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natgeo Photo by Anastasia Taylor-Lind @anastasiatl // Sponsored by @always_brand // Amelia sits in her bedroom, which she shares with two sisters and her niece, in Katlehong, South Africa. Amelia is at the top of her class, and she is very confident and motivated. She is just beginning puberty and hasn’t started menstruating, but she is very knowledgeable and feels prepared for it when the time comes. “I want to be a doctor. Your body is yours. This body is mine—nobody owns it,” she said. // Every day, all over the world, millions of girls miss school because they lack resources to navigate the onset of menstruation. @always_brand provides puberty education & period products to girls around the world to help keep them confident #LikeAGirl & focused on getting an education. Together we can #EndPeriodPoverty!

natgeo Photo by Anastasia Taylor-Lind @anastasiatl // Sponsored by @always_brand // Boikarabelo lives in Soweto, South Africa. She told me that her favorite subject is math and that she'd like to be a lawyer. "I like to stand for up other people," she said. Boikarabelo also taught me about the seven B’s: “Books Before Boys, Because Boys Bring Babies." Her mother, Nomkululeko, didn’t have access to disposable pads when she was growing up and no one educated her about menstruation. At the time, she was unaware that girls could get pregnant after their periods came. // Every day, all over the world, millions of girls miss school because they lack resources to navigate the onset of menstruation. @always_brand provides puberty education & period products to girls around the world to help keep them confident #LikeAGirl & focused on getting an education. Together we can #EndPeriodPoverty!

natgeo Photo by Anastasia Taylor-Lind @anastasiatl // Sponsored by @always_brand // On an overcast morning, schoolgirls attending Thabotona Primary School in South Africa perform a traditional dance. Menstruation is a taboo topic in poor South African communities, and girls often start menstruating with little information about what’s happening, leading to fear and a lack of knowledge about how to safely manage their cycles. Teachers in South Africa say they do not always feel it is their role to teach girls about menstruation, nor do they have the skills to do so. The cost of period products proves to be a hindrance for many girls in poor communities, but citizens are trying to overcome that obstacle. In 2010, the ANC Youth League started appealing to the government for free sanitary pads in schools, and the movement gained momentum when then President Zuma promised to expand access to sanitary pads a few months later. Many years have passed, but there is still no federal policy or infrastructure put in place to provide free sanitary pads. // Every day, all over the world, millions of girls miss school because they lack resources to navigate the onset of menstruation. @always_brand provides puberty education and& period products to girls around the world to help keep them confident #LikeAGirl & focused on getting an education. Together we can #EndPeriodPoverty!

natgeo Photo by Joel Sartore @joelsartore | It doesn’t take long before you feel as though you’re being transported to another dimension while staring into the eye of this pied mossy frog. A patchwork of ornate textures and patterns helps camouflage it, giving it a unique look that seems out of this world. Follow me, @joelsartore to see more. Photo taken @houstonzoo. #piedmossyfrog #frog #amphibian #eye #textured #photoark

natgeo Photo by Fritz Hoffmann @fritzphotos | The Tibetan horse racing season is approaching. At the Maqu Gesar races in the Gannan Tibetan prefecture in Gansu, China, a nomad leads a horse across grass fields littered with prayer notes on the way to the race track. To send the prayer notes to higher places, the notes are placed in helium filled balloons, which are let go to rise to the heavens. This week I'm posting pictures from races past, longing to be there myself. Please check out my feed at @fritzphotos #FritzHoffmann #MaquHorseRaces #MaquGrasslands #TibetanHorseFestival #Gannan

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 Photo by Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti @paolowoods and @gabrielegalimbertiphoto I Gary S. Settles is a mechanical and nuclear engineer and distinguished professor emeritus at Penn State University in Pennsylvania. He has conducted extensive research on fluid dynamics and flow visualization, and has become a specialist of Schlieren. Schlieren is a process that uses a curved mirror to visualize the flow of air and fluids of varying density. Invented by the German physicist August Toepler in 1864, it is widely used in aeronautical engineering to photograph the flow of air around objects. In this case, he's demonstrating the turbulence caused by hot air from a candle in his lab in State College. This effect is not visible to the naked eye, but Leonardo da Vinci understood that turbulence in the air is similar to turbulence in fluids, a concept that he had intensely studied and that deeply obsessed him. Check our story in @natgeo for more on #leonardodavinci #leonardo #davinci #schlieren #air

natgeo Photos by Kirsten Luce @kirstenluce | Fantastical portraits with captive wild animals—including bears and wolves—are a big trend in Russia at the moment. Most of the photographers rent the same bear, named Stepan, for the shoots and advertise through Instagram. These models were posing as part of a workshop for aspiring photographers to get their own shots of the bear for their personal Instagrams. Individuals can also hire these photographers to shoot them with the animal of their choice, like the last photo of an 18-year-old girl from Moscow who dreamed of having her photo taken with wolves. For the June 2019 issue of National Geographic, writer @natashaldaly and I traveled the world to learn about captive wildlife tourism. Our intention is not to shame tourists or photographers who have had these encounters but to arm our readers with information that will help them identify potentially exploitative situations for animals.

natgeo Photo by Robin Hammond @Hammond_Robin | I am not a war photographer, but several times while documenting mental health in Africa I found myself in the middle of a conflict. When I arrived in Mogadishu in 2011, the front line ran down one of the main streets. This photo is from a former psychiatric hospital close to the fighting. The foreign, nongovernmental organization running it had left. A Muslim cleric took over, and here he recites verses of the Quran through a blowhorn, in an attempt to heal patients. The World Health Organisation @WHO has said 1 in 3 Somalis live with a mental health condition. After decades of war, famine, and displacement this can hardly be a surprise. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Photographers can raise awareness, but I wonder how useful that is if it does not lead to action. On the campaign website www.onedayinmyworld.com you can read about my own struggle with this question. To see more from the project (and to find a link to that story) follow @onedayinmyworld

natgeo Photo by Charlie Hamilton James @chamiltonjames I Spinner dolphins hunt for sardines and lantern fish in the clear Pacific waters off Costa Rica. Spinners form huge pods of up over 1,000 individuals. They are known as spinner dolphins because they spin (up to 5.5 times) as they leap from the water. Shot two days ago on assignment for @natgeo for a story on Costa Rica's Osa Peninsular, with @osaconservation @uwrealm and @pstalks. In order to protect places like this, we need to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030. #CampaignforNature

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 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 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 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.

natgeo Photo by @brentstirton | This #blackrhino lost its horn to #poachers in #Zimbabwe. They left the animal for dead with multiple AK47 bullet wounds. This bull recovered briefly and walked through the bush for nearly a week in unimaginable pain and confusion. There were maggots breeding in his face when he finally died. We all lost another severely endangered black rhino bull to this incident, further depleting the gene pool of a magnificent species that we are losing. It’s no secret that rhinos are severely endangered today, yet China recently declared that it will once again allow trading of rhino and tiger parts domestically after a 25-year ban. They say this is to accommodate “farmed animals” bred in China. There are many reports on those farms, none of them good. Issues of severe inbreeding, starvation, and other abuses are common. There are also many reports that wild animals fetch higher prices on the Chinese market. Any legalization of these animal products throws open large loopholes for the illegal trade, stimulating poaching against severely endangered animals in countries that feed the illegal wildlife trade flowing into China. This is a very disappointing decision on the part of #China, especially so soon after they agreed to ban their domestic #Ivory trade.

natgeo Photo by @CarltonWard | An ambitious red-shouldered hawk has caught a sizable dinner—likely a Florida water snake. I witnessed this moment at Buck Island Ranch, part of Archbold Biological Station, which directs research in order to better understand the intricacies of wildlife, water, cattle grazing, and carbon sequestration in the rangelands of the Northern Everglades. These lands are crucial to the Florida Wildlife Corridor and wide-ranging species such as the Florida panther. Shot during my #PathofthePanther storytelling project with @insidenatgeo. For more discoveries from the hidden Everglades, please follow @carltonward. #FloridaWild #Everglades #ranch #hawk #keepflwild @ArchboldStation @MacFound @Fl_WildCorridor

natgeo Photo by Muhammed Muheisen @mmuheisen | Facing Al-Khazneh, Arabic for the Treasury, one of many facades carved into the mountains of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. For more photos and videos from different parts of the world, follow me @mmuheisen and @mmuheisenpublic #muhammedmuheisen #jordan

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 Photo by @joelsartore | Teiku, a two-month-old jaguar cub, calls Parque Zoologico Nacional home, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Jaguars are most similar in appearance to leopards, but there’s nothing to confuse them with in the wild since no other big cats live in South America. The most distinctive feature of the jaguar is the shape of their spots, which resemble a certain sweet-smelling flower–the rose. To learn about incredible efforts to save this species in the wild and catch a glimpse of an adult jaguar, follow me @joelsartore.