Инстаграм National Geographic

natgeo Photo by Anastasia Taylor-Lind @anastasiatl | Tatiana Batskalyova cares for her 90-year-old mother-in-law, Lira. Prior to the war, both women used to live in a family house in the suburban village of Opytne, between Donetsk and Avdeevka, in eastern Ukraine. They had to flee when their street became a front line—a powerful explosion buried Lira alive under the wreckage. Altogether the house got three direct artillery hits. Now they live in Tatiana’s daughter’s apartment in Avdeevka. This apartment was also damaged by shelling and repaired by the women on their own. “My daughter has a real talent! She has fixed it so nicely you could never tell there was a huge hole in this wall,” she proudly tells us. Her husband, Aleksander, chose to rebel against the war’s indignity in his own way: like many people in eastern Ukraine, he refuses to leave his demolished house. He continues living in the basement–the only surviving part–and cultivates the garden. Every day he takes a bike ride through the minefield that separates Opytnoe from Avdeevka to visit his wife. Tatiana prepares him a meal to take back, as he has no kitchen left in the ruins. Tatiana lost a court hearing over compensation for her house. She felt humiliated by the attitude of the hearing members: “They would ask me questions like, why do I think that my house was shelled? Then they turned to a witness and began interrogating her about what brand of refrigerator I had and how many burners there were on the gas stove. They were talking to us like they assumed we were lying and it was their job to catch us out.” Ukraine’s official position is that Russia is to blame for the war, and so all claims should be addressed across the border. Words by Alisa Sopova, from the series #5Kfromthefrontline, an ongoing project about the everyday consequences of the war in eastern Ukraine.

natgeo Video by Bertie Gregory @bertiegregory | Male polar bears can weigh more than 700 kilograms, or 1,600 pounds—a potential problem when hunting seals on thin ice. Their solution: massive paws. Their paws can be 12 inches wide, allowing them to spread their weight. Their rough foot pads and short, sharp claws also give them extra traction. Follow @bertiegregory for more wildlife adventures #wild_life #wildlife #animals #ice #snow #bear #teeth #polar bear

natgeo Photo by Drew Rush @drewtrush | Sugarloaf Mountain stands near the top of the Snowy Range, in southeastern Wyoming. Fall is sweeping across the Rockies, and soon lakes that seemingly just thawed will freeze again with the onset of winter. To see more from across the West, follow along with photographer @drewtrush.

natgeo Photo by Hannah Reyes Morales @hannahreyesmorales | A young man fishes off the coastline of a fishing village in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. I worked with Nat Geo explorer Nicola Sebastian (@nicolaseabass), who studies marine biodiversity. She writes: In the Philippine archipelago, life is deeply interdependent: the survival of all is inextricably intertwined, not just with the sea but also with the deepening climate change crisis. Philippine fisherfolk live with the devastating paradox at the heart of the Anthropocene—the communities who are least responsible for causing the worsening climate crisis are also among the most vulnerable. #Followme @Hannahreyesmorales for more stories from the Philippines, and beyond.

natgeo Video by Babak Tafreshi @babaktafreshi | With the end of summer, darker nights return to the Arctic latitudes. Here the Big Dipper stands high in the Iceland sky. The unusual light is known as a pulsating aurora. Although it’s faster in this time-lapse video, even in real time they shift and brighten in patches every second, rather than the typical arcs and streaks. Auroras are caused by energetic electrons speeding down into Earth’s atmosphere and colliding with the thin air on the boundary of space and our atmosphere.⁣ Down on Earth is the iconic Skógafoss waterfall. Explore more of the World at Night photography with @babaktafreshi. ⁣The soundtrack is "Red North" by Ali Raini, Tonelabs. ⁣⁣#saveournightsky #astrophotography #aurora #spaceweather

natgeo Photo by Gabriele Galimberti @gabrielegalimbertiphoto and Juri De Luca | Fossils of long-extinct creatures aren’t just for museums. Today there’re in homes and businesses, as wealthy collectors indulge a controversial hobby. Like a prehistoric nod to the sea outside, a 17-foot-long mosasaur floats above Joan and Henry Kriegstein in their home in Massachusetts. The marine reptile is one of several fossils that Henry Kriegstein has collected over the past 30 years. An ophthalmologist, he tracks his love of extinct beasts to childhood. Kriegstein grew up in Manhattan, and the American Museum of Natural History was his favorite local spot. “I was amazed by these dinosaur skeletons in the middle of New York,” he says. Every summer he digs in the Dakotas, Wyoming, or Montana, often with his oldest daughter, Adie, who found the mosasaur. To him, fossils represent a key to our biological past. Being in their presence, he says, awakens “a very spiritual feeling of connection with the history of life." #fossil #extinct #dinosaurs

natgeo Photo by Michael Yamashita @yamashitaphoto | Clouds hover above Lake Wakatipu after a heavy downpour. The glacial lake is surrounded by the aptly named Remarkables mountain range. #wakatipu #southisland #remarkables #newzealand

natgeo Photo by Sara Hylton @sarahyltonphoto | Boats gather along the Meghna River in Chandpur, Bangladesh, one of the three major tributaries of the Ganges Delta. I made this photograph during National Geographic's female-led Sea to Source expedition, in which researchers traveled from the Bay of Bengal up to the Himalaya, in order to better understand how plastic moves through waterways and eventually into our oceans. For more stories follow me @sarahyltonphoto #expeditionplastic #Bangladesh #oceanplastic

natgeo Photo by @jimrichardsonng // Sponsored by @IndigoAg // Rich Iowa farmland stretched to the horizon as I looked out from high atop farmer Ben Riensche’s grain bins. Thunderstorms were drenching farms over in the next county, but here it was all late afternoon sunshine and lush crops. Ben’s ancestors came to this part of Iowa around Jesup for its rich soil, a gift handed down by ancient glaciers and millennia of prairie growth that built up fertile topsoil several feet deep. Much carbon from that soil has been lost in 150 years of farming. Ben uses no-till farming and cover crops to rebuild the soil, which help capture carbon from the atmosphere and put it back in the ground where it can sustain crops. // @IndigoAg is unlocking agriculture’s potential to help reverse climate change. That’s the vision behind the Terraton Initiative, a global movement with the goal of using regenerative farming practices to take one trillion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Follow @Terraton to see the progress.

natgeo Photo by George Steinmetz @geosteinmetz | Purse seiners wait for the opening of Chimbote Harbor, Peru. The Peruvian anchoveta is the world’s largest fishery by tonnage; the fish is primarily harvested for fishmeal and oil, critical components of feed for aquaculture, pig, and chicken farms throughout the world. To view more of our world from above, follow @geosteinmetz.

natgeo Photo by Simon Norfolk @simonnorfolkstudio I The Bavarian Forest National Park (German: Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald) is a national park in the Eastern Bavarian Forest on Germany's border with the Czech Republic. Founded in 1970 as the first national park in Germany, since its expansion in 1997 it now covers an area of 24,250 hectares. Together with the neighboring Czech Bohemian Forest, the Bavarian Forest forms the largest contiguous area of woodland in Central Europe. Follow me @simonnorfolkstudio for updates, outtakes, unpublished and archive material on this and future projects #Bavaria #Germany #NationalPark #simonnorfolk #forest

natgeo Video by Ami Vitale @amivitale | Mia and Emilka are best friends. Mia, the kitty, had her tail bitten off by a different rhino when she was a little thing. But she persisted, kept her heart open, and one day found true love with a rhino named Emilka at Dvur Kralove @safariparkdvurkralove in the Czech Republic. Mia and Emilka look forward to seeing each other every day. It's beyond sweet. @safariparkdvurkralove is the same place where the last northern white rhinos came from for their transfer to Kenya's @olpejeta Conservancy. The people here have been instrumental in saving species from the brink of extinction. ️️️Learn how you can get involved by following @amivitale @safariparkdvurkralove & @olpejeta #WorthMoreAlive #DontLetThemDisappear #rhinos #saverhinos #catsofinstagram

natgeo Photo by Frans Lanting @franslanting | I’m sharing this image of a young orangutan in recognition of World Orangutan Day. He has reason to look distraught. Nearly half of all orangutans—a staggering 150,000, in all—vanished from Borneo in the past 15 years, due to destruction of their forest habitat and the impact of the wild pet trade. This orphaned young male was rescued and brought to a rehab center, but he won’t have much of a future unless we protect the forests all orangutans depend on for their survival. I welcome you to support the organizations that are on the front lines of helping orangutans, with public activities as well as covert operations aimed at busting wildlife criminals. @World_Wildlife and @WildAid need your help. And follow me @FransLanting for more encounters with endangered animals around the world. @leonardodicapriofdn #WorldOrangutanDay #Borneo #Family #Twins #Orphans #Endangered #Wildlife

natgeo Photo by Charlie Hamilton James @chamiltonjames I Blood drips from the beak of a Rüppell's griffin vulture in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. Vultures are important to the eco-system as they consume and remove animal carcasses that could otherwise spread disease—in fact they consume more meat than all the other scavengers and predators combined on the plains of East Africa. They are in serious decline across most of their ranges due to habitat loss and poisoning. So let's have a little love for them.

natgeo Photo by @ladzinski | The face of a warrior. This lion is 11 years old, battle worn and still holding strong. He’s held a solitary pride on the fringe of Kruger National Park for the last 5 years. It’s a place rich with lions meaning he’s faced countless battles to retain his Royal position as king of his territory. For a lone male to accomplish this is no easy task and in his time he’s reared dozens upon dozens of cubs. His face is a badge of honor in the lion world, hieroglyphs displaying a history of violent life at the top of the food chain.

natgeo Photo by Ken Geiger @kengeiger | Here, one might say that "simba" translates as "caution, speed bump ahead." But of course simba means "lion" in Swahili. This guy, after spending most of the day feasting on a kudu, decided to take his evening nap in the middle of the road. Speed limits in Kruger National Park are low, making wildlife safety the priority over tourist vehicles. #krugernationalpark #lion #SouthAfrica To explore more images of the #Africa follow @KenGeiger

natgeo Photos by Tim Laman @timlaman | Birds of paradise have a reason to celebrate this year on Earth Day: the Province of West Papua, where 16 of the 40 birds of paradise are found, has declared its commitment to set aside 70% of the land as protected forest! Swipe to see four of the species found only in West Papua, Indonesia: Vogelkop superb, red, Wilson’s, and western parotia. See more @TimLaman as we celebrate this Earth Day! Birds of paradise are the global ambassadors for conservation of the forests of Papua. #conservationprovince #TanahPapua #papua #Indonesia #birdofparadise @BirdsofParadiseProject

natgeo Photos by Charlie Hamilton James @chamiltonjames | Fires raged in the Brazilian Amazon during 2017 in Araribóia, indigenous territory in the state of Maranhão. Some were started by farmers trying to clear land for crops or cattle, others started to cover up illegal logging operations, and some were natural. When these images were shot, the Brazilian Amazon had just experienced its worst year on record for forest fires—now 2019 is likely to eclipse that. Maranhão, like so many other states within the Amazon, has been extensively logged, and just a few pockets of original forest remain. The rest of the land has been turned over to agriculture and cattle ranches. Within a few miles of where these pictures were taken live some of the last remaining uncontacted Awã people—made famous across the world a few weeks ago, when footage of them was released. The forests in Araribóia are protected by a disparate group of underfunded firefighters made up of brave and dedicated Guajajara tribe members, volunteers, and FUNAI (the National Indian Foundation) employees who take on fires, sometimes armed with nothing more than machetes.

natgeo More than 70 percent of the Earth is covered by water and humans have only explored a fraction of it. With waterproof cameras, National Geographic photographers have figured out how to merge our world with the mysterious one below. * To celebrate reaching 100 million followers, we’re resharing a few photos taken at sea level you’ve liked most. Remember to post your best Nat Geo-inspired photos using the hashtag #natgeo100contest for a chance to win a Nat Geo photo safari to Tanzania. Carousel photos by @paulnicklen, @daviddoubilet, @paulnicklen, @thomaspeschak, @jenniferhayesig.

natgeo How do you prevent plastics from entering the ocean? Tell us your solutions, and staff writer Laura Parker -- who specializes in covering climate change and marine environments -- will respond with thoughts and suggestions in the comments. These recent images represent the 9 million tons of plastic waste that end up in the ocean every year. Our Planet or Plastic? initiative aims to prevent 1 billion items from reaching the ocean by 2020. Take the pledge to help at natgeo.com/plasticpledge. Photos by Justin Hofman @justinhofman ; Maarten Wouter ; and Jasper Doest @jasperdoest.