Nobody expected Africans to do research a grander scale in the Serengeti,
in the bush. Despite such attitudes, I went on to earn a doctor- but now we know what’s happen-
ate in ecology and evolutionary biology. I loved working as a ing. And the threat is magnified by
scientist, but some years ago, I realized that all I cherished was climate change. Leakey told me
under grave threat. So I switched my focus to conservation. he fears that unless we immedi-
One of my projects is a documentary series called Wildlife ately address this at a global level,
Warriors, produced by Kenyans for a Kenyan audience, that we will lose most of our wildlife
highlights our countrymen and countrywomen—scientists or within our lifetime.
not—who seek to protect our animals. When I first pitched the If there is any environment that
idea, people said Kenyans wouldn’t watch. But the response could withstand the onslaught of
has been overwhelming. Last year 51 percent of the country warming, it would be the Serengeti
tuned in, and we’ve received emails and letters of support, as ecosystem—a place of astonishing
well as suggestions for new subjects, from viewers of all ages. resilience. I believe we can defend
The message is clear: Kenyans care about their wildlife. this wilderness and preserve it for
Everyone needs to care because the stakes are high. The future generations, but that will not
wildebeest migration, which travels a circular path through the happen unless ordinary Kenyans
Serengeti ecosystem, is under pressure. The annual arrival of and Tanzanians demand it. j
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY is committed to

illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world.
Since 2010 we have supported 2021 Rolex National Geographic
Explorer of the Year Paula Kahumbu’s work protecting species
in East Africa. Through the Wyss Campaign for Nature, we
funded the fieldwork of Explorer Charlie Hamilton James,
who spent more than two years photographing the people
and animals in the greater Serengeti ecosystem.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOE MCKENDRY
Hungry predators lurk
nearby, so zebras stick
close to wildebeests,
which are preferred
prey. Once on the
northern plains, the
two herbivores tend
to seek out different
grazing areas. Zebras
need more food, pre-
ferring to graze on
taller grasses with
their long front teeth.
Migrating wildebeests
bring a whole ecosystem
along with them. Cattle
egrets, for example, join
grazing wildebeests in
Tanzania. They hover
close by, or even perch
on the wildebeests’
backs, waiting for them
to kick up a smorgas-
bord of insects from
the ground.
Massive wildebeest
deaths provide a
feast for crocodiles
and vultures in the
Mara River. In a single
day 6,000 to 9,000
wildebeests—poor
swimmers and easily
confused—might
trample one another
and drown in the
fast-flowing current.
Wildebeests traverse
the Mara River fre-
quently at a spot below
Lookout Hill in Kenya.
“This is the classic shot
of a crossing,” says
photographer Charlie
Hamilton James, but
it’s not the whole pic-
ture. Turn the camera
around, and tourists
on safari can be seen
parked everywhere.
BY PA G E
PETER GWIN NO. 58
THE UNLIKELY
KIN
THE SERENGETI’S MOST IMPORTANT
ANIMAL IS THE WILDEBEEST, AN
AWKWARD-LOOKING ANTELOPE
WHOSE AGE-OLD MIGRATION DRIVES
A COMPLEX CIRCLE OF LIFE.
THE LINE APPEARED on the
G
T horizon as a gray thread
on a pale green quilt, but
as the plane flew closer, it
became a column of a few hundred
animals, winding across the plain.
“Wildebeest,” Charlie shouted over
the drone of the engine. “It’s a small
group.” We were north of Tanzania’s
Ngorongoro Crater, and since it was
March, we knew the wildebeests would
soon be moving northwest, up through
Serengeti National Park and into Kenya.
And there they were, in a perfectly
straight, nose-to-tail convoy. I could
make out their curved horns and long
heads nodding up and down as they
trudged through the morning sun.
Several calves pressed against their
mothers’ flanks.
For thousands of years, wildebeest
herds have journeyed through the
greater Serengeti ecosystem in a that lay ahead, you’d be right to conclude many of the herd
clockwise circuit—each animal were doomed. They’d be at the mercy of fickle weather
meandering roughly 1,750 miles, patterns, frequently correcting course and traveling long
the distance from Portland, Maine, stretches to find fresh grazing. They would be marauded
to Key West, Florida—following the endlessly by predators. In recent years, they’d also had to
rains, grazing on the grasses, fertiliz- contend with human impediments—fences built to protect
ing the land, becoming food for the crops and cattle—and competition from burgeoning flocks
predators. And here, treading the of sheep and goats.
timeless trail of its ancestors, this But perhaps the most daunting test would be an age-old
herd was headed northwest. one: the Mara River, which the animals would have to cross
But wait, they weren’t headed to reach the best grazing in Kenya’s Masai Mara National
northwest. Reserve and then again when returning to Tanzania. Char-
“Why are they going south?” I lie, who’s been filming and photographing in the Serengeti
shouted to Charlie. for more than two decades, has seen dozens of crossings and
“Who bloody knows?” he replied. watched thousands of wildebeests blithely follow each other
“They’re looking for grass. Not to their death. “I was here for it last year, and hundreds of
much to eat here.” carcasses were piled up on the banks and floating in the river,”
I’d come to Tanzania to see the he told me. “It’s a bloody nightmare.”
great migration of wildebeests and Many of the young and weak are trampled as the herds
joined up with Charlie Hamilton chaotically scramble down muddy, clifflike banks and plunge
James, who’d been documenting into the river. Hundreds drown or are dragged under the
their trek for two years. We’d taken rushing waters by the Mara’s plentiful crocodiles. And of
off from Arusha with Mount Kili- those wildebeests that do make it to the far bank, scores are
manjaro looming on the horizon. promptly chased down by waiting lions and hyenas.
The land had unfolded as a sea of Charlie told me about a time when he’d seen a survivor of
luxuriant green hues, a patchwork of one harrowing crossing inexplicably change its mind a few
coffee farms and stands of dense for- minutes later and head back through the same gantlet, only
est, but after we flew over the crater, to die trying to return to the place it had just left. “There’s
the terrain gave way to wide plains, clearly not a lot going on in there,” he said.
formed by ancient lava flows over- And that’s the great conundrum of the wildebeest: Their
laid with fertile layers of ash from annual migration is an exquisite example of nature’s elabo-
nearby volcanoes. rate clockwork. But observed up close, they’re funny-looking,
Just a month earlier the area enigmatic creatures that can seem hopelessly dim-witted.
below us had been a carpet of highly
nutritious grasses, but the rains
had ended, and now, in practically
every direction, the ground looked
parched, only a whisper of grass. ARE WILDEBEESTS
STUPID?
The column of wildebeests seemed
like a lost, wandering tribe caught
out in the open, an easy target for a
lion pride or a family of hyenas.
Then I noticed one wildebeest ‘NO ANIMALS
ARE STUPID.
step out of the line. It looked around
and started in the opposite direc-
tion, as if it had concluded the group
was heading the wrong way and had
decided to strike out on its own. For SOME ARE SMARTER
THAN OTHERS.’
a solitary creature, this seemed like
certain death. The herd ignored the
rebel and ambled on. That wilde-
beest, I thought, is doomed.
Considering the obstacle course
—EKAI EKALALE, KENYAN GUIDE
STO RY PA G E
T H E U N L I K E LY K I N G NO. 61
And yet for millennia, they’ve inhabited this complicated, upper body. This front-loaded build
unforgiving landscape. I thought about the lone wildebeest balanced atop spindly legs gives the
striking out on its own and couldn’t help but wonder: How animal an ungainly stride.
has this improbable species survived? And then there’s the incessant,
mind-numbing noise it makes—a
JUST AFTER SUNRISE in the Masai Mara, I’m combination of a croak and a
J
wrapped in an olkarasha—the plaid cloth the moo—which prompted early Afri-
Maasai traditionally wear as a cloak—to ward can nomads to name it the “gnu”
off the chill and drinking coffee out of a ther- (guh-new) for the sound it made.
mos with Ekai Ekalale, a Kenyan guide. We’re The result is a creature so weird
watching some wildebeests grazing in front of our Land but also so unassuming that when
Rover. They’re close enough that we can hear them chewing Dutch settlers first laid eyes on it,
mouthfuls of grass. An hour before, we’d seen a pair of lion- they gave it one of the least imagi-
esses kill a buffalo calf, only to have a pack of hyenas steal native names in the animal lexicon,
it. That was less than a mile away, and this group must have wild beast. So how did nature come
heard the whoops and frenzied shrieks of the hyenas, but up with this Frankenstein of the
the wildebeests seem oblivious to any danger. They munch animal kingdom?
contentedly, batting their large ears and swishing their tails To find out, I’d called Anna
to shoo small clouds of flies. Estes, an ecologist at Carleton
I ask Ekai if he thinks wildebeests are stupid. “No animals College who works in Tanzania.
are stupid,” he says. “Some are smarter than others.” But he “Let me stop you right there,” she
notes I’m not the first to raise this question. Wildebeests said. “My dad would take it per-
have perplexed the people who’ve lived closest to them for sonally if anyone would impugn
centuries, the Maasai and other tribes in the region. One the wildebeest.” I called Estes
local folktale holds that the wildebeest was created using because her father, wildlife biolo-
parts left over from other animals. “It was given the head of gist Richard Estes, wrote The Gnu’s
a warthog, the neck of a buffalo, stripes from a zebra, and World, a detailed life history of the
the tail of a giraffe,” Ekai tells me. There are many versions wildebeest and a comprehensive
of this myth, including one in which the wildebeest gets the counterargument to all the jokes.
brain of a flea. Richard, who started his research
Myth though it may be, it seems an apt description. Wilde- in 1962, was one of the first scien-
beests do appear awkward and simpleminded. They are mem- tists to study the behavior of the
bers of the antelope family, which is hard to believe when white-bearded wildebeest of the
you look at them alongside their cousins—the sleek impala Serengeti. Anna grew up bouncing
or the dainty yet acrobatic Thomson’s gazelle. Their diminu- around in a battered Land Cruiser,
tive horns and tiny eyes both seem several sizes too small for following the herds as her father
their extra-long faces, which are exaggerated by long, shaggy observed them mating, giving
beards. And their bodies look uncomfortably unbalanced, with birth, fending off predators, and
big humps behind their shoulders that give way to sloping yes, dying in great numbers. Her
hindquarters—like a weight lifter who’d focused only on his father retired a few years ago, and
WAYS OF THE WILDEBEEST
Residents do not
join the broader
migration.
Driven by a constant search for food, 1.3 million wilde- ara
M
Resident
beests chase the rains across the greater Serengeti wildebeests
ecosystem every year. The migration stretches from the Loita Plains
fertile short-grass plains of the southeast to the wood-
lands and savanna of the north when rainfall gets scarce.
MASAI
Talek
MARA
A NATIONAL
ASI
Ma r a RESERVE
A F R I C A Conservancies
Path of 3 in Kenya prioritize
MAP tracked
KENYA wildebeest D RY- S E A S O N wildlife conservation
AREA
R A N G E and sustainable
TANZANIA land use.
K
Mugumu TA E N Y
NZ A
AN
IA
Buffer zones allow
regulated agriculture and IKONA
WILDLIFE
game hunting in Tanzania. MANAGEMENT IKORONGO
AREA GAME Loliondo
GRUMET RESERVE
I G Fort Ikoma
Ndabaka A ME
RESE Robanda LOLIONDO
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La Lamadi Or
KIJERESHI
GAME RESERVE Musabi Plains CONTROLLED
Dutwa P L
Plains SE R ENGETI N ATI ONAL PA R K AREA
Serengeti N.P. Serengeti

Headquarters Research
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Center
2
G R E AT
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Ndoha
M I G R AT I O N M Piaya
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Plains ba
The rainy season brings la
1
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nutrient-rich grasses that feed Plains

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migrant wildebeests. They

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calve while food is plentiful.

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2 When the rains and grasses
MA
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dwindle, the animals must move
SW
to the north, where there’s more

competition for less food. or
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Museum
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In the dry season the Mara River

3 still provides water. But the grasses NGORO NGOR O
E
CO NS ER VA T IO N A REA
in the north are poorer in nutrients;
RES
many wildebeests starve.

1 Ngorongoro
ERV
Crater
R A I N Y- S E A S O N Oloirobi
E
Lake RANGE
KE
Victoria N MASAI
TA YA MARA
Kakesio
NZ Makao
. NAT. RES.
MAKAO MWIBA
WILDLIFE WILDLIFE i
MANAGEMENT RANCH s
AREA a
y
R A I N V A R I AT I O N E
SERENGETI e
N.P. Evaporation from Lake Victoria k
a 10 mi
delivers ample moisture to the L
northern sectors of the Serengeti. 10 km
In the south, volcanic peaks create
a “rain shadow” that reduces rain- RILEY D. CHAMPINE AND MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK, NGM STAFF
fall, parching the southern plains. SOURCES: GRANT HOPCRAFT, THOMAS MORRISON,
AND CALLUM BUCHANAN, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW;
Average annual rainfall (inches) JARED STABACH, SMITHSONIAN CONSERVATION BIOLOGY
INSTITUTE; TANZANIA NATIONAL PARKS; TANZANIA
12 72 WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE; KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE
Estes has continued studying the ecology of the Serengeti. they’re able to consume only a tiny
Think of it this way, she suggested: One measure of evolu- fraction, and within a few weeks
tionary success is population. In this sense, the wildebeest, the calves and adults have begun
at upwards of 1.3 million, is by far the most triumphant large to move to the next stop, their num-
mammal in the Serengeti. Elephants, with their vaunted bers swollen by nearly a third.
intelligence and unchallenged brawn, number only around After speaking with Anna Estes,
8,500; lions, the so-called kings of the plain, a paltry 3,000. I went looking for other examples
The closest competitors are Thomson’s gazelles and zebras— of ingenious wildebeest behavior.
at a few hundred thousand each—and both, by the way, fol- I learned that wildebeests always
low the wildebeest. give birth in broad daylight, which
This success, she noted, is directly connected to their might seem to make them more
strange-looking body parts, which are adaptations that have vulnerable, except lions and hye-
been finely tuned over a million years to help them cover nas generally hunt between dusk
enormous distances and take full advantage of the unique and dawn. And scent glands in their
Serengeti ecosystem. The small horns—puny compared hooves leave a trail of hormones that
with the African buffalo’s massive horn helmets—mean helps the animals find their way.
less weight to carry while walking long distances or swim- Then I came across an example
ming across rivers, and they’re less likely to get tangled in that put me back in the plane with
dense brush. The flat muzzles allow lawnmower-like graz- Charlie, recalling the mystery of the
ing. The sloping backside actually promotes a highly effi- wildebeest that seemed to strike
cient gait, and their ankles have a pogo stick–like elasticity out on its own. If a mother is sepa-
that allows them to bounce when they run—both help save rated from her calf, I learned, she’ll
energy during the long migration. And clumsy looking or pull out of the column and head the
not, they can accelerate to 50 miles an hour, fast enough to opposite way—to the back of the
elude hyenas and outpace lions. They also are very good at line, where calves naturally gather
sensing where rain is falling and heading in the direction of when they’re lost.
distant thunderstorms, which by the time the herd arrives
will have produced new grass. for the
BEFORE I LEFT
B
But the most impressive wildebeest adaptation is its strategy S ereng eti, I read
for bringing the next generation into the world. Starting in late about a young ecol-
January, herds gather on the same plains Charlie and I flew ogist who forever
over, when they’re still lush with grass fed by seasonal rains changed the way sci-
and the nutrient-rich volcanic soil. The wildebeest, unlike entists view the wildebeest. Tony
many other antelope species, doesn’t hide its young, and Sinclair had grown up in Tanzania,
pregnant females give birth all at once out in the open. Some studied zoology at Oxford, and then
500,000 wildebeest calves are born over three weeks, roughly spent more than a decade counting
24,000 a day. Seven minutes after emerging from the womb, a the Serengeti’s animal populations.
calf is standing, and within 24 hours it can run with its mother. In April 1982 he’d traveled to South
Lions, hyenas, and other predators are primed for this Africa for a gathering of conserva-
annual feast and glut themselves on the newborns, but tionists in Pretoria, where he’d
STO RY PA G E
A POPULATION SURGE
taken the podium to announce
astonishing news: He and another
ecologist, Mike Norton-Griffiths,
The number of wildebeests in the
had counted the largest ungulate Serengeti grew fivefold in less than two
herd ever recorded. decades once rinderpest, a virus passed
The feat of accurately calculating from domestic cattle to wildlife, was
the size of such a large migratory largely eradicated in the early 1960s.
herd—before the use of satellites
and other advanced technology— 1.4 million
was impressive enough, but even
more stunning was that this herd
was the Serengeti’s wildebeest
population.
Beginning in the 1890s, the
wildebeest had been decimated
by outbreaks of a virus known as
260,000
rinderpest, which is related to the
measles virus. Though it’s harmless
1961 1977
to humans, rinderpest is lethal to
domestic cattle and their wild cous-
ins, including the African buffalo SHAPING THE SERENGETI
and wildebeest. The sudden population uptick set off a tor-
An effective vaccine had been rent of far-reaching impacts, giving scientists
a rare opportunity to study the vital role
widely administered by the early wildebeests play in the ecosystem.
1960s, stopping the outbreaks
among cattle, and the wildebeest
was rebounding with astounding Increase
speed. Before the vaccine largely Decrease

wiped out rinderpest, the Seren-
geti’s wildebeest population was More wildebeests eat more grass
and boost predator populations.
roughly 260,000. But in just 17
years, from 1961 to 1977, it had more
than quintupled, to 1.4 million. Sin-
clair showed me a black-and-white
photo he’d taken during one of his Predators
counting flights. A massive herd of
wildebeests covers the land from Grass
horizon to horizon.
But in Pretoria, his fellow scien- Other herbivores
tists didn’t share his enthusiasm.

“What I got was people standing
Less grass means less fuel Shorter grass lets
up saying, ‘This is the most irre-
for fires. Trees regener- more light and
sponsible thing I’ve ever heard,’ ” ate more easily, a boon nutrients reach
for many species. lower plants.
he recounted when we chatted over
Zoom. “ ‘What we should be doing
Grasshoppers and
is killing half the population.’ ”
Thomson’s gazelles
That was the prevailing dogma have less food
available to them.
held by many scientists in Africa
but also in places such as Yel-
lowstone, he said. They believed
wildlife populations needed to be
manipulated to stay in balance.
“They had to be controlled,” he
DIANA MARQUES, NGM STAFF. LAWSON PARKER

SOURCES: ANTHONY R.E. SINCLAIR, BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH CENTER,
NUMBERS LEVEL OFF
told me, explaining this thinking.
“Otherwise they would just go crazy
and destroy everything.”
After peaking in 1977, the wildebeest
population stabilized at a level the food Sinclair wasn’t convinced. “It
supply could support, about 1.3 million occurred to me that we could
animals. Their numbers can still fluctuate demonstrate why that was not the
with variations in annual rainfall. case in the Serengeti wildebeest
population.”
He went back to the Serengeti,
1.3 million and over the next several years,
he and his colleagues began to
notice significant changes. The
first was that predator populations
The Serengeti’s were growing. This wasn’t all that
worst drought of
surprising—more prey meant more
the 20th century
food for lions, hyenas, cheetahs,
and leopards. But Norton-Griffiths
also noticed that there were fewer
1961 1977 1985 1995 2005 2018
fires. He and Sinclair figured out
that the large wildebeest herd was
P O P U L AT I O N C O N T R O L keeping the grass shorter, so fires
Serengeti animals under 330 pounds typically didn’t burn as frequently or as hot,
die from predation; those heavier than that which allowed trees to grow. Sud-
threshold, from lack of food. Wildebeests, mid-
size, attempt to avoid both threats by migrating. denly, large areas that had been
grassland for nearly a century were
being reforested.
Fewest Deaths due Most
to predation More trees meant more insects,
more birds, and more animals that
Body
weight Oribi eat the leaves of trees, including
giraffes and elephants. And as the
wildebeests traveled, they spread
their dung, improving the soils and
Impala producing more grass for them-
Migrant wildebeests are
smaller than resident ones selves and other species. Elephant
and more agile. Their risk populations grew, butterflies pro-
220 lbs of predation is lowered by
moving in large groups. liferated, even lowly dung beetle
Topi
species flourished.
Sinclair realized the Serengeti
330 lbs Zebra was being transformed into a place
Buffalo that few, if any, living humans could
remember. And the driver for this
change was the humble wilde-
Resident wildebeests
Giraffe are larger and don’t beest. At the time, the concept of a
migrate. These herds keystone species—an animal that
2,200 lbs must share territory year-
round with predators. was singularly crucial to the struc-
Rhino
ture and health of an ecosystem—
was relatively new. Until then, all
Hippo
the identified keystone species
Elephant had been top predators. But in the
Serengeti, the lion wasn’t king; its
prey was.
To put it bluntly, Sinclair told
22,000 lbs me, “there’s no Serengeti, at least
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA; GRANT HOPCRAFT AND THOMAS MORRISON,

UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW; SEAN CARROLL, THE SERENGETI RULES, 2016
When foreign travel
fell during the COVID-
19 pandemic, tourist
facilities lowered prices,
giving more Kenyans a
look at the migration in
the Masai Mara. “The
result was brilliant,” says
Hamilton James. “Many
Kenyans rarely have a
chance to see their own
wildlife, their heritage.”
STO RY PA G E
not one we’d recognize, without skin and around its organs, even some of its muscle tissue,
the wildebeest.” and had finally dipped into the emergency reserves in its
bones. At that point, he said, “these animals are what we call
A S I D ROV Eacross the a carcass with a pulse.” A predator may have delivered the
A plains, even when I

saw no wildebeests,
death blow, but only because the animal already was weak-
ened by starvation.
I often spotted their Hopcraft’s team is also studying the hairs from a wildebeest’s
remains—clusters tail. The hairs, roughly a foot long, tell the story of the past year
of bleached ribs, disarticulated and a half of the animal’s life. Scientists slice them into tiny
vertebrae, and stark alabaster leg segments representing about two weeks’ growth each, then
bones—each identifiable by a analyze them for isotopes and hormones that reveal a wealth
nearby skull adorned with the tell- of data about the individual. “Imagine the animal is writing
tale horns. a diary every day,” Hopcraft said. “ ‘I’m pregnant. I’m hungry.
I’d heard that one of Sinclair’s I’m stressed. This is where I’ve been eating. This is what I’ve
protégés, Grant Hopcraft, an ecol- been eating.’ It’s telling you that information.”
ogist at the University of Glasgow, And what do these wildebeest diaries reveal? The animals
was studying wildebeest remains— are always desperately hungry, especially the females. “A
sort of a CSI: Serengeti. So I called female wildebeest is on the edge of starvation almost its
him up. entire life,” Hopcraft said. “And that’s because they never
I’d assumed most of these were stop reproducing.”
kills, but Hopcraft discounted that He explained that the females are either pregnant or nurs-
notion. “People think of wilde- ing a calf year-round, and for four months, from June to Sep-
beests dying from lions, hyenas, tember, they’re doing both, all while migrating, which puts
or crocodiles, things like that,” he huge energy demands on their bodies. “That makes them
said. “But predators account for completely focused on consuming as much as possible of the
only about 25 to 30 percent of the most nutritious grasses until they’re gone,” he said. Then they
deaths among adults.” The number have to immediately figure out where the rain is falling, hurry
one cause of death? Starvation. three or four miles to the next available grazing, and start
Hopcraft and his team study eating, competing with the million other wildebeests doing
wilde beest bones, especially the exact same thing. “This is the engine of the migration.”
femurs, the large bones in the upper I was reminded of the wildebeest that Charlie had seen run
hind legs. “One of the things we do the Mara River gantlet twice in one day and asked Hopcraft
is look at the bone marrow content,” if hunger would prompt an animal to ignore such obvious
he said, explaining that even after threats. “It could,” he said. “Avoiding predators shapes some
death it still holds the animal’s last of their behaviors, but starvation is the dominant force.”
reserve of fat.
If the fat content in the marrow I booked a budget safari out
M A N Y Y E A R S AG O,
is depleted, it tells him that the ani- of Nairobi, and in less than an hour we found
mal had metabolized all the energy M ourselves amid a herd of wildebeests, framed
stored in the layers of fat under its against the city’s skyline. The air smelled of
their pungent dung and was filled with their perpetual gnu-ing. Ogutu told me many of the same
The guide explained that this herd of some 20,000 would hindrances are now squeezing the
migrate to the neighboring Athi-Kaputiei Plains and back Serengeti migration as it moves
again. It was a miniature version of the great Serengeti-Mara through the Masai Mara. As he
migration, which circulated farther to the southwest. listed these—more sheep and goat
I mentioned this to Joseph Ogutu, and he nodded ruefully. herds, more fences in Maasai com-
It was late in Nairobi when we connected on Zoom, and he munities, more water siphoned by
pushed up his glasses and rubbed his eyes with the weariness farms—I pictured a cardiologist
of a man who spends his days sorting through data that tell a reviewing an MRI that revealed
disturbing story. Ogutu, born and raised in western Kenya, is a blockages in a patient’s circula-
senior statistician at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, tory system and calculating how
Germany; his specialty is counting Kenya’s wildlife populations much longer the heart would keep
and modeling how they change over time. beating. The number of wildebeests
He knows the story of the Athi-Kaputiei herd all too well. In coming into Kenya is declining,
the early 2000s he began reconstructing the Kenyan govern- Ogutu said. “Those that do come
ment’s data sets for these wildebeests. “The government had are spending up to one and a half
actually done a good job collecting data,” he said. But it was months fewer per year in the Mara
scattered among old computer tapes, floppy disks, hard drives, than they used to.”
and documents locked in filing cabinets with missing keys. If they stopped coming, it would
As he recovered the information and compared it with current dramatically alter the ecosystem
figures, a distressing picture emerged: The migration had col- but also the Kenyan economy, since
lapsed. The herd had dwindled from roughly 30,000 in the mid- thousands of foreign tourists come
1970s to fewer than 3,000 in 2014. The cause was attributed to a to the Mara to watch the spectacle.
range of human activities—Nairobi’s sprawl, more fenced farms, I asked Ogutu if he thought the
expanding railroads, among them. Eventually, these encroach- trend was reversible. “The signals
ments choked the routes the wildebeests needed to find enough from the data that I have seen and
grazing to maintain their numbers. Without the ability to move the predictions into the future do
freely, the remaining wildebeests stopped migrating. not offer much hope for optimism,”
he said, “unless we can put land
aside and protect it in perpetuity
for wildebeest.”
“IMAGINE THE ANIMAL ONE OF THE LAST
O
days I was in the
IS WRITING A DIARY Mara, Charlie, Ekai,

and I were driving
EVERY DAY. through the savanna

when we spotted a young wilde-
‘I’M PREGNANT.
beest by itself, galloping along the
road. Nothing seemed to be chasing
it. It was just running alone—odd
I’M HUNGRY. behavior for a wildebeest. We

caught up to it and drove alongside
I’M STRESSED.’
for a bit. It ignored us, its head bob-
bing up and down, small eyes
focused on the road ahead. Where
IT’S TELLING YOU THAT was this animal going? What was it
thinking? At the time I thought for
INFORMATION.”
sure it was doomed, but now I can
only wonder. j
On staff since 2003, Peter Gwin is

—ECOLOGIST GRANT HOPCRAFT an editor at large and co-host of
Overheard at National Geographic.
HUMAN IMPACTS ON THE HERDS
More fences, more tourist traffic, more farms siphoning off water: ASI
A
These factors aren’t the only reasons wildebeests are visiting
A F R I C A
Kenya’s Masai Mara less often and staying a shorter time. But such
human-made changes are undeniably having an impact. This region MAP KENYA
is where ungulates normally wait out the dry-season months, from AREA
July to October. Many then chase the rains southward back into TANZANIA
Tanzania, while a smaller, resident group moves east to the Loita
Plains—a local migration experts fear may be going extinct.
Thousands of miles of fences, Cropland

ranging from high-power electric Road
Built-up area
barriers to traditional enclosures
made from tangled branches, Tourist camp
have been installed since 2011. or lodge
OLOISUKUT
River Airstrip
Fences in the
Masai Mara Core parks
Mara Bridge
study area Fully protected areas that MARA
prohibit agriculture and hunting
Kawai
NORTH
GPS tracking collars help Masai Mara wildlife conservancies
experts document changes in Community-managed lands in Kenya
wildebeest migration patterns. that prioritize wildlife conservation
Mara
and sustainable land use
Tracked wildebeest 5 mi
locations since 2019 5 km t O L O R U K OT I
en
Tracked wildebeest m PL A I N
locations 1999-2013
a rp
sc Tourist-packed jeeps
E
o that can disorient and
l ol intimidate wildebeests
o could be contributing
lo to a troubling decline
O in Mara River crossings.
t KE
s oi TA
NY
A
Nyamongo E N ZA
NI
A
Mara
T A N Z A N I A
Gibaso S E R E N G E T I
Ma
ra
N A T I O N A L P A R K
P O P U L AT I O N G R O W T H
Large families and good jobs led to a
striking increase in the human popula-
Lake AREA
ENLARGED tion around the Masai Mara from 2009
Victoria to 2018. Pastoral groups that historically
NAROK moved with their livestock now are
MASAI MARA permanent fixtures on land where
NAT. RES.
MARA Nairobi wildebeests once roamed freely.
K
SERENGETI TA E N Y
NZ A
N.P. AN
IA Population in park-adjacent regions
ARUSHA
SIMIYU
30.4% KENYA
increase (NAROK COUNTY)
TANZANIA
Population density (ARUSHA, MARA, SIMIYU) 45.2% increase
0.73
4.74 million 6.18 million million 1.06 million
Low High (2009) (2018) (2009) (2018)
Siongiroi
Sigor
The Mara River is a vital source of
Mulot
freshwater for wildebeests in the
N Kipkeigei dry season. But it must first flow
ya ala through agricultural fields, crowded
ngori Am
human settlements, and tourist
hot spots before reaching wildlife
s
protection zones in the south.
Ngorengore
ENONKISHU
MARA Narok
OLCHORRO NORTH Lemek
OIROUA Migrating wildebeests that try
KILORITI PLAIN to cross fences often get injured
ll or die. Those trapped in pastures
s
e Hi can be difficult to remove. One
LEMEK nyi
Ki tagged animal was caught in a
Ol 330-acre pasture for four weeks
in October 2019.
Aitong
Ewaso N
gi r
Single trapped o
MOTOROGI wildebeest, 2019
PARDAMAT
K E N Y A
L O I T A P L A I
N S
OLARE Olesere Maji Moto
ES TS
OROK
MARA- IL DEBE
LO I TA R E S I D E N T W
NABOISHO
OL KINYEI
Land has increasingly moved into
private hands and commercial
farming. This keeps wildebeests
OLARRO from wet-season grazing lands on
Talek NORTH
BU the Loita Plains and funnels them
ek
R Tal into denser, more sedentary
Nkoilale
RU
clusters farther south.

NG
NASHULAI ISAATEN
AT
PL
AI
OLARRO L
Sekenani
N
SIANA SOUTH O
I
T Narosura
kin
M A S A I M A R A oi s
e A
y oL
oin H
N A T I O N A L Ol D
I
L
R E S E R V E
L
Oloolaimutia
S
S I A N A TOURISM SURGE 132

In the past decade, the greater Seren- 2019
oi
P L A I N S geti ecosystem has seen a dramatic

or
K
Ol rise in tourism, especially in the Masai
OLDERKESI Mara region. Foreign dollars sustain the
Sa local economy, but garbage and human
nd waste, demand for freshwater, and jeep
tourism all stress the environment.
KE
NY
TA A Total tourism facilities
N ZA
NI in the greater Serengeti
SOREN WALLJASPER AND A
MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK, NGM STAFF;
ALEXANDER STEGMAIER
First facility installed
SOURCES: JARED STABACH AND LACEY HUGHEY, SMITHSONIAN
CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE; JAKE WALL, MARA 1970
ELEPHANT PROJECT; GRANT HOPCRAFT AND THOMAS MORRISON,
UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW; DANIEL SOPIA, MAASAI MARA WILDLIFE 18
CONSERVANCIES ASSOCIATION; AARHUS UNIVERSITY 2010
GUARDIANS OF THE LAND
P H O T O E S SAY : T H E P E O P L E
72
RICH TRADITIONS As a teen, Jeremiah
Cheruiyot Maritim
to catch poachers who
target wildebeests and
AND CHALLENGES killed animals to eat

and to sell as bush-
other animals migrat-
ing through the area.
OVER RESOURCES meat. Now a park

ranger, he patrols the
Poachers set traps or
sometimes drive ani-
SHAPE DAILY LIFE.

Serengeti along the mals into gullies and
Kenya-Tanzania border kill them with spears.
In Kenya, the Mara
River weaves between
small ilchampai—farms
where crops are inter-
spersed with trees—
and industrial-scale
operations that use
center-pivot irrigation.
Together these forms
of agriculture consume
so much water that the
river has run extremely
low in recent years.
Maasai villagers tend
their animals in tradi-
tional bomas (this one
in Tanzania): home-
steads of dwellings
and corrals enclosed
with fencing made
from tangled, thorny
acacia branches to
keep livestock in and
predators out.
BOYS LEARN EARLY Melubo Olenauni
(at right) and his sons
sheep and goats, and
then later with cows.
TO PROTECT THE HERD return to their home
in Tanzania after bring-
When they become
ilmurran, or warriors,
AND LIVE IN HARMONY ing in the cows. Young
boys begin to learn
they’re ready to be
responsible for the
WITH THE LAND. shepherding with whole herd.
P H OTO E S S AY: T H E P E O P L E PA G E
GUARDIANS OF THE LAND NO. 81
The pool table is a
social hub in Irkeepusi,
Tanzania, where men
who aren’t tending the
herd play for money
throughout the day.
Women work at home.
They milk cows, chop
and carry wood, and
haul water for cooking
and washing.
Naserian Dennis
Lukumai bathes three-
month-old Meng’oriki,
the youngest of her
four children, at home
in Tanzania. A fire
burns around the clock
in the communal area;
two other rooms shel-
ter young calves and
sheep that need spe-
cial attention. While
the 29-year-old takes
care of the household,
her husband, Dennis,
works as assistant
manager at the Lemala
Ngorongoro tented
safari camp.
Ol Doinyo Lengai,
Mountain of God in
the language of the
Maasai, is an active
volcano in Tanzania.
Considered the home
of Enkai, who signals
her wrath with erup-
tions and drought, it’s
a place of pilgrimage
for pastoralists, who go
to pray for rain, cattle,
and healthy children.
Yohana Medukenya
works at a hair salon
in Irkeepusi, taking
inspiration from a wall
of celebrity photo-
graphs. The 22-year-
old prefers styling hair
for men and women
at MGZ Quality Hair
Cuts to tending his five
cows. His family helps
out with the animals.
RIGHT
The Maasai in Orboma,
Kenya, welcome tour-
ists who pay to visit
the village and learn
about traditions such
as the adumu, or jump-
ing dance, a rite of
passage for young
men. They compete to
see who can jump the
highest straight into
the air—and to win the
admiration of potential
brides. “It’s easy to be
cynical about tourism,”
Hamilton James says,
but he sees perfor-
mances like this as an
exchange of cultures.
Tourists get what
they’ve come to see,
and the Maasai get
money to support
their communities.
BELOW RIGHT
At the Koiyaki Guiding
School west of Nairobi,
students prepare for
a driving test. Several
dozen aspiring guides,
about half of them
on scholarships, take
a one-year course to
learn every aspect of
guiding a safari, from
driving to camp man-
agement to first aid.
MAKING A LEAP FROM VILLAGE LIFE

TO CAREERS IN TOURISM,
YOUNG MAASAI TRAIN FOR THE FUTURE
WHILE KEEPING TRADITIONAL WAYS.
A wildlife team in saved. It’s illegal, but
Kenya’s Ol Kinyei some herders use pes-
Conservancy tends to ticides to kill animals
critically endangered that prey on livestock.
Rüppell’s and white- Other animals that eat
backed vultures that poisoned vultures, such
may have fed on a poi- as jackals, also may die
soned hyena. Two were in a toxic chain reaction.
RIGHT
Kenya’s Nyakweri
Forest, at one time an
important birthing
area for elephants, was
formerly communal
land: 800 square miles
of indigenous wood-
land. But the forest has
been subdivided, and
Maasai have made it
their home—no longer
moving with their live-
stock as they once did,
but rather settling
down and sending
their children to
school. Forested land
is of little use to cattle
herders, so the Maasai
hire people from other
tribes to cut down
trees and burn wood
to clear grazing land
and produce charcoal.
In East Africa, 80
percent of the urban
population burns
charcoal as the primary
energy for cooking.
BELOW RIGHT
Francis Peenko (point-
ing at screen) and
other Mara Conser-
vancy rangers work
with Kenyan-born
Marc Goss from the
Mara Elephant Project
to steer a drone carry-
ing a thermal camera
to hunt for poachers.
Brian Heath (at far
right) is CEO of
the conservancy.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE NEED

MORE LAND, FUEL, AND FOOD?
FORESTS GET TURNED INTO CHARCOAL,
AND ANIMALS GET SNARED BY POACHERS.
On his phone much
of every day, Leriro
Tung’ung’wa, chairman
of the Irkeepusi comm-
unity, manages issues
such as education,
health care, grazing
rights, and water
supply for more than
7,000 people on the
eastern edge of the
Ngorongoro Crater.
BY PA G E
YVONNE ADHIAMBO OWUOR NO. 98
THE LOITA FOREST IS THE
HIDDEN SERENGETI, A PRISTINE
WILDERNESS SACRED TO
THE MAASAI. THE FOREST’S
OCTOGENARIAN PROTECTOR SEES A
MYSTICAL LANDSCAPE INCREASINGLY
THREATENED BY GREED.
RECENTLY I EMBARKED on a journey into the Seren-

R geti. It wasn’t the Serengeti you might envision,
not the postcard vistas of rolling, yellow-grass
savannas punctuated by umbrella thorn acacias.
And I didn’t stay in a luxury tented camp or join the armies
of tourist vans swarming around lion kills.
Instead, I traveled to Loita, a part of the greater Seren-
geti ecosystem that doesn’t appear on the standard
itinerary—a hidden Serengeti, if you will, one that
includes a lush mountain wilderness rising more than a
mile above sea level. It’s about a 150-mile drive southwest
from Nairobi and overlooks the world-famous Masai Mara
National Reserve. Yet it’s a place most visitors to Kenya
don’t know exists.
My plan was to make my way up into the heart of this
green fortress to a place known in the Maa language as
Entim e Naimina Enkiyio, or the Forest of the Lost Child.
It’s a 115-square-mile cocoon of unspoiled rainforest, a land
practically hidden in plain sight. Once there, I hoped to be
granted an audience with the man who oversees this realm.
First you must know that I live a world away from Loita,
in Nairobi. It’s a metropolis of some five million people. It
STO RY PA G E
THE SPIRITUAL VOICE OF THE FOREST NO. 100
buzzes and hums as one of Afri- they’ve been guided by men who hold the title of oloiboni,
ca’s technological innovators, the all drawn from a clan endowed with exceptional temporal
nucleus of the so-called Silicon and spiritual abilities and schooled in natural and super-
Savanna. It’s one of the continent’s natural healing practices.
busiest transportation hubs, with To be the Oloiboni Kitok, the highest ranking oloiboni,
flights to and from four continents. is to sit between worlds as mediator, prophet, and seer; as
A place of gleaming skyscrapers intercessor and healer; as cultural liturgist and political strat-
filled with companies from around egist; and as keeper of good relations between humanity and
the world. The UN’s Africa head- nature. More than 30 years ago, Mokompo ole Simel took on
quarters are here, as are a plethora that lifetime mantle of Supreme Oloiboni from his father,
of international media organi- becoming the 12th Oloiboni Kitok in his clan’s lineage.
zations busily broadcasting the It’s difficult to describe the full scope of his influence. He’s
continent’s stories. We endure hair- the spiritual leader of more than a million Maasai who live
pulling traffic jams and wonder in Kenya and Tanzania. He’s sought out for blessings and
about the local implications of advice on matters big and small—from a family’s lost cattle
climate change. And of course, to major conservation plans for Loita. Maasai from as far away
since 2020, the scourge of COVID- as Samburu in northern Kenya make the 200-mile journey to
19 has dominated. Loita to see him. And it’s not just Maasai who seek his counsel.
I was feeling claustrophobic in Politicians from other countries have solicited his blessings,
Nairobi, and the chance to travel advice, and help to curry favor with voters.
to Loita seemed a boon. But truth- Yet he’s not an easy man to see. You can’t just drive to Loita
fully, it wasn’t just relief from the and find your way to the home of the Oloiboni Kitok. You
city I was seeking; it was the chance must be introduced, which is how I came to meet a friend of
to experience the world from a a friend named Mores Loolpapit, a doctor and public health
fresh perspective, an ancient and professional, a nonpracticing oloiboni, and, serendipitously,
timeless one. the Oloiboni Kitok’s nephew.
And that is how one midday in May, I came to sit on a car-
THE MAN I HOPED pet of soft green grass festooned with tiny purple and yellow
to see was a Maasai flowers, under a behemoth oreteti tree. The sky was blue,
T leader named Mo- and though it was sunny, an easterly wind sprinkled icy rain
kompo ole Simel, droplets. Somewhere nearby, a donkey brayed.
also known as the Mores had guided me here via an eight-hour drive over
Oloiboni Kitok (pronounced O-loy- rough roads that gradually ascended to a mountain savanna
BON-ee KEE-tok). In the centuries that is a gateway to Loita. It’s here at his homestead, a collec-
since the Maasai migrated with tion of mud-brick and thatched-roof buildings and animal
their cattle down from the Nile corrals, where the Oloiboni holds court and where I hoped to
Valley and settled in eastern ask for permission to visit Loita and to interview him.
Africa, including the area they I was one of two dozen visitors, including a five-man
called the Siringet (“the place delegation from Tanzania who’d arrived before dawn. We were
where the land runs on forever”), all received as pilgrims. Nobody was treated as a stranger.
TO BE THE From his home in Ken-
ya’s secluded Loita
Kitok. Following a long
line of such leaders, he
SUPREME OLOIBONI
region, Mokompo ole encourages vigilance
Simel has spent three against threats to
IS TO SIT
decades advising the the area’s old-growth
Maasai community on montane rainforest,
matters large and small urging humans to live
BETWEEN WORLDS. as its revered spiritual

leader, the Oloiboni
in harmony with nature.
KEVIN OUMA, CINEMATIC KENYA
Tradition dictates that no guest comes empty-handed, and graze, dispatching another young
we had brought some household goods—flour, spices, coloring man to the market, and tasking his
books, and pens—to be offered to the Oloiboni’s wives and son—and heir apparent—Lemaron
children. I clutched four precious coffee seedlings, my own to extend healing services to calm
special tribute. We waited about two hours. three nervous visitors.
Finally the man appeared. In his wake, a tide of activities The Oloiboni supported his
erupted. A chorus of human voices greeted him, and the uneven steps with a thick, carved
gathered emissaries surged forward. A favorite calf hurtled stick. A dark blue woolen cap cov-
toward him, goats bleated, and in the distance a quintet of ered his head. He wore a red and
giraffes ambled by. blue Maasai cloak called an olkara-
He was in his late 80s and moved with a slight stoop, ges- sha. As he approached, he made eye
turing like a symphony conductor, directing a herdsman contact with those who waited.
to which pastures his sheep, goats, and cows should go to His face was deeply lined, and
his golden-brown eyes were veiled may enter the forest. As for an interview, wait for his word.”
by cataracts. I rose to greet him. In I rose.
one extended glance he seemed to “Where in Mokompo’s forest will you go?” Mores asked.
read me, a quick assessment of all I hadn’t thought about specific locations. “The waterfall.”
my innermost virtues and short- “There are many,” he said. “Choose one.”
comings. It left me flustered and
suddenly exposed. THE NEXT MORNING, reinforced by the Oloi-
The Oloiboni’s voice was low and boni’s blessing, we departed for our chosen
rasp textured: “You are here,” he T waterfall. As we drove through a mist, I thought
said in Maa. about the legend from which the Forest of the
“I am,” I said. Following the Maa- Lost Child gets its name. Once a Maasai girl
sai custom, I bent my head so he looking for her stray calves entered the forest. The calves
would touch it in greeting. returned home without her. Young men searched for the girl
I then lined up the four coffee but couldn’t find her. The forest had decided to keep her.
seedlings on the grass between When we arrived at the summit where our hike would start,
the now seated Oloiboni and me. I three junior elders were waiting for us. These scouts were
don’t speak Maa and the Oloiboni stately, wiry men, watchful and taciturn, except for the gre-
doesn’t speak Swahili, so Mores garious Langutut ole Kuya, who recently had returned to Loita
had introduced me and indicated from a camp in the Masai Mara. Our guides explained that as
he would interpret. the crow flies, our waterfall was roughly five miles away, which
“Speak,” said the Oloiboni. would mean a five-hour walk through a cascade of marshes.
And so, I told him a story about As we began hopscotching among boggy reed islands, I
how a wandering forest spirit amused myself thinking about how the terrain reminded me
became the coffee tree in the for- of the Dead Marshes in The Lord of the Rings that J.R.R. Tolkien
ests of the old Kingdom of Kaffa, described as “an endless network of pools, and soft mires, and
so it might live among the humans winding half-strangled water-courses.”
it doted on. How it took on a ther- But after our third marsh passage, the novelty of imagin-
apeutic role, stimulating conver- ing this as a Middle-earth journey deteriorated into resigned
sations that would repair broken slogging. Our shoes were slathered in mud, and our pants
relationships. How it worked to legs were soaked. Staying dry wasn’t an option. Water was
turn strangers into family. How everywhere. Streams popped out of the ground like jinn, while
it was a companion and liturgical others stuttered and evaporated mid-flow. Water leaked from
presence that Orthodox monks in rocks or dropped as a long, single thread from high outcrops.
what was then Abyssinia (now Ethi- All of it made its way into what appeared to be a swamp
opia) consumed while communing but was really a meandering river, the Olasur. We traced its
with God and the saints. growth as it widened and deepened. The guides told us it
As Mores interpreted, the Oloi- hosted fish, hippos, and, disturbingly, crocodiles. And then it
boni listened with intensity. His disappeared into the forest, through a tunnel of overgrowth.
eyes appeared to lighten. I con- As we crawled through the dense thickets, though we couldn’t
cluded, “So we brought these to you see it, the sounds of its current became our beacon to follow.
and this forest, if you agree, to place After a while, we staggered into a spot the Maasai call “the
under your protection so that the place of boiling waters”—slowly bubbling warm puddles fed by
spirit might also find shelter here.” geothermal springs. Chilled, I wanted to linger, but we had to
Stillness. Bird chatter. Men mur- push on. Up and down we went, slipping down embankments
mured. Waiting. of scree, pulling on vines to climb steep hillsides, then tum-
At last the Oloiboni offered the bling down mud trails, only to crawl up another hill.
smallest of nods. With an amused We squeezed past giant moss-covered boulders, pushed
tilt to his mouth, suddenly he through enormous spiderwebs, became overly familiar with
turned his head. “Lemaron!” he stinging nettles and red ants, and learned to quietly sidestep
called, followed by an exchange in places where the guides sensed the presence of elephants and
Maa. Mores translated, “The Oloi- buffalo. I did, however, manage to step in the dung of both.
boni Kitok welcomes you. He blesses Langutut was unperturbed by all of this. He noticed every-
this visit. You can go anywhere. You thing: He pointed out the shapes of trees, the textures of leaves,
NAIROBI
Ngong Hills SERENGETI’S HEIGHTS
The Loita region is a lesser known but integral
Oloolkisailie part of the greater Serengeti-Mara ecosys-
Mts. tem. It includes a lush forest a mile above sea
level that overlooks the Great Rift Valley. The
isolated forest supports Maasai traditional cer-
emonies and serves as a refuge for elephants
G R and other animals—far from the wildebeest
E A T herds in the grassy plains below.
MA
U R
ES
CA
I F
RP
T
M
EN V A L L E
T Y
o Ng iro Engare Ngiro

E wa s Swamp
Ol o
i b o r t ot o
to
NG Kalema
Lenku t o UR
o s a p i a
Ent UM
AN ESCA
RPMEN
T
I T A F
L O tim e Naimina O R E S
si
o
Pa g
(En Enki
yi T
o)
Narosura Morijo
ur
as
Ol
l l s Entasekera
i
H
i t a Le s
ai
L o Olmesutye
Naikara
Loliondo Hill
s
A
E N Y NIA
K A
A NZ Bol ol e
T di
Soit Sambu
nd
Sa
Ololosokwan
A E
M A R E RV
I E S
A SA L R
M A
ON
A TI
N I
G ET ARK
N P
E RE AL
S ON
i
TI
m et
N A S
E R
ru
E N G K E N YA
G E T I A I N
P L AREA
ENLARGED
Nairobi
N SCALE VARIES IN THIS PERSPECTIVE. DISTANCE FROM THE
LOITA FOREST TO NAIROBI IS APPROXIMATELY 65 MILES.
Loita Forest
TANZ.
CHRISTINE FELLENZ, NGM STAFF. RELIEF: ERIC KNIGHT. SOURCES: JAXA; OSM; PLANET NICFI
the patterns of lichens on rocks, where the Oloiboni conducts the most private ceremonies.
the position of a fallen tree, breaks I learned elemental Maa words—ewang’an (light) and oloip
in branches, scratches on bark. He (shadow). My ears filled with birdsongs, wind whispers, the
paused over myriad kinds of dung whistle and click of insects and other creatures, the rhythm of
and indicated what creatures had raindrops hitting leaves. My nose filled with scents of pungent
left them. He talked about the flight earth—rust, rot, citrus, and mint.
paths of insects and birds, the inten- One of the guides noted a hornbill honking and a change
sity and temperature of the wind, in the timbre of a colobus monkey’s gro-gro-gro. These were
the texture of the light that comes rain signals. We picked up our heavy steps.
through the canopy, the scent of Finally we emerged above a vertiginous valley lined with
things, the breathing of plants, the cliffs of brown stone flecked with white. Blue, white, green, and
meaning of silences. pale yellow butterflies quivered around us, signaling the end of
As I walked, my concentration the rainy season. A large bird of prey circled overhead. Below
began to narrow to what was in front us at last was the waterfall, the Olasur tumbling from a rock
of me. How the soil changed from tunnel, falling some 600 feet into a chasm beneath the foliage.
dark brown to bright red and then Farther on, Langutut said, it would join the Oloibortoto River
to almost black, and then sand and and, left to its natural course, would end up in Lake Natron.
loam and then orange, and back to But we could not stay. We had to make our way back
dark and pale browns. I began to see through the forest before nightfall, before mist obscured
patterns in leaves and shadows. the marshes. And as we trekked out of the forest, I learned
We encountered several swarms another Maa word when we glimpsed the fullest, biggest, and
of bees. “This is also called the brightest of moons. Olapa.
honey forest,” Langutut said, not- When we reached the guesthouse, the Oloiboni had left
ing the abundance of flowering word: He would speak with me in the morning.
bushes. He pointed at a grove he
identified as nursery trees. carried a locust
A B ROW N - F E AT H E R E D C O C K E R E L
“Trees grow in families,” he said.
“Older trees nurture and guide A in its beak as it strutted in the Oloiboni’s com-
pound. Cows and goats ambled off to pasture
young trees. They share friend- with a young guardian. Still brimming with
ships among themselves and the experiences from the forest, I sat beneath
with people.” the giant oreteti tree to wait.
He described the practical, The Oloiboni’s eyes lit up when he saw me. I can’t deny that
medicinal, and spiritual power I felt his aura. Call it pure charisma, or possibly the effect of all
of some of the trees—the oreteti, the legends I’d heard mixed with the wonder of the previous
podo, wild olive, and date palm. day’s journey. Or perhaps it was the joy of stumbling upon a
As we hiked, he mentioned other leader with an unwavering allegiance to the natural world. I
secret spaces within the forest—cav- saw a symmetry between the Oloiboni and his oreteti—both
erns that held pure streams and art grounded, ancient, and mysterious, both offering shade and
inscribed on their walls. He talked shelter to those who seek them out.
about a cathedral of giant trees Our conversations meandered like the Olasur. He referred
STO RY PA G E
THE SPIRITUAL VOICE OF THE FOREST NO. 104
WE SPOKE ABOUT settled over him. I should’ve asked,
What did it say? But instead, I
THE LAND:
turned the conversation to the
changing climate.
“I’ve heard such things,” he said.
‘IF WE LOSE THE LAND, Have you seen the seasons

change here?
WE LOSE THE CULTURE.

“The cold hits harder and more
often, that’s true.”
What about drought?
LOSE THE CULTURE, He frowned. “Just once, five

years ago. But that was the conse-
LOSE THE PEACE.

quence of our misdeeds. We had
raised fences. We fixed that error.”
The weaver trilled again.
LOSE THE PEACE, Do you have a message for a

humanity that is confused by this
LOSE THE COMMUNITY. changing climate?

A long pause. “What can I say?”
LOSE THE COMMUNITY,

he finally answered with a humor-
ing smile. “As temporary guests of
this home called life, in this house
LOSE OUR WAY OF that is Earth, shouldn’t we know by

now how to behave honorably?”
LIFE. FOREVER.’
For the Maasai, he explained, this
meant adhering to olmanyara. It’s
a difficult term to translate. On a
previous night around a campfire,
—T H E O LO I B O N I K I TO K Mores described olmanyara as an
ethos that is less about conserva-
tion and more about custodianship.
It’s about receptivity to nature, of
to the lineage of his predecessors and his progeny. He being aware of and hospitable to
described what it meant to be the Oloiboni Kitok: It was not a existence in its every form.
choice. He was born into the position. He spoke of “his” forest: Thunder rumbled in the distance.
It is a shrine and cathedral, a refuge and fuel source. It’s the It was raining in the Mara, a prelude
garden of God, the “guesthouse of rain.” It is school, supermar- for the primordial animal migra-
ket, hospital, pharmacy, and nursing home. Human perfidy tions to resume.
threatens it—gluttony, pride, lust, and envy, in particular. “Are you ever afraid of the
The Oloiboni told of wave after wave of incursions by future?” I asked.
outsiders: shady government officials, faux preachers, and “Should I be?” he teased. Quickly,
eager developers. They all spoke in subtle but deadly terms: the elder swerved, and I was a stu-
fences, demarcation, title deeds, bank loans, road through the dent again. “Now you’ve been to
forest. He alluded to ceaseless plots, particularly from deep- our forest. What did you see?”
pocketed international conservation groups that purported “My ignorance,” I said. “I had
to tell the people—the Iloitai—what was best for Loita. thought of the forest as only trees.”
We spoke about the importance of the land. “If we lose The Oloiboni laughed. It was
the land, we lose the culture,” the Oloiboni said. “Lose the a mirthful sound. It made every-
culture, lose the peace. Lose the peace, lose the community. one laugh too. “What else did
Lose the community, lose our way of life. Forever.” you see?” j
We sat in silence. I saw an elderly Atlas, holding up not
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, based in
just the heavens but also his Earth. A weaver bird trilled Nairobi, is author of the novels Dust
insistently. The Oloiboni looked in its direction. Tranquility and The Dragonfly Sea.
A FIGHT TO SURVIVE
P H O T O E S SAY : T H E W I L D L I F E
106
IN A LAND OF Tire tracks left by
tourist-filled safari
wildebeest herds calv-
ing nearby—the new-
here struggle to find
enough prey, and some
PLENTY AND PAUCITY, vehicles etch a dusty

expanse where lions
borns are especially
vulnerable. Later in the
inevitably starve to
death. It’s the boom-
THE NEXT MEAL rest in Tanzania’s Hid-

den Valley. It’s March,
year, when the herds
have followed the
and-bust cycle of the
Serengeti region that
IS EVERYTHING.
and these apex pred- rains north in search of predators of the plains
ators have fed well on better grazing, lions live and die by.
Guides in Kenya’s
Masai Mara National
Reserve dubbed them
the “Magnificent Five.”
These male cheetahs
hunted together for
more than four years.
Males normally are
competitors, but the
species is social and
highly adaptive—and
these animals stayed
together for as long as
they benefited from
the alliance.
Play fighting with trunks over each other’s
others close in age is heads or lay an ear
one in a repertoire of over another’s head or
social behaviors adult rump. They show def-
male elephants display. erence to a dominant
Hanging out together male by approaching
at a water hole, they him and placing the tip
might drape their of a trunk in his mouth.
WHEN THE SUN GOES Spotted hyena cubs
emerge from their
the Serengeti, helping
to control the distribu-
DOWN IN THE MASAI MARA, den at sunset. Mostly
nocturnal, hyenas are
tion and population
of prey species. Cubs
IT’S TIME hunters as well as
scavengers and are a
are born with eyes
open, teeth intact, and
TO GO HUNTING. keystone carnivore in muscles ready to go.
P H OTO E S S AY: T H E W I L D L I F E PA G E
A FIGHT TO SURVIVE NO. 115
Fights for dominance
between male zebras
can be savage, espe-
cially when a female
is at stake. Stallions
do battle with hooves
and sharp teeth. A
violent encounter
might end with a
cracked skull, broken
bones, a bitten-off
tail, or even death.
To protect its prey
from an aggressive
hyena or a hungry
lion, this leopard has
carried its impala kill
into a tree to eat in
peace. Leopards, shy
and elusive, look for
sturdy forked branches
to support them. One
slip, and a fresh kill
could fall within reach
of other predators.
RIGHT
Tourism adds a layer
of complexity to the
Serengeti ecosystem.
On the day photogra-
pher Charlie Hamil-
ton James captured
this image in the Masai
Mara, he counted 48
cars nearby. Cheetahs
are more docile than
other big cats around
humans, so it’s not
unusual to find one
napping in the shadow
of a safari vehicle. In
fact, there’s little in the
cats’ daily routines,
including hunting,
that doesn’t involve
a human audience.
BELOW RIGHT
The chase usually

doesn’t last long when
cheetahs home in on
prey. They can accel-
erate from zero to 60
miles an hour in three
seconds. Here two
cheetahs have sprinted
into action to attack
a pair of wildebeests
that separated from
their herd. The end
is not a certainty,
however. Cheetahs kill
their prey less than
half the time, and
wildebeests can gallop
up to 50 miles an hour,
sometimes zigzagging
as they flee.
THEY’VE GROWN UP
WITH CARS AROUND THEM AT EVERY TURN,
BUT ALL THE GAWKING
HASN’T SLOWED DOWN THESE CHEETAHS.
The coalition of
cheetahs known as the
Magnificent Five has
taken down a wilde-
beest. Typically, one
cat topples the animal,
and the others then
maintain a strangle-
hold on its neck until
the prey suffocates.
Always on guard, chee-
tahs must watch for
bullying thieves such
as lions and hyenas.
Vultures feed on a
wildebeest carcass.
Essential to the eco-
system, these birds
clean up remains faster
than other scaven-
gers, reducing the risk
of disease spreading
to other animals or to
people. Billions of flies
travel with migrating
herds, looking for a
share of downed prey
and a chance to lay
eggs in the carcasses.
RIGHT
Hippopotamuses wal-
low at sunrise in a river
in the Masai Mara.
They spend up to 16
hours a day in rivers
and water holes, where
they sleep together
in pods of 10 to 30 to
protect their young,
which are especially
vulnerable to croco-
diles. At night they
graze, traveling as
far as six miles and
consuming about 80
pounds of grass. The
dung they produce is
rich in nutrients that
maintain the health
of African rivers and
benefit many species.
BELOW RIGHT
Impalas face not only

predators but also
competitors. Young
males practice com-
bat early; when they’re
older, they stake out
territories and guard
groups of female
mates. When forced to
flee the lions, leopards,
cheetahs, and hyenas
that prey on them,
impalas can jump as
far as 33 feet and
as high as 10 feet.
FEELING THE SQUEEZE

FROM SHRINKING HABITATS AND CLIMATE CHANGE,
ANIMALS BIG AND SMALL
STRUGGLE IN THIS FRAGILE ECOSYSTEM.
Turning their backs
to the rain, a herd
of impalas—females,
their offspring, and
one dominant horned
ram—wait out a shower.
These ruminants rely
mostly on auditory
cues to detect the
movement of preda-
tors. With rain muffling
sounds and limiting
visibility, the group
is at ease.
Two male lions feed
at dawn on an eland—
the largest of all the
antelope—that they
killed the night before.
A crowd of vultures
lurks nearby. The
vultures had to wait
to dive in; this pair of
big cats was observed
feeding on the carcass
for three days.
THE STAKES ARE HIGH A male giraffe feeds
on an acacia tree, its
tongues help them
scour the branches.
FOR ANIMALS AND favorite meal. Full-
grown animals can eat
Like all creatures in the
ecosystem, Earth’s tall-
HUMANS IN A LANDSCAPE more than a hundred
pounds of leaves a
est land mammal must
vie for territory in a
LIKE NO OTHER. day, and their 20-inch shrinking habitat.
THE FRESH EXPLORER
BY
JACQUELINE CUTLER
Volcanologist Jeffrey John- sounds like a greeting to aliens—

W E LC O M E TO E A RT H
son (at left), Will Smith, and which most of us might as well be, considering how
explorer Erik Weihenmayer
prepare to descend into
W little we know about our planet.
Yasur Volcano, in Vanuatu. Actor Will Smith sets out to explore its far reaches
in Welcome to Earth, a Disney+ original series from
National Geographic. Three years ago, Smith led another National
Geographic series about Earth’s wonders, One Strange Rock. This
time the host leaves the studio to venture into some of the planet’s
most extreme environments—deep seas, deserts, glaciers—with
a diverse group of researchers and adventurers.
Over six episodes, Smith proves game for anything, even if ini-
tially wary. “My grandmother used to say all the best things in life
lived on the other side of fear,” he says. “I sure hope Gigi was right.”
Although uncomfortable in water, Smith folds his lanky frame
into a small yellow submersible in the Bahamas. He likens the ves-
sel to something out of Star Wars. As he and National Geographic
Welcome to Earth, a Disney+ Explorer and marine biologist Diva Amon descend, sunlight
original series from National
Geographic, premieres becomes a memory. A Trinidadian who grew up snorkeling, Amon
December 8. explains that more than 99 percent of the undersea world remains
ARMED WITH HIS GRANDMOTHER’S
GUIDANCE ABOUT FACING FEARS,
ACTOR WILL SMITH TREKKED TO
EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS.
PA G E
NO. 135
unexplored. “We have better maps of Mars, Venus, and the moon The National
than we have of our own ocean floor,” she says. Geographic
As the craft descends, a cliff looms. “We have no idea how tall Society, committed
to illuminating
this is,” Amon says. “Before now, no one has been here.” Smith and protecting
asks if he gets to name the discovery, following “explorer rules.” the wonder of our
He dubs it the Fresh Peak—a nod to the Fresh Prince, his rapper world, has funded
name in the 1980s and hit TV show in the ’90s. Explorer Diva
After they reach the ocean floor, some 3,300 feet deep, the sub- Amon’s work in
mersible’s lights are cut and they are in total darkness. Moments deep-sea biology.
later, marine life sets off a fabulous show of bioluminescence, the
light emissions created by living organisms. “It’s probably the bombs” of molten lava explode from
most common form of communication on the planet,” Amon says. deep below the surface. Weihenmayer
Ari Handel and Darren Aronofsky, co-executive producers of likens it to “the most insane fireworks
Welcome to Earth, have collaborated since they were roommates show you can imagine on Earth.”
at Harvard. Now they’re teamed with creative executive producer A volcanologist leads them down
Jane Root and focused on how science—even a discussion of slime the crater’s walls to install sensors that
mold—has the power to fascinate. As for Smith, Handel sees his role will record the volcano’s rumblings. “It
this way: “He’s there to be us, except that of course he’s Will Smith, sounds like the beginning of a really
so he’s more charming, more articulate, funnier.” bad joke,” Smith says. “A rapper, a blind
The adventures in each episode are enhanced by Smith’s relatable man, and a volcanologist rappel down
reactions. “He has dived into those experiences with an openness into a volcano ...”
and a kind of humility of the wonders of the world,” Root says. When filming for the series moves
Whether staring into a gorge in Namibia or surveying a glacier to the Serengeti in Tanzania, Smith’s
in Iceland, for Smith, curiosity trumps terror. In a helicopter with easy presence breaks the tension of
adventurer Dwayne Fields, Smith admits he was a bullied, fearful what’s known as the wait. He passes
kid. Fields speaks of his own difficult youth, when he fell in with time by singing.
gangs in London. After a gun aimed at him misfired—twice—Fields Smith says he’s wanted to witness
resolved to change his life. He set challenges; today he’s hailed as the great migration since reading a
the second Black man to reach the North Pole. story in this magazine some 30 years
Fields’s confidence outweighs Smith’s hesitance in Iceland when ago about the million-plus wildebeests
they inch down a hole in the glacial ice to explore where meltwater and their journey across the plains.
goes. Later, outfitted in waterproof gear to protect them from the As the first wildebeest gingerly
frigid waters, they paddle a kayak down a river formed by the ventures into the Mara River, a giant
converging meltwater, braving rapids along the way. croc odile strikes. The rest of the
Smith did no special training for the assignments. “Risk assess- ungainly mammals pause but even-
ment is an enormous part of what the team does,” Root explains. tually cross. Smith observes from a
“How do we do this and get you back alive?” jeep on the riverbank, spellbound.
The Iceland team was part of a 700-member crew working in “Growing up in the city, I wasn’t
34 countries. As the pandemic complicated travel, producers exposed to a ton of nature—especially
considered shooting at Smith’s house. not like this,” Smith says. “This was a
“We would have had as exciting an episode in Will’s backyard as we whole new world for me.” j
would have had in any of these far-flung places,” Aronofsky insists.
Journalist Jacqueline Cutler regularly covers
Still, exotic locales make for exciting TV. Erik Weihenmayer, a television and books. She previously wrote
blind explorer, and Smith stand at what looks like a portal to hell—the about the National Geographic television series
rim of Vanuatu’s Yasur Volcano in the South Pacific, where “spatter Genius: Aretha and Secrets of the Whales.
PHOTO: KYLE CHRISTY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR DISNEY+. ILLUSTRATION: JOE MCKENDRY
W H AT ’ S C O M I N G
DECEMBER
TV
HOT ZONE: ANTHRAX

Just weeks after Sep-
tember 11, 2001, lethal
anthrax was mailed to
lawmakers and media
outlets in U.S. cities.
The FBI and scientists
track the culprit in
National Geographic’s
The Hot Zone: Anthrax,
which premieres
November 28-30 and
will stream on Hulu.
TV
Becoming Cousteau
Adventurer, filmmaker, BOOKS NAT GEO KIDS BOOKS
RISING ABOVE BARRIERS For Young Explorers BLUE ZONES CHALLENGE

unlikely celebrity:
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
helped teach us to Pulitzer Prize winner Penguins, sea turtles, Determined to make
conserve and explore Michael Cottman tells and cool inventions your life healthier,
the ocean. Becoming the inspiring account are only part of the fun happier, and less
Cousteau, from of the first Black man in the December/Jan- stressed? Author
National Geographic hired to pilot a U.S. uary issue of National Dan Buettner offers
Documentary Films, commercial airliner. Find Geographic Kids. Find guidance in The Blue
premieres Novem- Segregated Skies: David gift subscriptions at Zones Challenge:
ber 24 on Disney+. Harris’s Trailblazing natgeo.com/subscribe. A 4-Week Plan for a
Journey to Rise Above Longer, Better Life.
Racial Barriers wher- Available wherever
TV ever books are sold. TV books are sold.
CAVE-DIVING RESCUE VAN ZELLER RETURNS

The story of the high- Exploring black mar-
stakes mission to save kets in season one of
12 boys and their coach Trafficked with Mariana
from a flooded cave in van Zeller earned her
Thailand is told with a top women-in-media
never before seen award. Season two pre-
material and exclu- mieres December 1
sive interviews in The at 9/8c on National
Rescue, premiering Geographic and will
December 3 on Disney+. stream on Hulu.
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12.

FREE POSTER GREAT MIGRATION OF THE SERENGETI

Life on our planet

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