Wildfires burn in Siberia; a groundbreaking photo collection; Joel Sartore hits a milestone
|  | Saturday, August 28, 2021 | | | | |
| In today’s newsletter, wildfires burn in Siberia; a groundbreaking photo collection ... and Joel Sartore's latest milestone. | |
 | PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICHOLE SOBECKI
| | By Whitney Johnson, Director of Visual and Immersive Experiences
Nichole Sobecki, under pandemic lockdown in Kenya for much of 2020, began following rescue missions of smuggled cheetahs in Somaliland from afar. Soon after the airspace reopened, she received word that Somaliland authorities were negotiating for the release of another cheetah local herders had captured. She boarded the next flight to Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland.
Nichole’s lived in Kenya, a nation known for its expansive beauty and abundance of wildlife, for a decade. There, cheetahs are pushed to the brink of extinction, and she wanted to understand why.
"I was waiting at the agreed-upon location along a dry riverbed when I heard a Land Cruiser’s roar," recalls Nichole, an American photographer and Nat Geo Explorer. “As I walked to the vehicle, I was expecting to find a crated animal, or a younger cub preferred by traffickers. Instead, I found this seven-month-old cheetah, later named Astur, sitting upright in the back seat (pictured above). The ridge of fur down his back stood up, his amber eyes darted around, and his breathing was fast and labored. A rescuer reached out a hand to him, and the cheetah hissed defensively. Asma Bileh, a veterinarian on the rescue team, told me it was the fiercest and most terrified cheetah she had ever seen."
Astur now lives at a Cheetah Conservation Fund safehouse in Hargeysa, where he has bonded with four other young, trafficked cheetahs. Tackling trafficking is a huge challenge, Nichole points out. “Somaliland is an unrecognized nation with one of the lowest GDP per capita in the world. But their commitment to fighting wildlife crime and the forward strides being made are inspiring."
For most of a year, Nichole has worked with Nat Geo’s Rachael Bale reporting on cheetah trafficking through Somaliland and to countries in the Persian Gulf, where the cats are prized as accessories for wealthy buyers abroad. Now the breakaway African state is fighting back. Photos from their reporting follow. | | | |
| | On the move: Above left, after intercepting Astur, the young cheetah, and a five-week-old leopard near Xariirad, members of the rescue team stop at a roadside overlook to pray. Cheetahs often change hands in the remote town in western Somaliland near the Ethiopian border. Above right: The rescue team, the cheetah, and the leopard make the rough drive to Boorama, several hours away. Cheetahs are the most commonly smuggled cats, but leopard cubs show up too. | | | |
| | Rescued: With an airline eye mask and a tissue in his ears to help him stay sedated, Astur (above) undergoes an intake exam at one of the nonprofit Cheetah Conservation Fund’s rescue centers in Hargeysa. Cubs smuggled or intercepted from criminal rings often get sick, typically because they’re subjected to long, grueling journeys and deprived of proper nutrition. Many don’t survive. | | | |
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Caregiver: Asma Bile Hersi (above, at center), a veterinarian who volunteers with the Cheetah Conservation Fund, buys goat meat at a market in Boorama to feed Astur. One of Somaliland’s rare female wildlife veterinarians, she estimates she’s helped save more than a dozen cheetahs, treating them in the field until they reach a rescue center in Hargeysa. | | | |
| Vulnerable: Fewer than 7,000 adult cheetahs remain in the wild. Babies, often still nursing and dependent, are snatched from the wild while their mothers are hunting or when a lactating mother is tracked back to her den. (Pictured above, some of the cats rescued from poachers.)
Special thanks to Nat Geo France for the translated interview.
Nichole photographed this story for the September 2021 National Geographic feature on cheetah trafficking. The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, funds Sobecki’s work. Learn more about the Society’s support of Explorers.
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| Siberia is burning: This summer, the Siberian village of Byas-Kyuyol burned within hours of a wildfire reaching it, destroying 30 homes. Residents in the Sakha Republic region of Russia were forced to flee on tractors and motorbikes through the haze. Days earlier, documentary photographer Emile Ducke took this picture on the road to the village, as the fire raced ever closer. The fire season might extend until October, but carbon pollution from the fires is already more than double that of 2020.
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| The rise and fall and rise of Polaroid: The first manufacturer of instant cameras and film, Polaroid controlled almost two-thirds of the market at its peak in the 1970s. By 2008, it stopped all production. How did it collapse? This video from Business Insider tells how the iconic brand crashed and found new life.
Fighting climate change: Hundreds of thousands of people across Pakistan are working to nurture and plant 21 types of trees, from the chir pine to the deodar, the Washington Post reports. The country is in the midst of a 'Ten Billion Tree Tsunami’ as it confronts hotter temperatures, melting glaciers, and intensifying monsoon rains. See the photos.
Game-changing collection: The Smithsonian American Art Museum has purchased an array of images by some of history's earliest Black photographers. Pictures from the first African American-owned studios were among more than 280 objects acquired from New York collector Larry J. West. The collection includes photographs of diverse portrait subjects and objects related to abolitionists, the Underground Railroad and the role of women entrepreneurs in it, and photographic jewelry, Smithsonian magazine reports.
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK
| | 11,000 and counting! Nat Geo Explorer Joel Sartore has photographed 11,000 species–in his quest to document the world’s creatures for the Nat Geo Photo Ark, which he founded 15 years ago. He’s more than halfway to his goal of documenting the 20,000 or so species in the world’s zoos and wildlife sanctuaries. He's shot the rarest animals on Earth, such as the giant ibis (Thaumatibis gigantea) pictured above and photographed in Cambodia. Watch his TikTok video to see some of the others.
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 | | I love photography because it is a platform to express my true self... I choose to be a photographer because I want to tell my own stories and those that are still not being told.” | | | | Bullen Chol | Photographer based in Juba, South Sudan;
Nat Geo Explorer | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY O. LOUIS MAZZATENTA | | Classic castoffs: O. Louis Mazzatenta photographed fragments of bronze statues on assignment in 1994 found off the coast of Brindisi, Italy. The statues, believed to be Roman, were thought to be on a ship that was caught in a storm that tossed the statues to the ocean floor. Scholars believe the statues were being taken to Brindisi, as the port city often collected Roman statues for recycling. Mazzatenta photographed many stories on Italy for National Geographic, including the archaeological finds at Vesuvius.
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| This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard and Monica Williams, and Jen Tse selected the photographs. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Rita Spinks, Alec Egamov, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea, a link, or a story to share? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading! | | | |
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