The Real Life Behind the Shield 3

08.2021

Gladiators THE REAL LIFE BEHIND THE SHIELD 3

2 Driving discovery further than ever before. National Geographic and Hyundai have teamed up to bring you Outside Academy–an immersive augmented reality (AR) adventure offering in-depth educational experiences from America’s national parks. Visit Yosemite National Park and activate AR hotspots throughout the park on Instagram, or bring the park to you with AR Anywhere.

And now, the first-ever TUCSON Plug-in Hybrid takes your sense of discovery further in style, all while keeping in harmony with the environment around you. Reimagining how far your mind will take you, it’s your journey in the first-ever TUCSON Plug-in Hybrid.

1 Unlock the secrets of Yosemite at Yosemite Falls.

2 Learn about the park’s wonders from Tunnel View.

3 Tap to place a bighorn sheep in any meadow.

Visit Yosemite Find @NatGeo Search for National Park. on Instagram. the effects. FURTHER AUGUST 2021

On the Cover CONTENTS Ready for combat, a heavily armed Thraex gladiator holds up his shield and sica, a short sword with a curved blade, in the amphitheater at Pompeii. FERNANDO G. BAPTISTA PROOF 1EXPL5ORE

THE BIG IDEA The Dog (et al.) Days If we love holidays and we love animals, it’s no surprise that we’d love animal- themed holidays. BY OLIVER WHANG

INNOVATOR 28 The ‘Gardening’ Tapir DECODER This animal is key to Space Hurricane reviving Brazil’s wet- A vortex of plasma lands after wildfires, spins up to 31,000 says conservation ecol- miles above Earth. ogist Patrícia Medici. BY ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS BY ANNIE ROTH AND JASON TREAT; ILLUS- TRATION BY MARK GARLICK

6 TOOL KIT Tidal Technique A Summer Trip With simple tools, he to the Shore sculpts elaborate tow- In landlocked Hungary, ers on shifting sands. an ersatz seashore BY CATHERINE ZUCKERMAN vacation—to Lake Bala- PHOTOGRAPH BY ton, central Europe’s REBECCA HALE largest lake—is a tradition for many families. ALSO ALSO PHOTOGRAPHS BY Parrot, Macaw Mummies Japanese Washi Paper ZSÓFIA PÁLYI Shark Species Decline A Photographer’s Youth FEATURES Ancient Rome’s Perfectly Clear The Edge of Survival Fight Club New findings tell sci- The delicate balance Real gladiators weren’t entists more about the of life in the Kalahari quite like those in the translucent amphibians is at risk from increases movies. They were known as glass frogs. in heat and droughts. more interested in BY ANGELA BY LEONIE JOUBERT putting on a good show POSADA-SWAFFORD PHOTOGRAPHS BY than in killing each PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOMAS P. PESCHAK other, and surprisingly, JAIME CULEBRAS ...... P. 110 most were fighters ...... P. 72 by profession. ABOVE: Desert dwellers in BY ANDREW CURRY Hunger in America the Kalahari collaborate to stay alive. Among meerkats PHOTOGRAPHS BY In 2020, 1 in 7 people (shown), some of lesser rank RÉMI BÉNALI in the U.S. didn’t get provide care for the pups ART BY FERNANDO G. sufficient food. of the high-ranking female, BAPTISTA BY CASSANDRA SPRATLING while others stand guard to ...... P. 40 ...... P. 86 warn of predators. AUGUST | FROM THE EDITOR

MEET ONE OF Ideas That OUR ARTISTS ‘Surprise People’

BY SUSAN GOLDBERG PHOTOGRAPHS BY REBECCA HALE

ART SUPPLIES, models, tools, works in progress: This photo gives one glimpse into the studio of Senior Artist Fernando Baptista, at National Geographic’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. I’m writing about Fernando’s work now because there’s so much of it in this month’s issue: The cover art for “Glad- iators: Ancient Rome’s Fight Club.” Eight pages of infographics showing how these warriors fought and lived. And, for our story on southern Africa’s Kalahari, an explainer about animals’ adaptations to heat. A native of Spain, Fernando was the director of graphics at El Correo in Bilbao—a newspaper renowned for its visual journalism—when National Geographic called. “They offered me a job, and I thought, Why not?” says Fernando, who moved to the United gladiators project, for example, Fer- When he creates true- States and joined us in 2007. nando worked with a researcher to draft to-life images of sharks, saber-toothed cats, and His art has won every kind of honor— historically accurate sketches. Those other creatures that either more than 200 awards, medals, cita- were shown to a half dozen experts who are or were alive on Earth, tions, you name it—from every major looked at the clothing, the backgrounds, National Geographic’s Fernando Gomez Baptista group that judges illustrations and the arenas, the appearance of the (below) consults with graphics. He’s even been nominated crowd, the fight moves—every manner experts to make his depic- for two Emmys, for his animation work. of detail to make sure it was just right. tions as accurate and How does Fernando create? Often, Those consulted don’t always agree. complete as possible. But when he’s drawing for fun, before he starts to draw, he fashions a But even battling experts don’t dull Fer- he likes to invent space three-dimensional polymer clay model. nando’s enthusiasm for telling a story. aliens and monsters like “The models help me find the best per- “I always try new things,” he says, those that populate science fiction and comic books— spective,” he says. “I can see how the approaching each story with these ques- and then, he jokes, “at least light works. It makes it more realistic, tions: “What don’t people know? How I don’t have to worry about and you can get the right point of view.” can I get people interested? I want to the experts.” Sometimes he’ll photograph a model surprise people with ideas.” and paint on the photo with acrylics or When people think of National digitally. Other times he’ll use the mod- Geographic visuals, most think first els to create a pencil drawing, scan the of photography. But illustrators and drawing into the computer, paint it dig- graphic artists such as Fernando itally, then merge it with a background and the rest of our talented team are he has painted. Occasionally he will just as vital to our goal of explaining make one of his models a figure in an and exploring the natural world and animated film. In short: He’s amazing. humankind’s journey in it. And then there’s the matter of vet- Thank you for reading National ting his creations with experts. For the Geographic. j ATEM Mini Pro model shown. Introducing ATEM Mini Pro The compact television studio that lets you create presentation videos and live streams!

Blackmagic Design is a leader in video for the television Live Stream Training and Conferences industry, and now you can create your own streaming videos The ATEM Mini Pro model has a built in hardware streaming engine with ATEM Mini. Simply connect HDMI cameras, computers for live streaming via its ethernet connection. This means you can or even microphones. Then push the buttons on the panel live stream to YouTube, Facebook and Teams in much better quality to switch video sources just like a professional broadcaster! and with perfectly smooth motion. You can even connect a hard You can even add titles, picture in picture overlays and mix disk or flash storage to the USB connection and record your stream audio! Then live stream to Zoom, Skype or YouTube! for upload later!

Create Training and Educational Videos Monitor all Video Inputs! ATEM Mini’s includes everything you need. All the buttons are With so many cameras, computers and effects, things can get busy positioned on the front panel so it’s very easy to learn. There are 4 fast! The ATEM Mini Pro model features a “multiview” that lets you HDMI video inputs for connecting cameras and computers, plus a see all cameras, titles and program, plus streaming and recording USB output that looks like a webcam so you can connect to Zoom status all on a single TV or monitor. There are even tally indicators to or Skype. ATEM Software Control for Mac and PC is also included, show when a camera is on air! Only ATEM Mini is a true professional which allows access to more advanced “broadcast” features! television studio in a small compact design!

Use Professional Video Effects ATEM Mini is really a professional broadcast switcher used by television stations. This means it has professional effects such as a DVE for picture in picture effects commonly used for commentating ATEM Mini ...... $295 over a computer slide show. There are titles for presenter names, wipe effects for transitioning between sources and a green screen ATEM Mini Pro...... $49 keyer for replacing backgrounds with graphics. ATEM Mini Pro ISO......

Learn more at www.blackmagicdesign.com PROOF

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZSÓFIA PÁLYI

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LOOKING AT THE EARTH FROM EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE

6 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC A SUMMER TRIP TO THE SHORE

In landlocked Hungary, an ersatz seashore vacation—to central Europe’s largest lake—is a tradition.

VOL. 240 NO. 2

A boy dives into the shallow waters of Hungary’s Lake Balaton. The nearly 50-mile- long lake is the largest in central Europe and for decades has been a popular destination for summer vacationers.

AUGUST 2021 7 PROOF

As people frolic, float, and wade in Lake Balaton, photographer Zsófia Pályi captures their portraits in its cyan waters—a result of its shallowness, chemical composition, and algae content.

8 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Hungary’s second most popular vacation destination, after Budapest, the lake is surrounded by vineyards, mountains, and thermal spa resorts. Its coastlike ambience lures landlocked Hungarians.

AUGUST 2021 9 PROOF

Paddleboaters explore the lake. UNESCO is considering designating part of Balaton’s north shore a World Heritage site; features include volcanic rock formations, Celtic stone sculptures, and historic castles.

10 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC A swimmer with compatibly colored hair comes up for air. On the lake’s bottom lie remnants from the past century: several World War II–era planes and other wartime rubble.

AUGUST 2021 11 PROOF

THE BACKSTORY

A PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF SUMMER IN THE TURQUOISE SHALLOWS OF HUNGARY’S LAKE BALATON.

WHEN SHE WAS A KID, Zsófia Pályi kids, says Pályi, and also for the camera spent summers with her family at Lake shy: The depth lets people decide how Balaton in western Hungary. Many much of their bodies to show off and Hungarians then couldn’t afford travel how much to hide underneath. to other countries, she says, so the lake The lake’s long, skinny shape also was an exotic getaway. For others, it was invites some photographic tricks. a respite: From the 1960s to ’80s, Ger- Pályi always points her camera north man families separated by the Berlin to the horizon, and with only water in Wall reunited on its shores for vacation. the background, the shore looks like People called it the Hungarian Sea. a Hungarian impossibility: a beach Today, Hungarians still vacation beside an ocean. She also shoots on at the lake, and photographer Pályi ﬁlm with a 1950s-era Hasselblad 500 returns to capture one particular aspect: camera, adding a vintage aesthetic— its shallowness. Balaton is only a few because sometimes the past is the feet deep at the lake’s south end. That nicest lens through which to view the makes it a good place for families and present. —DANIEL STONE

The Hungarian sky and a runaway inflatable raft are reflected in the lake’s surface. IN THIS SECTION Shark Species Declines EXPLORE Space Hurricane Sandcastle Architect A Photographer’s Youth

ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES—AND WONDERS—ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC VOL. 240 NO. 2 The Dog (et al.) Days

IF WE LOVE DAYS THAT CELEBRATE SOMETHING, AND WE LOVE ANIMALS, NO WONDER WE LOVE DAYS THAT CELEBRATE ANIMALS.

BY OLIVER WHANG ILLUSTRATIONS BY ARMANDO VEVE

RANGER MIKE FITZ WAS at the front desk of the Katmai National Park and Preserve’s visitors center in late September 2014, when he had the idea. Katmai, in southern Alaska, is known for its salmon and brown bears. In summer, ﬁsh by the ton barrel up the rivers, desperate to spawn, and bears stake out spots where they can grab and gobble up prey in order to pack on fat for the cold months to come. At certain prime ﬁshing locations, cameras are set up to stream live video. The “bear cams” attract a loyal online audience and generate a spirited comments section. On that late September day, Fitz was moderating the comments when he saw a diptych one viewer had posted. On the left was a “before” photo of a brown bear, slack-coated and skinny after months of hiberna- tion. On the right was a photo of that same bear in September—it was larger by half, huge, supersize. That gave Fitz the idea: Why not post a bunch of

AUGUST 2021 15 EXPLORE | THE BIG IDEA

bear pictures on Facebook, showing the animals become an internet sensation. Online participation in their lean and enlarged states—and make it a has grown exponentially. In 2020, more than 600,000 competition? It could help answer the perennial and votes were cast, and many major media publications irresistible question: Which bear is the fattest? And, ran articles about it. if the competition drew attention, Fitz could use it to Why has Fitz’s brainchild distinguished itself educate people about the bears, the salmon, and the among thousands of holidays? For one thing, Fat importance of conservation. So began what is now Bear Week is funny. And once levity gets people’s Fat Bear Week: seven days in the fall when viewers attention, the holiday encourages them to show vote online, narrowing a tournament bracket of bears animals some real love. down to a single, corpulent victor. Fat Bear Week could have been just another flighty GO TO ANY OF the dozens of holiday calendars that example of modern humans’ weakness for declaring have sprung up online. Pick a random day, week, or holidays—that propensity to fill every square on month, and you’ll find an almost disturbing num- the calendar with commemorations, observances, ber of observances dedicated to a wide breadth of recognitions, or declarations of a National Day of subjects. Days referencing animals specifically are Something. But since its debut, the competition has plentiful, even crowded. In 2020, Fat Bear voting

16 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC opened a week after the observances of World Rhino Can you spot the animal days? Day and Elephant Appreciation Day (September Days dedicated to animals are sprinkled through- 22). And the winning bear—747, an absolute mon- out the year. On the illustration of observances ster whose belly nearly touched the ground—was above, how many can you find? crowned on October 6, also known as Badger Day. January 20 Penguin Awareness Day, 21 Squirrel Appreciation The observances’ intents are a mixture: altruistic, Day. February 1 National Serpent Day, 2 National Hedgehog commercial, historical, fantastical, serious, funny. Day. March 3 What if Cats and Dogs Had Opposable Some involve physical events (like sunset “batwalks” Thumbs Day, 14 National Learn About Butterflies Day, 20 World Sparrow Day. April 4 World Rat Day, 8 Pygmy to mark Bat Week, October 24-31). Others exist pri- Hippo Day, 9 Unicorn Day, 12 World Hamster Day. May marily as hashtags or posts on social media—but the 2 World Tuna Day, 8 World Donkey Day, 16 National Sea line between a strictly online presence and a more Monkey Day, 23 World Turtle Day, 24 National Escargot Day. June 21 World Giraffe Day. Second Tuesday of July Cow “legitimate” existence is thin, often to the point of Appreciation Day. July 29 International Tiger Day. August 12 disappearance. According to a May 16 calendar entry, World Elephant Day, 19 International Orangutan Day. First National Sea Monkey Day exists to celebrate “the tiny Saturday in September Vulture Awareness Day. September 8 National Iguana Awareness Day. September/October Fat brine shrimp that swim around mail-order aquari- Bear Week. October 29 National Cat Day (U.S.). November 3 ums”—and from little more than that, the holiday Jellyfish Day. December 13 National Day of the Horse.

AUGUST 2021 17

EXPLORE | THE BIG IDEA

not only went viral; it was written up in Newsweek. reputation—but in 2020, it also helped find homes Getting attention is one point, if not the point, of for more than 20,000 shelter pets. animal holidays. Groups name days to advocate for October is Adopt-a-Dog Month, March 2 is Interna- conservation, shine a light on animal cruelty, and tional Rescue Cat Day—and between them, canines educate people about biodiversity. Think World Ele- and felines have inspired scores of observances. phant Day (August 12), World Hippo Day (February National Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day (Janu- 15), World Giraffe Day (June 21), International Orang- ary 22) urges humans to try to see the world through utan Day (August 19), to name just a few. The United cats’ eyes, the better to answer questions such as: Nations designates more than 170 special weeks and Why won’t you let me on the kitchen counter? It might days, including World Bee Day on May 20 (birthday also make us more appreciative of Hairball Awareness of beekeeping pioneer Anton Janša) and World Tuna Day, observed on the last Friday in April. And there Day on May 2, to spotlight both tuna’s role in feeding are many more cat holidays, including Happy Mew the world and the importance of not overfishing it. Year Day for Cats (January 2), Hug Your Cat Day (June Other holidays seek to rehab the reputations of 4), Ginger Cat Appreciation Day (September 1)—and maligned creatures. World Rat Day (April 4) was at least three days in tribute to black cats. started in 2002 by pet-rat enthusiasts. They endorse Not to be outdone, canines have Lost Dog Aware- rats’ good qualities—clean, sociable, intelligent—and ness Day (April 23), National Black Dog Day (October decry “unthinking prejudice” against the rodents 1), National Sled Dog Day (February 2), Bulldogs Are (let’s move on from the bubonic plague). Also ded- Beautiful Day (April 21)—and on and on. For the cat icated to image makeovers: Iguana Awareness Day and dog lovers: March 3 is What if Cats and Dogs Had (September 8) and International Vulture Awareness Opposable Thumbs Day. Day (first Saturday in September). Animal observances aren’t purely for advertisement Two days urge ophidiophobics to master their or philanthropy, fun or seriousness. They reflect the fear of a certain slithering form: National Serpent complex ways we humans interact with nature and Day on February 1 and World Snake Day on July 16 each other. Take Monkey Day, December 14, which (though how the animals or holidays differ from each two art students created in 2000 as a lark. As the other isn’t entirely clear). Conversely, the American observance spread through the pair’s art and com- Tortoise Rescue organization sponsors World Turtle ics, though, it started drawing attention to declining Day (May 23) and—even though turtles and tortoises monkey populations. More than two decades out, are not the same—dedicates the day to both. the holiday has been recognized on Jane Goodall’s Of course the difference between International Facebook page and on nationalgeographic.com, and Land Snail Day (November 7) and National Escargot primate conservation has become a central message. Day (May 24) needn’t be explained. Note that you Which brings us back to Fat Bear Week. Mike Fitz, have six months to repent for celebrating the latter now a resident naturalist and author of a book on before the former comes around. the bears, never expected the holiday to get this On August 20, feel free to squash the honoree. It’s big. He uses it to bring attention to the salmon runs World Mosquito Day, to mark the 1897 discovery that where the bears get so fat, and to how climate change female mosquitoes transmit malaria to humans. threatens the ecosystem. During Fat Bear Week 2020, bearcam views on websites including fatbearweek THERE’S COMMERCIAL VALUE to the buzz that these .org topped 2.5 million—and, between donations holidays generate, as some businesses have noticed. and matches, a park conservancy fundraiser took Consider Cow Appreciation Day, which sounds like in more than $200,000. an homage to those beloved bovines. In fact, it’s It’s a nifty shift from funny clickbait to serious a promotion on the second Tuesday of July by conservation education, but Fitz feels comfortable fast-food restaurant Chick-fil-A, which gives free straddling this line. Two hundred grand from fat chicken to customers who dress up in cow-patterned bears is something to celebrate. j clothes. Yet how an observance pays off isn’t always Oliver Whang is a freelance journalist working for National Geo- black and white. Sponsoring National Make A Dog’s graphic, the New Yorker, and the New York Times; he studies Day (October 22) likely helps carmaker Subaru’s philosophy at Princeton University. Tributes for Days

HOLIDAYS ARE DESIGNATED by UN declarations, acts of Congress—even websites that list observances devised by companies, causes, groups, and individuals. The result is calendars with holiday pileups like June 1. That’s National Hazelnut Cake Day, so eat up … and National Olive Day, so enjoy, but mind the pits! Should you choke on one, though, never fear: It’s also National Heimlich Maneuver Day.* —OW

*A LSO ON JUNE 1: INTERNATIONAL TABLETOP GAME DAY 2021, WORLD MILK DAY, AND NATIONAL NAIL POLISH DAY

EXPLORE | BREAKTHROUGHS

Pharaohs’ new digs No more contrived displays for the 22 royal mummies— including Queen DISPATCHES Hatshepsut (right), one of the few female pharaohs—moved to Cairo's FROM THE FRONT LINES new National Museum of Egyptian OF SCIENCE Civilization in a gala parade last AND INNOVATION spring. Instead, the human remains will lie in dim, tomblike halls with their burial goods. —TOM MUELLER

Mummified menagerie Archaeologists excavating the remains of ancient societies in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile have unearthed a menagerie of mummified parrots and macaws. Schol- ars knew tropical feathers were present in the world’s driest desert and had speculated about their origins. A new study found that the birds likely were captured in the Amazon— MEDICAL RESEARCH over 300 miles away—taken to the NANO-SPECIAL DELIVERY Atacama, and raised for their ornate TESTS TRACK HOW PARTICLES MIGHT CONVEY feathers. Why they A CANCER DRUG DIRECTLY TO A BRAIN TUMOR. were mummified HUNDREDS OF DRUGS designed to ﬁght glioblastoma multiforme, remains a mystery— an aggressive brain cancer, have failed in clinical trials, often but they were because they’re stopped by specialized blood vessels known as prized as symbols of the blood-brain barrier. So Joelle Straehla, a postdoctoral fellow in wealth and status. the Hammond Lab at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer —ANNIE ROTH Research, is developing nanoparticles that could someday ferry drugs past the barrier and directly to tumors. To test the system, Straehla injects empty nanoparticles and a ﬂuorescent dye into a mouse’s bloodstream as images of the brain are recorded. The dye illuminates the branchlike blood vessels (nine images above). The particles glow in a contrasting hue; if they reach the brain (shown as black), algorithms can detect each glow. In these photos, specks represent several particles clustered in test animals’ healthy cells — suggesting that if particles reach the brain but not a tumor, they might have other uses, like immunotherapy. —THERESA MACHEMER

PHOTOS, FROM TOP: KENNETH GARRETT; JOELLE STRAEHLA, JEFFREY WYCKOFF, AND PAULA T. HAMMOND, KOCH INSTITUTE, MIT; CALOGERO SANTORO, UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACÁ AND JOSÉ CAPRILES, PENN STATE %XVLQHVVRZQHU*UDQGPRWKHU7UXHKXQWHU A life well planned allows you to

While you may not be transitioning your business and sharing a new passion with your granddaughter— your life is just as unique. Backed by sophisticated resources and a team of specialists in every field, a Raymond James financial advisor can help you plan for the dreams you have, the way you care for those you love and how you choose to give back. So you can live your life. EXPLORE

INNOVATOR PATRÍCIA MEDICI

BY ANNIE ROTH PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK THIESSEN

She champions a rare, imperiled species found only in South America. As a child living on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil, Patrícia Medici spent her playtime “walking along trails in the forest and watching animals.” Her passion for wildlife blossomed into a career: Medici, a conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer, is the world’s leading expert on the lowland tapir, a large, elusive South American herbivore. Looking like a cross between a pig and an elephant, tapirs can be six feet long and as heavy as a pony. “They’re so big and powerful but still so gentle,” Medici says. “When they walk through the forest, you can barely hear them.” When she started studying lowland tapirs in 1996, little was known about them other than that they were at risk of extinction because of poaching and habitat loss. Medici has spent decades tracking tapirs across wetlands and jun- gles, using GPS telemetry and camera traps. The findings have transformed our understanding of tapir ecology. In 2020 wildfires devastated about a third of Brazil’s Pantanal region, the world’s largest tropical wetland and a crucial lowland tapir habitat. The fires killed and injured many tapirs, often called the “gardeners of the forest” because their seed-laden droppings promote growth. Medici is focused on saving the remaining tapirs, which she deems crucial to restoring the ecosystem. “We have to make sure that they survive so their habitat will be there for the next generation,” she says. j

The National Geographic Society has funded Medici’s work. Learn more about its support of explorers protecting critical species at natgeo.com/impact. © I n t e r

I K E A

S y s t e m s

B . V .

2 0 2 1

SEKTION/SINARP/HASSLARP Kitchen $2259 Based on a 10' × 10' kitchen price

For details, visit IKEA-USA.com/warranty

Pinch salt, not yourself. /P JUȃTOPUBESFBNUȃTBCFBVUJGVM TVTUBJOBCMFBOEBPSEBCMFRVBMJUZLJUDIFO We even have a team of professionals to help you every step of the way, from NFBTVSFNFOUUPQMBOOJOHUPJOTUBMMBUJPOǿFWFO OBODJOHPQUJPOT0I BOEEJEXF NBZCFZPVEPOFFEUIBUQJODI ZFBSXBSSBOUZ 0OTFDPOEUIPVHIUקפNFOUJPOJUIBTB

Learn more at IKEA-USA.com/Kitchens

What’s included in the price? The kitchen price includes cabinets, fronts, hinges, cover panels, deco strips/ moldings, legs and toekicks. All kitchens also include soft-closing hinges. Your choice of appliances, lighting, knobs/handles, sinks, faucets, countertops and interior accessories are sold separately. EXPLORE | DATA SHEET

The global abundance of ocean sharks and rays has declined by 71 percent since DISAPPEARING 1970, due to increased fishing and a lack of protections. Worldwide, sharks and rays are accidentally caught as bycatch, but in some places they’re targeted for their meat as well as their fins, gill 29% gain SHARKS over 47 years plates, leather, and liver oil. An estimated 63 million to 273 million sharks were BY MONICA SERRANO AND landed in the early 2000s, a peak of shark SEAN MC NAUGHTON overfishing with lasting implications.

The Living Planet Index tracks abun- LARGE SHARKS & RAYS MEDIUM-SIZE SHARKS dance via population trends since More than 16.4 feet 8.2-16 feet 1970 or when data was first available. Smooth hammerhead shark

Baseline population Smooth hammerheads Great are rebounding in areas hammerhead shark with protections, such as the northwest Atlantic 13% loss and Gulf of Mexico. over 39 years

White shark

37% loss over 42 years

50% of baseline population Common thresher shark

How fast are they 60% loss disappearing? over 32 years Triangles show pop- Oceanic Dusky ulation change over whitetip shark time studied. shark 72% loss Giant Count at start 75% loss over 45 years manta of studied period ray over 24 years

Population Oceanic whitetips are Reef 86% loss change critically endangered; manta over 15 years Species their populations have ray plummeted by 75 percent. 98% loss Years over 15 years studied Extinction

0.98 1=Not expected to become extinct soon 0.86

Going, going, gone? 0.81 Corals and oceanic sharks have moved toward extinction quickly in recent decades. Birds and mammals, Red List Index 0.56 in comparison, have more steady population trends because of Oceanic decades of conservation efforts. Sharks Coral

0=All species extinct 1980 2018 1996 2008

24 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC under Global oceanic sharks and rays catch 370,288 pressure Metric tons per year 275,047 162,778 Slow growth and low Unreported reproductive output make catch 157,313 it hard for shark and ray 135,908 populations to withstand 112,533 207,510 Reported rising demand. Ocean catch shark catch rates have tri- 0 pled since 1970—and that’s 1970 1980 1990 2000 2014* only reported catches.

Average age at which adults have first offspring: SMALL RAYS Less than 8.2 feet Less than 15 years old 15–30 years old More than 30 years old

Porbeagle Pelagic shark stingray

15% loss over 45 years Blue shark 26% loss 29% loss over 11 years Shortfin over 46 years mako shark Blue sharks are the top spe- 38% loss cies in the fin trade. They’re over 48 years protected by only a few national catch limits.

Silky Pelagic thresher shark shark

63% loss 62% loss over 25 years over 35 years

Illustrations are to scale

Silky sharks live in tropical Devil rays are netted for Shortfin devil ray waters. They’re one of the their gill plates, which are three most coveted species in high demand for use in in the shark fin trade. a Chinese tonic. 91% loss over 15 years

0.91 0.90 0.85 0.85 0.76 0.74

National Geographic’s SharkFest celebrates the ocean’s apex predators in July. Watch Shark Beach With Chris Hemsworth and other Birds Mammals Amphibians shark programming on the network, and the feature documentary Playing With 1988 2016 1996 2008 1980 2004 Sharks streaming on Disney+.

STUDY PERIODS VARY; SOME SPECIES WERE NOT MONITORED AS EARLY OR CONSISTENTLY AS OTHERS. *LATEST AVAILABLE DATA. SOURCES: NATHAN PACOUREAU AND OTHERS, “HALF A CENTURY OF GLOBAL DECLINE IN OCEANIC SHARKS AND RAYS,” NATURE; OCEANA; IUCN EXPLORE | PLANET POSSIBLE

Suppose we clean up our messes and recycle what can be salvaged. Isn’t that how Mother Nature

For more stories about how would want us to behave? to help the planet, go to natgeo.com/planet BY CHRISTINA NUNEZ

BUY 3RECYCLED Patio Decor From Plastic 1 Sprucing up the backyard? You’ll find many eco-friendly options for outdoor accessories, from hardy, brightly patterned mats that once were soda bottles to biodegrad- VOLUNTEER able doormats made from coconut husks. Pick Up Some Good, Clean Beach Vibes Coastlines catch all kinds of trash: food wrappers, bottles—and lately, face masks. For International Coastal COOK OUT Cleanup Month, in September, environ- TO GRILL WITHOUT mental groups and SINGEING THE PLANET, local authorities are AVOID LIGHTER FLUID organ izing virtual and in-person activities. AND EASY-LIGHT SUNBLOCKS THAT STAY ON In 2019 Ocean Conser- CHARCOAL, WHICH EMIT One way to ensure your vancy volunteers CHEMICALS. OR TRY A sun protection is effective worldwide collected 4 and reef safe is to wear UV- more than 20 million GRILL RUN ON PELLETS STAY blocking clothes, which pounds of beach trash. OF COMPRESSED SHADED reduce the need for lotions Search online for a WOOD SCRAPS, WASTE beach plus “cleanup” or sprays. Look for a UPF, to find events—or start THAT BURNS WITH or ultraviolet protection your own pick-up posse. LITTLE POLLUTION. factor, rating.

ECO-EXERCISE

We have Sweden to thank for the green sport called plogging. From the Swed- ish term plocka upp (pick up), it combines jogging and picking up trash. The activity has been adopted around the world—and adapted: Consider going pliking or plalking where you live, to get fit as you 5 pick up litter.

PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO; SHUTTERSTOCK/STOCKCREATIONS; ROMAN MILERT, ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; SHUTTERSTOCK/EVGENIIAND; ZELJKO DANGUBIC, ALAMY STOCK PHOTO Supercharge your health with antioxidants.

Recharge your batteries with P∂M Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice. With more antioxidant power on average than red wine, blueberry juice, or green tea, P∂M has the free-radical-ﬁ ghting juice your body needs.

© 2021 POM Wonderful LLC. All Rights Reserved. POM, POM WONDERFUL, ANTIOXIDANT SUPERPOWER, the accompanying logos, and the Bubble Bottle Design are trademarks of POM Wonderful LLC or its afﬁ liates. PJ210520-03 EXPLORE | DECODER

THE PHYSICS BEHIND the iridescent funnel up to 1,700 miles across and beauty of the northern and southern more than 31,000 miles high. The sci- lights are more or less understood, entists dubbed it a “space hurricane” yet they can still befuddle scientists. and adapted a 3D model of the move- Case in point: When the solar wind is ment of magnetic ﬂuids to show how weak, a fuzzy patch of auroral lights the hurricane formed. The weak solar has sometimes appeared over the wind, combined with the alignment north magnetic pole like an ephem- of the north magnetic poles of the sun eral, glowing spaceship. Early this year and Earth, constricted a normally researchers were ﬁnally able to explain expansive swath of northern lights into this phenomenon by analyzing data a tight, rotating spot above magnetic recorded by U.S. Cold War–era satellites north. Above Earth is the only place on August 20, 2014. They reported that these space hurricanes have been the patch spun in a vortex-like manner; spotted—so far. had a calm center with strong “winds” of electrically excited gas, or plasma, zipping around it; and was a gigantic

A QUIET STORM On Earth, hurricanes are fed from below as moist air rises over a warm ocean. In space, hurricanes need quiet conditions, such as a flipped polarity and low solar wind speed and density.

FLIPPED POLARITY An expansive aurora happens when the solar wind is strong and Earth’s magnetic field points north as the sun’s points south. If the solar wind is weak and the sun’s magnetic field points north, the aurora contracts into a tight spot above Earth’s north magnetic pole—good conditions for a space hurricane. SPACE HURRICANE Electron precipitation, auroral ovals, a glowing vortex 31,000 miles high and 1,700 miles across: That’s hurricane season at Earth’s north magnetic pole.

BY ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS AND JASON TREAT ILLUSTRATION BY MARK GARLICK

EVE CONANT AND HEIDI SCHULTZ, NGM STAFF 28 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOURCE: QING-HE ZHANG, SHANDONG UNIVERSITY ELECTRON PRECIPITATION Electrons rain down from the solar wind onto the Earth’s magnetic field lines and ping off of gases such as oxygen and nitrogen in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. This releases multihued flashes of light known as an aurora.

SWIRLING OVAL As the opening above the magnetic pole, or auroral oval, contracts, the swirling plasma speeds up and forms a vortex.

THE EYE Like hurricanes in Earth’s lower atmosphere, space hurricanes have a calm eye. Up here, winds of plasma—not air—rush around it at breakneck speeds.

Space hurricane Strong Magnetic field Weak funnel solar wind solar wind when the sun’s when the sun’s magnetic field magnetic field is opposite is aligned with the Earth’s Wide the Earth’s Contracted auroral oval auroral oval

How normal auroras form How a space hurricane forms Electrons that the sun emits rain down on In 2014 the sun’s magnetic field was aligned Earth’s magnetic field, causing auroras as they with the Earth’s, creating a weak interaction and collide with gases. When the sun’s magnetic shrinking the auroral oval. Electron rain fell on field is opposite that of Earth, it creates a wide the constricted oval, making it brighter. As the opening, or auroral oval, which spreads out and aurora spun, it became very tight, stretching disperses the aurora. high above the Earth’s surface.

AUGUST 2021 29 EXPLORE | ARTIFACT

The world of washi

MINO’S UDATSU DISTRICT JAPAN’S CENTURIES-LONG This historic quarter is lined with former washi merchant houses—some preserved as museums, others trans- PASSION FOR PAPER formed into cafés, shops, and galleries. In October the streets glow with washi lanterns during the Akari Art Festival. PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES WHITLOW DELANO MINO-WASHI MUSEUM Exhibits highlight the paper’s versatility and ARTIST YAYOI KUSAMA’S fantastical Mount Fuji scenes are printed detail the washi-making on it, designer Yumi Katsura makes bridal gowns from it, and ﬁlm process, while workshops director David Lynch creates lithographs with it. Called washi, offer short, hands-on Japanese handcrafted paper can be found in everything from lessons in the craft.

umbrellas and jewelry to coronavirus-blocking face masks. But ECHIZEN KAMI FESTIVAL its history goes back at least 1,300 years. Washi production isn’t Traditionally used for scrolls, books, and screens, washi received limited to the UNESCO- designated areas. In Fukui UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status in 2014, based on the Prefecture’s rural Echizen papermaking customs of these three places: Hamada in Shimane region, there are more Prefecture, Mino in Gifu Prefecture, and Ogawa/Higashi-chichibu than 60 paper mills and a tribute to the legendary in Saitama Prefecture. “The designation wasn’t about washi or the goddess of paper at people who make it—it was given to the techniques,” says Takeshi Okamoto Otaki Shrine, Kano, one of eight artisans qualified to create Honminoshi, Mino’s which honors washi’s divine highest grade of washi. This must be “made entirely by hand and influence with this annual festival in early May. use only three ingredients: paper mulberry, water, and neri, a plant mucilage that ensures the even dispersal of paper fibers,” he says. OZU WASHI The method employed by Kano—and centuries of artisans before Opened in 1653, this wholesaler in Tokyo’s him—involves a time-consuming process that begins with purifying Nihonbashi district stocks the mulberry bark fibers and forming a pulp. He then dips a frame all sorts of washi and into the pulp and gently rocks it until the crisscrossing fibers form products made from it. Visitors can attend washi- a sodden sheet of paper. After a period of drying, classic washi is making workshops and ready to go out into the modern world. —ROB GOSS tour a small museum.

Master calligrapher Tadashi Kawamata uses washi, a traditional type of paper that is still ubiquitous in Japan. THE EXCEPTIONAL LIGHT BEER 2.6g CARBS 90 CALS Drink responsibly. Corona Premier® Beer. Imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, IL. Per 12 ﬂ . oz. serving average analysis: Calories 90, Carbs 2.6 grams, Protein 0.7 grams, Fat 0.0 grams. EXPLORE | TOOL KIT

TIDAL TECHNIQUE

32 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 8 7

1. Teapot A relic from his daughter’s childhood, this toy is Gagnon’s favorite tool. He uses it for “wet carving,” gently splashing away sand in areas where he wants arched openings and doorways. 2. Big bucket This one is for transport- ing water from the ocean; Gagnon uses other, bottomless buckets as foundation molds. 3. Fine carving tools These allow Gagnon to add double windows and other symmetrical details. He designed the black trefoil tool to form three-column clusters. 4. PVC pipe Weighted with sand and water, it’s ideal for tamp- ing down sand in molds. 5. Shapers Domes are formed by running the underside of the brim of these hatlike tools in a circular motion over edges. 6. Trowels These are great for making patterns and, literally, cutting corners. 7. Sand scapers PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE Stamped into moist sand, these tools quickly shape forms such as stairs. Gag- EVERY SUMMER, LOU GAGNON spends a week at the beach building non made the two sand sandcastles—big ones. An artist and former architect, Gagnon scapers toward the right. picked up the seaside pastime more than 20 years ago as a way to 8. Small shovel entertain his young daughter. His creations have since advanced Gagnon uses this to move from simple structures to elaborately sculpted tableaux with spires and dig sand and test its quality. “The first thing I reaching as high as ﬁve feet. Gagnon’s sandcastles are intentionally do every morning is poke impressionistic and built near the tide line, where water and wind the sand with the shovel,” can reshape them. “There’s an eternal quality to the form,” he says, he says. “If it sounds “but an ephemeral quality to the object.” —CATHERINE ZUCKERMAN crunchy, it’s no good.”

AUGUST 2021 33 EXPLORE | THROUGH THE LENS

A 1980s family photo: Anastasia Taylor-Lind heads toward her mother, Eleonore Lind, who’s taking the photograph as her father, Bethlehem Taylor, looks on. Horses Star and Blue wait to pull the wagon that was Taylor-Lind’s home. STORIES FROM THE ROAD

MOM’S POETRY READINGS, DAD’S TRAVEL YARNS, DAUGHTER’S KEEN EYE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS IN A BOOK. WHO’S TO SAY WHAT SHAPES A CAREER?

BY ANASTASIA TAYLOR-LIND

I GREW UP TRAVELING. My dad was from inner-city I thought I might like to be a war poet when I grew London but had a dream of heading out to the coun- up, like Siegfried Sassoon or Wilfred Owen. tryside and living in a horse-drawn wagon. In high school I took a photography class and came I was born on the road in 1981 and spent my ﬁrst across a book with images that British photographer few years of life traveling in southern England with my Don McCullin took in the Vietnam War. They were parents and our horses. Eventually, my parents bought gritty black-and-white pictures of wounded young a ﬁeld in Devon where we lived in caravans [trailers]. marines tending to each other. These photos were Until I was 13 years old, we had no running water very dramatic—and romantic too. They felt familiar, or electricity—so, obviously, no TV. But my dad was reminding me of the World War I poetry that I knew. a great storyteller; I grew up engrossed in tales about Until then, it had never crossed my mind that I his hippie-trail travels throughout Europe, America, could be a photojournalist, and in some unconscious and Asia. And my mom read children’s novels and way, I must have also thought that photographing poetry aloud to me every night at bedtime. Early on, war would be easier than writing poems about it.

34 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO: COURTESY ANASTASIA TAYLOR-LIND

EXPLORE | THROUGH THE LENS

So I told my parents I wanted to become a war pho- I STATIONED tographer. My mom freaked out—she didn’t want MYSELF WITH me working in dangerous places—but my dad was A SMALL UNIT very supportive from the beginning. He thought it OF PESHMERGA would be a great way to live my life. I studied documentary photography at university, WOMEN ON and in 2003 I went to Iraqi Kurdistan to make a story AN ARMY BASE. about a women’s unit of the peshmerga that had been THIS IS HOW fighting alongside the British and American forces. YOU TELL My dad had traveled through Kurdistan in the late A STORY 1970s and told amazing stories about the hospitality OF SOMEONE’S he’d received from strangers there. While everyone LIFE—THROUGH else in my family was worried about my going on my first overseas reporting trip, my dad told me I’d SMALL DETAILS. never be lonely or hungry or in need of a place to stay in Iraq. He was right. He also persuaded my grandma to lend me money for the trip, a thousand pounds in cash. To keep it safe, I put the 20-pound notes in plastic bags under the insoles of my boots. With 500 pounds in each boot—then a huge amount of money to me—I crossed the border from Turkey. I was 22 and very unworldly; I didn’t know it’s customary to take your shoes off when you enter homes in the Middle East. I learned this as soon as I arrived in Dihok and had to leave my cash-filled boots on the front porch. I stationed myself with a small unit of maybe two Soldier Gashaw Jaffar guards a checkpoint at the or three dozen peshmerga women on an army base Farmanday peshmerga base outside Slemani. I lived there for a few weeks, photo- outside Slemani, Kurdistan, graphing every aspect of their daily lives. I didn’t Iraq, in September 2003. This portrait was Taylor- have a lot of experience in making photo stories, Lind’s first submission to but I knew a good start would be to make pictures any photography contest, of everything, day to day—the women sleeping, and it won first prize. brushing their teeth in the morning, training, guard- Hear Taylor-Lind talk ing checkpoints, cooking dinner. I didn’t know it about her life and work then, but this is how you tell a story of someone’s in season three, episode life—through small details. For years now, I’ve doc- seven of our podcast, Overheard at National umented different people in different places doing Geographic. Learn more much the same thing. at natgeo.com/overheard. The picture you see here is of a soldier named Gashaw Jaffar, at the checkpoint where she was The National Geographic Society, standing guard, armed with a Kalashnikov. I had committed to illuminating never entered my work in any contests until I submit- and protecting the ted this picture to a photography competition run by wonder of our world, has funded Taylor-Lind’s the Guardian, a U.K.-based independent newspaper. work. Learn more about To my disbelief, I was awarded first prize. the Society’s support at David Bailey, the English portrait photographer, natgeo.com/impact. was one of the contest judges. He likened my portrait to the famous picture of Che Guevara by Alberto Korda. I was given 5,000 pounds—more money than I’d ever had in my life—and a commission from the portraits of the women and their unit commander, Guardian to go back to Kurdistan and photograph Col. Rangeen Yusuf. A month after I photographed the women combatants of the Kurdistan Workers her, Yusuf became the first peshmerga woman to be Party, or PKK, a separatist group. That prize was my killed in combat against ISIS, on October 11, 2014. first big break as a photojournalist. From a young age, I had wanted to see with my own I revisited the same peshmerga base in 2014, a eyes what war looked like. In Kurdistan I learned that decade after my first trip. Gashaw had retired, but war didn’t look like a Don McCullin photograph—and many of the younger women I’d met before were still that it wasn’t like a Wilfred Owen poem either. there. This time they were fighting a new enemy: I think my interest in war coverage stemmed from ISIS. On a tight schedule, I had only two days to make a naive belief that telling stories about violence might

36 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC be a solution to violence itself. As a kid, I assumed What my mother does has inspired me to reﬁne how that wars happened because nobody knew about I make pictures of war. Now I am more intentional them, and if people took pictures, then they could about including the perspectives of women. I avoid help stop wars. Of course, I now know that’s not true. harmful tropes that reduce real people to characters My father always believed I would become a photo- in international war stories. And most of all, I focus on journalist. He supported my career, proudly showing the daily experiences of individuals. Even in conﬂict copies of the magazines I was published in to his zones, people keep on living. j friends, until he died in 2017. Anastasia Taylor-Lind, a National Geographic photographer My mom eventually became a psychotherapist and and storyteller based in London, has worked in conflict zones in a mediator whose work presents solutions to violence. Ukraine, Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan, and Nagorno-Karabakh.

PHOTO: ANASTASIA TAYLOR-LIND AUGUST 2021 37 TRAVEL BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS

Follow the call of the wild across savannas of southern Africa on an unforgettable wildlife safari with National Geographic Expeditions. Our experts, scientists, and storytellers bring you closer to the wonders of the wild than you ever dreamed possible.

To learn more about all our trips and to request a FREE catalog NATGEOEXPEDITIONS.COM /WILDLIFE | 1-888-351-3274 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AUGUST 2021

Gladiator Life ...... P. 40

Glass Frogs ...... P. 72

Hunger in America ...... P. 86

Kalahari Climate ...... P. 110 FEATURES

‘ THE INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE LISTS 10 GLASS FROG SPECIES 72 AS CRITICALLY ENDANGERED, 28 AS ENDANGERED, AND 21 AS VULNERABLE TO EXTINCTION.’

PHOTO: JAIME CULEBRAS

ANCIENT ROME’S FIGHT CLUB

REAL GLADIATORS WEREN’T QUITE LIKE THOSE IN

MOVIES. THEIR BATTLES WERE MORE ABOUT PUTTING

ON A GOOD SHOW THAN KILLING ONE ANOTHER.

BY ANDREW CURRY PHOTOGRAPHS BY RÉMI BÉNALI

ART BY FERNANDO G. BAPTISTA

Reenactors clash in the dust of the 1,900-year- old Roman arena in Arles, France. Their gladiator contests have helped researchers get a better understanding of this ancient blood sport, which captivated Romans for centuries.

Built in A.D. 238, the amphitheater of El Jem in Tunisia was based on the Colosseum in Rome and once was the third largest venue in the Roman Empire. For the 35,000 fans who packed its seats, gladiators were the main draw.

Zakhar Nikmatulin has been fascinated by gladiators ever since he watched the 1960 movie Spartacus. The scene on his back took tattoo artist Alex- ander Kosach 25 hours to draw and ink in his Moscow studio. CHAPTER I ARLES, FRANCE THE TUNNEL UNDER THE ROMAN AMPHITHEATER

in Arles, France, is dark and cool. The shade is a welcome relief from the blazing Mediterranean sun beating down on the amphitheater’s sand- strewn arena and stone bleachers. The gladiator helmet I’ve just put on, though, is stifling. A replica of the head protection worn by a Roman gladiator almost 2,000 years ago, the dented, scratched helmet weighs more than 13 pounds—three times as heavy as a football helmet, and far less comfortable. It has a tangy metallic smell, as though I’ve put my head inside a sweaty penny. Through the bronze grate covering my eyes, I can make out a pair of men in loincloths warming up for a fight. Metal armguards jin- Experts debate whether gle as one bounces on the balls of his feet, his the “thumbs-down” stubby, hooked sword clutched in a leather- gesture urging the gloved hand. As I shift uncomfortably, his victor to finish off his opponent, as portrayed partner lifts his sword and offers to hit me in in an 1872 painting the head, just to demonstrate how solid the (right), is fact or fiction. helmet is. A fresco from Pompeii (above) reveals that I shrug. Anything for a story, right? Then wounded gladiators their trainer, a deeply tanned, wiry French- signaled surrender with man named Brice Lopez, intervenes. “He’s not a lifted finger. Each fighter represented a trained for it,” Lopez says sharply. “He doesn’t sizable investment, so have the muscles. You’d snap his neck.” sponsors favored spar- A former French police officer and combat ing gladiators’ lives. trainer with a black belt in jujitsu, Lopez knows what a real fight looks like. Twenty-seven years ago he took a detour into ancient fighting styles. After commissioning working replicas of gladiator weapons and armor, he spent years thinking about how they’d be used in a fight to

46 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC “POLLICE VERSO,” BY JEAN-LÉON GÉRÔME, IAN DAGNALL COMPUTING/ALAMY STOCK (ABOVE); ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK OF POMPEII, ITALY (TOP) N o rth Hadrian’s Wall UNITED KINGDOM Sea BRITANNIA HIBERNIA (York) Eboracum IRELAND Deva Lindum (Lincoln) C (Chester) orinium NETH. gus Do Calleva oma bun ovi GERMANIA (Cir no Atrebatum N ) enc ru ia en est m (Silchester) lp eg G ERMANY er Camulodunum ne U jm ) Rhi Ni (Caerleon) Isca (Colchester) ( E Gladiatorial Venue Capacity lb Londinium (London) Vetera (Xanten) e More than 30,000 spectators Dubris Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne) Isca (Dover) Portus Itius BELG. 10,000–30,000 Dumnoniorum Durnovaria Bonna (Bonn) (Exeter) (Dorchester) Samarobriva CZECHIA Fewer than 10,000 (Amiens) Durocortorum Augusta Ambianorum (Reims) Mogontiacum (Mainz) Ludus, Unknown LUX. gladiator school (Lillebonne) Juliobona Augusta Treverorum (Trier) S Vindobona (Bayeux) Augustodurum ei Divodurum Caralis Roman provincial capital ne be (Vienna) Grannum (Metz) nu (Paris) Lutetia Argentorate a Lutetia Major city (Grand) (Strasbourg) D FRANC E Augusta Vindelicum (Paris) (Modern name) Aventicum (Augsburg) Caesarodunum Scarabantia Roman main road Darioritum re (Avenches) Iuvavum (Sopron) (Vannes) (Tours) oi Vesontio L Augustodunum (Besançon) (Salzburg) A USTRIA MODERN POLITICAL BOUNDARIES Vindonissa ARE SHOWN IN WHITE. (Nantes) Portus Namnetum (Autun) Virunum SWITZ. Curia (Chur) 100 mi Limonum R (Poitiers) P S SLOV. 100 km a Aquileia GALLIA L Octodurum n (Limoges) Augustoritum o (Martigny) r Siscia Axima e (Saintes) Mediolanum V (Sisak) Lugdunum (Aime) A CROATIA Vesunna Burdigala (Lyon) Segusio um Po ATLANTIC OCEAN Petrucoriorum lan (Bordeaux) (Périgueux) e O (Susa) dio Bononia (Bologna) n ) Me ô (Milan I Ravenna h T (Agen) Aginnum R A Ariminum (Rimini) m Cemenelum Genua L dunu (Cimiez) (Genoa) Y Lucus Augusti odez) Sego Nemausus Ancona Brigantium (Lugo) (R (Nîmes) Forum Julii (A Coruña) Pompaelo (Toulouse) Tolosa (Fréjus) Castrum (Pamplona) Florentia Novum Legio Narbo Massilia M (Florence) Asturica Augusta (León) (Narbonne) (Marseille) Bracara Augusta (Astorga) Eb ANDORRA Cosa (Braga) ro Arelate (Arles) I Clunia Caesaraugusta (Aléria) Alalia TALI (Zaragoza) Emporiae A Portus Cale Salmantica N CORSICA (ROME) ROMA um (Ampurias) (Salamanca) an PORTUGAL tia Barcino (Barcelona) A HISPANIA Dertosa Olbia Conimbriga Tarraco AREA EN S PAIN (Tarragona) LARGED Scallabis SARDINIA (Santarém) Tagus Segobriga T y rrhenian Toletum Saguntum (Toledo) Valentia Palma S ea N (Sagunto) S. Olisipo STA (Valencia) I Caralis Emerita Augusta GU C (Lisbon) (Mérida) U R I (Cagliari) Panormus A E A IA A L (Palermo) Pax Julia V B n e a n S e a (Beja) Corduba (Córdoba) e r r a Lilybaeum Italica d i t Hippo Regius (Marsala) SICILY e (Annaba) Hispalis M area Utica Carthago Agrigentum (Seville) Malaca Carthago Nova aes l) (Carthage) (Málaga) (Cartagena) l C chel (Skikda) Rusicade (Agrigento) Io her (Cádiz) Gades (C Cartennae Cirta Uthina Carteia (Constantine) Tingis Tigava Castra Sitifis Theveste Hadrumetum (Sousse) (Tangier) (Sétif) Thapsus (Bekalta) Rusadir Portus Magnus (Tébessa) AFRICA Lixus (Melilla) (Bettioua) Lambaesis T ham Acholla s A N I A ugadi Thysdrus (Henchir Botria) bili R E T olu A U Gemellae (El Jem) Sala V M Pomaria A L G ERIA Leptis Magna (Tlemcen) M O R OCCO T U NIS IA Oea (Tripoli) m Em id- pire sec ’s e Sabratha ond xte cen nt, tur y A GLORY AND GORE .D.

Gladiatorial venues were established in and around cities throughout the Roman Empire. Purpose-built amphitheaters dot the western provinces, while in the east older Greek theaters were converted to host bloody combat and animal displays. All played a prominent role in urban life.

AMPHITHEATER CONSTRUCTION All amphitheaters followed the same oval design but used a variety of building methods and materials. Some featured hypogea—subterranean galleries—beneath the arena floor. Mostly dug into ground Partially above ground Alba Fucens Histonium ROMA Tibur (Vasto) (ROME) (Tivoli) Marruvium Larinum Grandest stage Frusino (Larino) um ) Luceria The Colosseum, or the Flavian V (Frosinone) in ino olg Ostia as ss (Lucera) a Colosseum Albana C a Venafrum Amphitheater, in Rome, was the larg- (C Aquinum (Venafro) est gladiatorial arena in the empire. sia tum Antium (Aquino) V le en Many of the smaller amphitheaters in I e ev ) n (Anzio) A T n ento o Be ev en the region were built in settlements D INA (B Capua LAT of legionary veterans, or coloniae. T Mt. Vesuvius Compsa yr rh Nola en Dniep ia Puteoli Nuceria er 25 mi n ii Se a Neapolis e (Nocera) (Naples) mp SCYTHIA 25 km Po Paestum Dni UKRAINE ester RUSSIA M O Panticapaeum S L O VAKIA L D (Kerch) S . O M T V S U S A C A U C A Carnuntum (Petronell) CRIMEA Aquincum DACIA GEORGIA (Budapest) ROMANIA H U N G ARY Chersonesus (Sevastopol) Apulum (Alba Iulia) S e a ) Micia Troesmis k sijek Sarmizegetusa c (O Tomis a sa Regia l Trapezus ur Durostorum (Constanţa) B (Trabzon) M ium Viminacium (Silistra) irm (Kostolac) Sinope S e b Amisus VIA S S u M ARI i Dan Marcianopolis (Samsun) ILIT (B ng Oescus Byzantium Satala BOS. & e idu Nov Pompeiopolis lgr num ae (Svi (Constantinople, HER. ade shtov) I ) BULGARIA s Istanbul) Amastris opolis L SERBIA Serdica oli (Amasra) egal L (Sofia) op Heraclea (Zile) Zela M Y pp R ili iv) Pontica Y Salonae I h vd Hadrianopolis Gangra (Çankırı) E C KOS. P lo s (Solin) MONT. P (Edirne) Nicomedia Ancyra K igri U Nicopolis ( (Ankara) T M ad Nestum THRACIA (İzmit) R Caesarea N. MACED. Maroneia Perinthus Nicaea (İznik) U (Kayseri) ALB. Stobi T O R Melitene Cyzicus Prusa Dorylaeum I N (Malatya) Dyrrhachium VIA EGNATIA (Bursa) M (Durrës) Pergamum A Thessalonica (Bergama) I Iconium Anazarbus Apollonia (Pojan) (Thessaloníki) S Cyrrhus A (Konya) Euphrat G REEC E A Antiochia es T ASIA a Brundisium e Tarsus ( r Antiochia T en (Brindisi) Ambracia g Smyrna Sagalassos ar tu e Tralleis (Antakya) Dura Europos an m (Árta) (İzmir) Seleucia Pieria to) a Aphrodisias (Samandağ) S YRIA Nicopolis Delphi n Ephesus Side Croton (Crotone) S Perge Laodicea Raphaneae Miletus A I oni a n Athenae e N Palmyra a (Homs) Emesa IA Corinth Salamis T (Athens) E Sea ACHAEA Cnidus CYPRUS Tripolis L Rhodus Myra C IRAQ IO Rhegium Sparta D Heliopolis TA (Reggio di Calabria) Rhodes A Paphos LEBANON R Damascus T Catana (Catania) S Tyrus Syracuse ISRAEL E Ierápetra Nova Trajana Bostra CRETE Gortyn Caesarea (Bosra) e a Aelia Capitolina n S (Jerusalem) M M e d i t e r r a n e a Dead Sea Gaza E JORDAN le uth IS erop R olis P A M Petra VIA I Alexandria Pelusium Ptolemais Cyrene R (Shahhat) E S AUDI Roman highways Memphis SINAI ARABIA Consummate roadbuilders, Romans AEGYPTUS designed extensive thoroughfares Charax primarily for troop movement and Oxyrhynchus trade. Gladiators used them to travel from city to city to perform. Hermopolis R N e ile d LIBYA E G YPT S Coptos e Ptolemais (Qift) a (Faiyum) Thebes (Luxor)

MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK AND TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO, NGM STAFF. MARTIN VON WYSS SOURCES: BARRINGTON ATLAS OF THE GREEK AND ROMAN WORLD; JOHN HANSON, UNIVERSITY OF READING; SCOTT ORTMAN, Built into natural slope of terrain Freestanding UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER FOR EVERY 10 GLADIATORS WHO ENTERED THE RING, NINE PROBABLY LIVED TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY.

the death like the ones portrayed in countless fights did not end in death. For every 10 gladi- movies and books about gladiators. ators who entered the ring, nine probably lived But the more he studied gladiator weaponry to fight another day. and armor, the less sense it made. Loaded down with shields, metal leg guards and CHAPTER armguards, and hefty, full-coverage bronze helmets, many gladiators carried almost as much protective gear into the arena as Roman II soldiers wore into battle. Yet their swords were POMPEII, ITALY typically about a foot long, barely bigger than a chef’s knife. “Why,” Lopez asks, “would you bring 20 kilos [45 pounds] of protective gear FOR NEARLY 600 YEARS, Romans thrilled to to a knife fight?” gladiatorial fights. They were a favorite subject His conclusion: Gladiators weren’t trying to of Roman artists, re-created in mosaics, fres- kill each other; they were trying to keep each coes, marble reliefs, glassware, clay trinkets, other alive. They spent years training in order and bronze ornaments found across the Roman to stage showy fights, most of which did not world. Nearly every sizable city and town had an end in death. “It’s a real competition, but not arena of its own, with about 300 documented a real fight,” says Lopez, who now runs a glad- from Britain to the deserts of Jordan. iator research and reenactment troupe called These ancient contests also exert an irresist- ACTA. “There’s no choreography, but there is ible pull on the modern imagination. Thanks good intent—you’re not my adversary; you’re to countless, often erroneous portrayals in film my partner. Together we have to make the best and literature, gladiators are one of the most show possible.” familiar—and misunderstood—aspects of Over the past two decades, researchers have Roman culture. unearthed evidence that backs up some of That’s because Roman writers spent surpris- Lopez’s take on gladiator combat and chal- ingly little time discussing the details of gladia- lenges the popular perception of these ancient tor games, probably because the games were so spectacles. A few gladiators were criminals or familiar. (How often do you write to your friends prisoners of war condemned to punishment by about what a hit is in baseball, or how many play- combat, but most were professional fighters— ers there are on a football team?) To reconstruct the boxers, mixed martial arts fighters, or foot- the real story of the ring, archaeologists and his- ball players of their day. Some had families torians have to find clues in art, at excavations, waiting for them outside the ring. and by reading between the lines of ancient texts. Being a gladiator could be lucrative, and was Like many things about ancient Rome, some of sometimes a career choice, literary sources sug- the best preserved evidence for gladiators comes gest. Brave performances in the arena could from Pompeii, south of modern-day Naples, Italy. transform gladiators into popular heroes, and Once a thriving city, Pompeii was buried sud- even earn prisoners their freedom. Gladiators denly by a volcanic eruption in A.D. 79. probably spent most of their time training or Walking the city’s eerily well preserved in exhibition contests. streets today, visitors see reminders of gladia- Perhaps most surprising, the majority of tor games everywhere. There’s the 22,000-seat

50 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC amphitheater on the east side of town, the hangers-on waited in the wings, or even shared brooding bulk of Mount Vesuvius visible from the arena floor. Musicians warmed up the crowd the upper rows of seats. Faded advertisements as the gladiators took their places, and perhaps in the city center plug upcoming fights. Mosaics added dramatic flourishes during the fights. and frescoes capture highlights of past matches. Helmets and weapons were carried into the Just outside the city’s theater, I stoop to check ring during a prefight parade led by the editor, out stick- figure fighters scratched into faded red or sponsor of the games. plaster at a child’s eye level. Key figures were the referees, who were In 1766 early excavators uncovered a trove of responsible for enforcing a strict sense of fair gladiator armor at a site on the edge of town that play. In one depiction, captured on a small pot had been turned into a training facility and resi- found in the Netherlands, a referee holds up his dence for fighters after an earthquake damaged staff to halt a fight as an assistant runs in with a the local gladiator school. It’s safe to assume that replacement sword. even their practice sessions drew crowds. “You don’t lose the fight because you lose “They were like sexy rock stars,” says Kath- your weapon,” Genot says. “When you imagine erine Welch, an art historian at New York gladiator fights as a sporting event, you cannot University. Take Celadus the Thracian, a prom- imagine there are no rules.” ising newcomer to Pompeii with three wins Most important, inscriptions promising under his helmet who was “the sigh of the “fights without reprieve”—in other words, to the girls,” according to an admiring graffito—or his death—and “fights with sharp weapons” suggest trident-w ielding compatriot Crescens, “netter life-threatening clashes were unusual enough to of young girls by night.” be worthy of special mention. Inscriptions found at Pompeii suggest gladi- And like any good sporting event, there were ator troupes traveled from town to town, often stats aplenty for fans to obsess over. Across the followed by loyal fans, as part of a sword-w ielding Roman world, gladiator wins, losses, and draws road show. One advertisement discovered just are scratched on walls and chiseled onto tomb- outside the city walls encouraged locals to head to stones. The results of many matchups will never Nola, a 20-mile hike due north, to catch 20 pairs of be known. But imagine the knot in the stomach gladiators facing off over the course of three days. of Valerius—who a scratched graffito at Pom- Even after three centuries of excavations, peii reports survived 25 combats—as he faced archaeologists continue to uncover fresh evi- off against Viriotas, a veteran of 150. dence at Pompeii. In 2019 archaeologists working Gladiators were more than mere entertain- in a narrow alley on the north side of town came ment. Literary accounts make it clear that upon a fresco of two gladiators with what look by fighting—and sometimes dying—bravely, like ostrich plumes adorning their bronze hel- gladiators reinforced Roman concepts of mets painted on the wall of a small tavern. Alain manliness and virtue. (Except, that is, for the Genot, an archaeologist at the museum of antiq- net-wielding retiarius, whose tricky tactics and uity in Arles, says it includes unprecedented long- distance trident attacks made him the are- detail: One of the fighters is wearing pants under na’s designated baddie.) “Gladiators, whether his leg protectors. And after my close escape in ruined men or barbarians, what wounds they Arles, I’m pleased to learn that cords hanging endure!” the Roman orator Cicero wrote around below his chin may represent straps used to keep 50 B.C. “When condemned men fight with his heavy helmet firmly in place. swords, there could be no sturdier training for Bloody wounds on the bodies of both men the eye against pain and death.” show the fight has taken a toll. But there is a clear loser: One of the fighters, who is bleeding EVEN AS THEY WERE ADORED by many fans, glad- from a gash on his exposed chest and seems to iators ranked at the bottom of ancient Rome’s be doubled over in pain, has dropped his shield rigidly hierarchical society, along with prosti- and raised his forefinger. The gesture, repeated tutes, pimps, and actors. By law, gladiators were in many gladiator depictions, is the ancient considered property, not people. They could be equivalent of “tapping out” of a fight. killed at the whim of whoever was paying for Other artwork from around the Roman world their fight. “That’s fundamental to understand- suggests that a colorful cast of helpers and ing how the Romans could sit in the stands and

ANCIENT ROME’S FIGHT CLUB 51

By A.D. 150, the cost of decree is preserved on swords (top), as well as gladiator fights was spi- a bronze plaque (left) elaborately decorated raling out of control as that may have hung leg protectors and political hopefuls spon- outside an amphithe- shields (above). Such sored ever more spec- ater near Seville, Spain. protective gear helped tacular games to outdo A trove of gladiator prevent lethal wounds their rivals. To rein armor and weapons while guaranteeing the in spending, Roman uncovered at Pompeii exciting, unpredictable emperor Marcus Aure- in 1766 includes full- bouts Roman specta- lius set price limits. His face helmets and short tors loved to see.

MUSEO ARQUEOLÓGICO NACIONAL, MADRID (LEFT); MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI, ITALY (FOUR, ABOVE)

Losing your weapon didn’t mean losing the fight—or your life. On this pot found in the Netherlands, a heavily armored gladiator (center) shows a referee his broken sword as an assistant runs in with a new weapon (right). MUSEUM HET VALKHOF, NIJMEGEN, NETHERLANDS

Some scholars believe Coleman. Gladiators (top right) and a griffin this bronze figure (left) were a favorite subject (above). Fanciful tintin- depicts a victorious for Roman artists. A nabulum chimes (above female gladiator holding muscular statuette (top left), uncovered at Her- her curved dagger aloft. left) found in France is culaneum and meant to Others disagree. “No just under eight inches keep away evil spirits, gladiator is depicted tall. Armor from Pompeii show a gladiator doing with so little protective is decorated with myth- combat with his own clothing,” says Harvard ological figures such as phallus, which has trans- University’s Kathleen the goddess Minerva formed into a wild beast.

MUSEUM FÜR KUNST UND GEWERBE HAMBURG, GERMANY (LEFT); MUSÉE DÉPARTEMENTAL ARLES ANTIQUE, FRANCE (TOP LEFT); MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI, ITALY (THREE) amphitheater’s earthen foundations found the outlines of a whole neighb A FEW GLADIATORS WERE CRIMINALS to serve fans, including taverns, sou even a bakery where spectators coul OR PRISONERS OF WAR CONDEMNED TO COMBAT, before taking their seats. In 2010 archaeologists reported BUT MOST WERE PROFESSIONAL FIGHTERS. special: a gladiator school, or lud walk from the crumbling ruins of C amphitheater. From Roman accoun mer says, we know there must have b like it across the empire. They were watch this happening,” says Harvard University proud of it,” Coleman says. “It doesn’t sound like by emperors and local dignitarie classicist Kathleen Coleman. they’re treated like criminals. Gladiators saw run by trainers called lanistae, som In the early days of gladiator fights—likely themselves as professionals.” were former gladiators. There were staged as part of funeral rituals as long ago as gladiator schools in the center of R 300 B.C.—the combatants probably were prison- CHAPTER a gladiator training complex in th ers of war or condemned criminals. But as the the Colosseum. But the dirt under o games evolved into a central feature of life across the first complete example ever fou the empire in the first century B.C., they became III Without lifting a shovel, researche more organized, and audience expectations rose. a large room with a raised floor th Dozens of gladiator schools popped up to meet CARNUNTUM, AUSTRIA heated with warm air from below. the demand for well-trained volunteer fighters. been used as a training gym in the c Because Roman citizens couldn’t be executed PROFESSIONAL FIGHTERS needed professional winters. Along the edge of an ope without a trial, some aspiring fighters signed away training. A discovery made a few years ago at L-shaped section of the building wi their citizenship and became enslaved as a high- an ancient Roman site in Austria known as Car- cells. Thick walls are a sign that part risk way to pay off debts or escape poverty. Others nuntum shows where they got it. ity had two stories. There were even were criminals sentenced to serve as gladiators—a On a blustery day in early spring, Eduard Poll- water pipes, basins, and hot and co lighter punishment than execution, because there hammer, the scientific director of Carnuntum, the center of it all was a circular tra was a chance of being set free someday. leads me into the middle of a freshly sown farm 62 feet across. “We think about 70 Still, slavery meant something different in field on the banks of the Danube River, 25 miles ators lived here,” Pollhammer says Rome than it did centuries later in the American east of Vienna. The heavy gray clouds begin to whole infrastructure for big specta South. For one, it had nothing to do with race, spit cold rain, reminding me just how far we are and some experts believe gladiators were rarely from the sun-soaked ruins of Pompeii and Arles. CHAPTER chained or shackled. And despite their lowly sta- In the winter, temperatures here plunge below tus in society, successful fighters could earn a freezing, and the wheat fields are covered with lot of money. Some may even have moonlighted snow. But even here, on what was the edge of the IV as bodyguards for rich patrons. “Do your time,” empire, the Roman appetite for gladiator spec- says French historian Méryl Ducros, “and when tacles was such that Carnuntum boasted two ROME, ITALY it’s over, you can take your money and your wife amphitheaters: one for its thousands of active- and your kids and go back to your life.” duty soldiers, and another to entertain civilians WHAT DROVE THE ROMANS to de Tombstones—often commissioned by fellow from the bustling town next door. resources to gladiators? What kept f fighters or loved ones left behind—suggest that Around A.D. 200, the rolling hills here were back, year after year, for nearly six many gladiators were family men. “Pompeius home to one of the Roman frontier’s biggest mili- Recent excavations at the Colosseu the retiarius, winner of nine crowns, born in tary bases, Pollhammer explains. More than 7,000 offer clues. Under the floor of the ar Vienna, 25 years of age,” reads one such monu- soldiers stationed here patrolled the empire’s a huge space extending about 20 ment excavated in France. “His wife put this up northern reaches. Carnuntum is so big that more ground level. Today visitors can tou with her own money for her wonderful spouse.” than 150 years of excavations have uncovered labyrinth of columns, crumbled bric Such memorials also are evidence that glad- only 15 percent of its four-square-mile area. and shadowy chambers. iators were proud of their work. Grave markers Twenty years ago, concerned that intensive During a major restoration effor often included their records in the ring and plowing would destroy undiscovered parts of the in 2000, German Archaeologica depictions of weapons and armor, the tools of site, archaeologists turned to ground-p enetrating researcher Heinz Beste spent fou their trade. “It’s just the same as being a baker radar to try to map the buried remains of build- umenting the stonework under or shoemaker—you say what you did, and you’re ings. Between the town walls and the municipal He revealed traces of an ingeni

58 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC s, researchers of platforms, elevators, winches, and ramps, borhood built manned by hundreds of stage technicians and uvenir shops, animal handlers. Through dozens of trapdoors B L O O D S P O R T O F ld grab a bite in the arena floor, handlers could release animals directly into the ring for staged hunts, The Roman elite staged gladiatorial games both to display the d something called venationes, that typically served as the dus, a short appetizer for gladiator fights. Elaborate, painted Carnuntum’s sets would lift straight out of the arena floor, and nts, Pollham- elevators might have popped gladiators directly WEAPONS AND been dozens into the ring. “Spectators didn’t know what EQUIPMENT e bankrolled would open when, or where,” Beste says. Roman soldiers and gladiators es and often The system, found on a simpler scale at dozens fought to win and survive, but the battles they fought me of whom of provincial amphitheaters across the empire, had different purposes. Their at least four epitomized the draw of the games. From animal equipment reflected that. Rome, part of hunts to gladiator fights, everything about the e shadow of events was calculated to keep fans on the edge ur feet hides of their stone seats. Suspense, not brutality, was und. the lifeblood of the games. Roman ers identified To ensure exciting contests, fighting styles Gladiator legionary hat could be were carefully balanced. A nimble, near-naked 15-45 lb 55 lb It may have fighter armed with only a net, trident, and small old Austrian knife might face off against a lumbering warrior en yard is an wearing 45 pounds of protective gear. The rare ith rooms or appearance of sword-wielding women, recorded Gladiators typically fought one-on-one s of the facil- in historical accounts and a stone relief, would in roughly 10- to n baths, with have been a thrill for Romans, who thought 15-minute bouts. Armor—or the lack old pools. At women belonged at home. of it—made the combat more thrill- aining arena, Experienced gladiators were matched against ing and outcomes 0 or 75 gladi- other veterans, leaving new recruits to fight each less predictable. s. “There’s a other. The longer your career, the better your cles.” chances of survival, as each experienced gladiator represented years of investment. “There are hours and man-years going through all the fencing moves, building up the musculature, training for speed, strength, and endurance,” Many gladiators says Jon Coulston, an archaeologist at the Uni- wore greaves to protect their legs. versity of St. Andrews. “Like modern football, it The length varied, becomes a hugely capital-i ntensive enterprise.” depending on the size of their shield. Renting gladiators was a “you break it, you evote such buy it” type of arrangement. If a fighter was Hoplomachus fans coming killed, whether intentionally or not, the spon- This type of x centuries? sor of the fight paid full price to the gladiator’s gladiator carried a long spear um in Rome owner. “These people were so valuable because and round shield rena, there’s they were so highly trained. You don’t want to similar to the classical Greek 0 feet below squander that,” says NYU’s Welch. “Out of 10 infantry’s. ur part of the pairs, there would be one death, possibly two.” ck staircases, As amphitheaters proliferated across the empire and political hopefuls spent lavishly on specta- t that began cles, the costs of gladiatorial games spiraled out GLADIATORIAL PROGRAM al Institute of control. By the second century A.D., the pres- MORNING r years doc- sure to put on ever more impressive events made Pompa Venationes r the arena. the games prohibitively expensive, threatening The most lavish A procession of partici- Animals were hunted spectacles were pants as well as political or pitted against other ous system their existence. A massive (Continued on page 71) in the Colosseum. and religious figures beasts or fighters.

ANCIENT ROME’S FIGHT CLUB 59 Originally part of elite funerals, gladiatorial contests grew into extravagant events. CENTURIES OF SPECTACLE Arenas and amphitheaters became integral to social and political life, with gladiators at center stage, employing distinct fighting styles and weapons to maximize the spectacle.

Top view ROMAN FORUM, mid to late first century B.C. POMPEII, first century A.D. During the Republican era, most contests took place As the games’ popularity grew, stone amphitheaters in wooden structures temporarily erected in the 100 10,000 like this one in Pompeii were built across the empire. 22,000 73 yd 73 yd Roman Forum, the city’s civic center. Combatants yards spectators Gladiators became more specialized, their gear more spectators often were outfitted to evoke the empire’s enemies. elaborate, and their training more structured.

American Point football field of view

Shields were used During gladiatorial The velarium, or in defense and as games, only one pair extendable awning, weapons. would fight at a time. provided shade.

Basilica Temple of Julia Castor and Pollux

The gladius, a Roman infantry sword, was used to thrust at opponents. (Actual size shown below)

Musicians played during the opening procession, as well as during the games. Fighters bearing weapons and armor of various weights met in the ring. Provocator 31-33 lb equipment weight Murmillo 35-40 lb Thraex 35-40 lb Unlike other types of gladiators, provocatores— Referees, sometimes working This type of gladiator, perhaps named for a fish Armed with a short shield and a curved sword or “challengers”—wore metal breastplates and in pairs, used rods to enforce that decorated his helmet, fought gladiators called a sica, the gladiators modeled on Thra- Light Medium Heavy usually fought members of their own category. rules, which remain unknown. such as the Thraex (right) and the hoplomachus. cian warriors were known to be especially swift.

COMBAT IN THE ARENA 264 B.C. 216 B.C. 200 B.C. 183 B.C. 174 B.C. 70 B.C. 65 B.C. 27 B.C. to A.D. 14 Selection of recorded contests First recorded First known in Amphitheater Julius Caesar’s Reign of Augustus in Rome the Roman Forum built at Pompeii games Number of gladiators 6 44 50 120 74 640 10,000 (several games)

300 B.C. 200 100 A.D. 1 Women, slaves, and foreigners

COLOSSEUM, second century A.D. The contests reached their peak—in cost, size, Roman citizens and scope—after the construction of the Colos- 87 yd 50,000+ seum, a monumental architectural feat that set spectators the standard for future Roman amphitheaters. A galerus, or shoulder guard, gave partial protection to the head and neck.

Stones

Roman citizens Sometimes one retiarius would take on two secutores. A plat- form with stones to hurl evened the odds. Records of gladiatri- ces are limited; only one image of their combat survives. A gladiator indicated surrender by extending an index finger. Nets more than Other six feet tall pro- elites tected spectators from the action in the arena. Senators and vestal priestesses

Secutor 35-40 lb Retiarius 15-18 lb Gladiatrix 35-40 lb Eques 22-26 lb The secutor donned a smooth helmet with Quick and nimble, the retiarius fought with a Though the vast majority of gladiators were These horsemen began their bouts on small eyeholes to protect against the retiarius’s trident, weighted net, and dagger. His only men, particularly lavish games might have horseback with a spear, then dismounted trident and avoid being ensnared in his net. defense was an arm and shoulder guard. featured a rare bout with female combatants. to finish the fight on foot with a sword.

A.D. 80 A.D. 98 to 117 A.D. 248 A.D. 281 A.D. 325 A.D. 404 Flavian Amphitheater Reign of Trajan, the peak Constantine bans Honorius bans (Colosseum) dedicated of gladiatorial spectacles sentencing criminals gladiatorial 20,000 (several games) 2,000 600 to gladiatorial schools. combat.

100 200 300 400 ASSEMBLY HALL BATH COMPLEX This large room may Four interconnected have served as a rooms made up the bath THE ANCIENTS multi purpose gath- complex, which helped ering space with long gladiators recover from Apodyterium tables and chairs. their rigorous training. (changing room) empire’s dominance and to vie for power and inﬂuence.

Storage room

Face guard Roman legionary Murmillo 4.5 lb 9 lb

.04 in Thickness .08 in

Soldiers and gladiators wore richly decorated helmets, but the gladiators’ provided more protection for the face, TRAINING ARENA making them heavier Viewing stands and limiting vision enclosed an arena and hearing. where instruction and practice could be seen by a fighter’s owner and potential investors.

Armguards made LIVING QUARTERS of textiles often Two wings of the school were covered with held rooms of varying metal plates or size and ornamentation scales for added that housed up to 75 protection. gladiators and trainers.

FERNANDO G. BAPTISTA, TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO, AND RACHEL HARTIGAN, NGM STAFF; AMANDA HOBBS; ROCÍO ESPÍN PIÑAR SOURCES: JON COULSTON, UNIVERSITY OF ST. Thraex ANDREWS; HAZEL DODGE, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN; ALISON FUTRELL, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA; ALAIN GENOT, MUSÉE DÉPARTEMENTAL ARLES ANTIQUE; KATHERINE E. WELCH, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. CARNUNTUM: KLAUS LÖCKER, LUDWIG BOLTZMANN INSTITUTE; EDUARD POLLHAMMER, ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK CARNUNTUM

A GLADIATOR’S CAREER

AFTERNOON ASSIGNMENT AND TRAINING CARE A Meridiani Munera A new arrival, or novicus, was Gladiato The midday execu- Combat between assigned a specialty and trained regular tions of criminals gladiators selected with double-weight wooden swords high in b in the arena to heighten drama and shields against wooden posts. were ma TRAINING ROOM ADMINISTRATION A hypocaust—the Roman The owner, or lanista, lived and system for under-floor worked in the buildings at the heating—would have school’s entrance. He had the power Frigidarium Tepidarium Caldarium allowed training to con- of life and death over the gladiators, (cold bath) (warm room) (hot bath) tinue in the winter months. who had no rights under Roman law.

Fire Hot air Subfloor

Furnace to heat water and rooms Additional training arena

The main gate controlled access into the school.

FIGHT SCHOOL Across the empire, schools known as ludi trained prisoners of war, criminals, volunteers, and enslaved people to be professional gladiators. A recently discovered ludus at Carnuntum, a Roman city and military base in eastern Austria, reveals how gladiators lived and trained.

ND COMFORT COMBAT INJURY AND DEATH ors were kept healthy with Protecting their investments, own- Injuries were common, but most medical care and a diet ers limited gladiators to a few fights Pompeii weren’t lethal. Even so, many gladi- barley and beans. Some each year. Fighting style and skill graffiti ators died young. Only skilled or espe- arried and had families. level determined arena pairings. cially lucky fighters had long careers.

Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor is extremely fit, highly trained, and idolized by enthusiastic fans— much like the gladiators that Chris Vernel (facing page) and his fellow reenactors in France seek to portray. MIKE ROACH, ZUFFA LLC VIA GETTY IMAGES (MCGREGOR) 70 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC bronze tablet discovered more than a century ago in the ruins of Italica, a Roman town on the out- Gladiators surrounded by horn players and skirts of modern-day Seville, Spain, reveals how cheering fans clash Romans tried to get things back under control. below a staff-wielding Known as the Tabula Gladiatoria, it’s inscribed referee. Carved in the first century on a with a decree issued in A.D. 177 that limited what gemstone the size of sponsors could spend on games. It even includes a thumbnail, the scene a detailed table of fees. A gladiator “of the high- captures the spectacle of the ancient games. est and best-looking grade” could earn up to ANTIKENSAMMLUNG, STAATLICHE 15,000 sesterces, more than enough to pay the MUSEEN ZU BERLIN annual wages of a typical Roman soldier. Up to a quarter of that sum went to the gladiator—a nd was payable in advance.

DEATH WAS UNCOMMON, but it was still an ever present risk, either in the ring or as a result of infections afterward. Audiences appreciated and rewarded the extra expense a dead gladiator represented. One Roman writer describes a particularly expensive show thrown by a young noble who recently had inherited a fortune. A stagger- ing 400,000 sesterces bought him “the best steel, no running away, with the butchery done in the middle so the whole amphitheater can see.” It’s easy to dismiss such sentiments as a thing of the distant past, and the Romans as funda- mentally different from us. This was, after all, a civilization that built one of the largest empires the world had ever known using relentless military force to subdue all its neighbors. But that would be letting ourselves off the hook too easily. When it comes to a taste for violent spectacle, we’re closer to the Romans than we like to imagine. The most popular sport in the United States is football, which regularly leaves players too seriously injured to walk off the ﬁeld. Meanwhile, athletes who engage in violent sports—from football to boxing to mixed martial arts—are idolized as exemplars of discipline, toughness, and grit. Their bouts attract millions of spectators, even as the long-lasting damage to athletes has become widely known. “Life isn’t Candy Land and puppies. Life is hard. We need to yell, to cry, to scream about something,” Ducros says. “We need to see a little bit of violence to externalize the violence we feel inside. We can’t judge the Romans for organizing that.” j

Berlin-based Andrew Curry wrote about the first Europeans for the August 2019 issue. Rémi Bénali lives near Arles, France, where he photographed a ACTUAL SIZE Roman boat for the April 2014 magazine. National Geographic senior artist Fernando G. Baptista specializes in reconstructing the past.

ANCIENT ROME’S FIGHT CLUB 71 The eggs of a female sun glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium aureoguttatum) are visible through her stomach. This image was taken in a mobile studio.

Glass frogs, the tiny, translucent amphibians of Central and South America, are full of surprises. P erfectly

BY ANGELA POSADA-SWAFFORD

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAIME CULEBRAS C lear

A male reticulated glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium valerioi) hangs upside down on a leaf next to its eggs in Costa Rica’s Caribbean rainforest. One theory suggests that the spotted pattern on the frog’s back mimics the eggs, confusing predators. On a moonless summer night in Ecuador’s Andean foothills, a tiny bachelor glass frog sits on a leaf overhanging

a stream. This newly discovered glass frog in the Hyalinobatrachium genus measures less HE HAS CHOSEN the best real estate to try to than an inch long. impress a female, advertising his presence with The amphibian is a high-pitched call. unique because of its high-pitched The problem is that location alone isn’t going whistle and the black to cut it. The yellowish green amphibian has dots covering its been watching what mated male frogs do, so body, which could act as camouflage when he spots an abandoned clutch of eggs, he in its rainforest stays next to it for hours, pretending to guard environment. it. Then a remarkable thing happens: He begins to attract female voyeurs, who apparently are tricked into thinking he’s an experienced father. “It is the ﬁrst time we report such behavior for frogs and toads,” says Anyelet Valencia-Aguilar, a behavioral ecologist at Switzerland’s University of Bern. She has recorded what appears to be male deception in one glass frog species in Brazil

76 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and believes that the same may be happening in important, a never-ending, job,” he says. “These at least two species in Ecuador. tiny wonders keep surprising us.” Valencia-Aguilar’s research is one of several new ﬁndings about the biology of these alluring SCIENTISTS HAVE DISCOVERED, for example, that amphibians, named for their translucent skin. male glass frogs in some species are stellar par- There are 156 known species of glass frogs ents—a rare trait among vertebrates. Males of at living throughout the neotropics, mainly in the least 24 species not only protect their eggs from northern Andes and Central America. Recent predators but also actively care for them—some- advancements in optics, genetics, and molecular times for weeks. biology are giving researchers a revealing look After the female deposits her clutch of 20 to into the lives of these tiny tree dwellers, some of more than 100 eggs, depending on the species, which are smaller than a paper clip. the male fertilizes them with his sperm. While Juan Manuel Guayasamin, an evolutionary the embryos develop, males of some species, biologist at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in such as the sun glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium Ecuador, has described 56 species of amphibians aureoguttatum) and the northern glass frog in recent years, including 14 glass frogs. “It’s an (Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni), sit atop

PERFECTLY CLEAR 77 Embryos of the Wiley’s glass frog (Nymphargus wileyi), endemic to Ecuador’s western Andes, hang from the tip of a fern leaf. When the eggs hatch into tadpoles, they’ll fall into the stream below to continue their development.

An arachnid eats eggs of the emerald glass frog (Espadarana prosoblepon) in north- western Ecuador’s Río Manduriacu Reserve. Parents of this species do not care for their young, leaving the eggs vulnerable to predation.

The Manduriacu glass frog (Nymphargus manduriacu) was scien- tifically described just a few years ago. The rare yellow-spotted frog is an opportunistic hunter, waiting until its prey—a small insect or spider—walks by, and then pouncing. their egg clutch “like a chicken,” keeping the eggs hydrated until they hatch into tadpoles, says Jesse Delia, a biologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. “The father searches for dew on leaves, sucks it up into his urinary bladder through a highly vascularized region of the belly, and then trans- ports it to the babies,” he says. “We don’t know if they transfer water via pee or through their belly skin.” Some 25 million to 35 million years ago, when the ﬁrst glass frogs evolved, mothers likely did all the work, Delia says. Then, about eight million to 25 million years ago, some males took over parenting, though why is a mystery. “Every time it switched to fathers, care got longer and behaviorally more diverse compared to females, who abandon eggs well before they are ready to hatch,” he says—perhaps because females were focused on making more eggs for their next clutch.

MEANWHILE, NEW RESEARCH is shedding light on how the glass frog’s fabled see-through belly forms. Carlos Taboada, a biologist at Duke Uni- versity in North Carolina who works with Delia, suspects that young glass frogs physically re- arrange the insides of their cells and tissues to become transparent adults. “It’s not just skin and its lack of pigments. You need transparent muscles and internal structures that scatter light in as few angles as possible,” Taboada says. Fluid between the tissue cells also may contain a substance that allows light to travel in a straight trajectory, A female Magdalena reducing opacity, he says. giant glass frog (Ikakogi Taboada is studying another mechanism that tayrona) covers her eggs in the Sierra may allow glass frogs to blend into the green Nevada de Santa Marta leaves on which they doze during the day. region of northeastern He calls it “a biological mirror: a kind of Colombia. This one- inch-long species is shield or covering of crystals in many of their unusual in that mothers tissues which reﬂects up to 50 percent of the care for their embryos. light that normally reaches them. Those crystals amplify the [light] signal, and the frog’s green looks brighter.” The glass frog’s transparency has another ben- eﬁt: It disguises its familiar shape to would-be predators, such as birds, spiders, and snakes. “We call this type of camouflage edge dif- fusion,” says Justin Yeager, an evolutionary biologist at Universidad de las Américas in Quito. “We made accurate replicas of these frogs out of gelatin, some of them really opaque and

84 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC some of them really translucent. And it turns out “As soon as they are discovered, many species the opaque ones get eaten more.” are declared endangered,” Guayasamin says. Yet there could be an advantage in conserv- MANY SCIENTISTS STUDYING glass frogs are ing such isolated populations, he says. He hopes motivated by the fact that some of their subjects that governments, private companies, and non- are disappearing—and fast. proﬁts could be inspired to work together to set Agriculture, cattle grazing, and mining aside these frog-rich patches of land as reserves, projects in the Andes are taking over the frogs’ ensuring that these delicate creatures have a already fractured forest homes. The ranges of solid chance at survival. some species, such as the Manduriacu glass “Ranas de cristal is how they are called in frog (Nymphargus manduriacu), are down to Spanish,” Guayasamin says, “which is great, a single river basin. because it conjures fragility and beauty in one.” j The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists 10 glass frog species as critically Angela Posada-Swafford is a Colombian American journalist based in Miami Beach, Florida. Jaime endangered, 28 as endangered, and 21 as vulner- Culebras is based in Ecuador; his photography able to extinction. highlights at-risk reptile and amphibian species.

PERFECTLY CLEAR 85 86 America’s Hunger Crisis THE PANDEMIC LEFT RECORD NUMBERS OF PEOPLE WITHOUT ENOUGH FOOD. FOR MANY, CHARITIES AND NEIGHBORS HAVE BECOME LIFELINES.

BY CASSANDRA SPRATLING Houston, Tex. Meals for the ‘forgotten’ Kimberline Rivas (at right) and Lawrence Walker, members of the Lucille’s 1913 kitchen staff, prepare meals to be distributed for free across Houston. Lucille’s 1913 is a nonprofit run by Chris Williams, owner of the popular restaurant Lucille’s. Williams targets “forgotten people” in retirement facilities and other places. Lucille’s 1913 now serves up to 800 meals a day for those in need. Neighbor- hoods receiving meals include one where Williams’s extended family resides. GRAHAM DICKIE

PREVIOUS PHOTO Queens, N.Y. María Quinteres, 84, wearing an American flag face mask, waits with hundreds of others at Latinos Unidos, a group that hands out free food boxes each Friday. Food insecurity may have affected about 45 million Americans in 2020, according to Feeding America, the country’s largest hunger- relief organization. NATALIE KEYSSAR AMERICA’S HUNGER CRISIS 89 Maysel, W. Va. School and friends help ease the burden Autumn (at left) and Sydney King unpack food sent home with them from Clay Elementary School as their mother, Jennifer, reviews their homework. Jennifer attended the school and had the same speech therapist as her daughters. The therapist, Kathi Linkinogger, often drops off food for the Kings, and Jennifer considers her “practi- cally like family.” The Kings do not have a car and rely on others for rides to a grocery store. With a two- million-dollar federal grant, the school district is developing innovative ways to encourage self-resilience and confidence, to equip students to handle life’s challenges. It has designed a curriculum that teaches skills such as cooking basic meals, growing vegetables, and household budgeting. MADDIE MCGARVEY AMERICA’S HUNGER CRISIS 91 It’s early for most people. 5:30 a.m. But not for Bessie Brooks, who’s heading out her door to help get food to people who need it in Lowndes County, Alabama. To hear her tell it, though, that’s not early at all. “When I was working, I’d be at my patient’s house by 5 a.m.,” Mrs. Brooks says. Journalistic standards suggest I call her by her last name, Brooks. My manners suggest otherwise. I respect her by adding Mrs., as I was raised to do by my mother, who spent part of her growing-up years in Lowndes County. Mrs. Brooks is 87, after all. She worked 30 years as a home health worker for the county. The job required her to give personal care: Get them dunlow, w. va. up, bathed, brush their teeth, give them their meds. But Bessie Brooks went beyond that and did whatever needed doing. A long wait “I don’t see no sense in a person getting up and bathed, and they hungry,” she says. at the local So she’d cook for her patients and clean house. If they didn’t have running water, she’d fetch food pantry some from a neighboring home. Running water wasn’t a given in every house in Lowndes County, which Feeding America, the nation’s leading organization of food banks, identiﬁed as the 16th

92 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Willard Marcum, grandchildren. He picks number of families a veteran firefighter, up food for them and served by the food drives the 725th and for elderly neighbors pantry grew from final vehicle through who don’t have cars. 300 in 2019 to 900 in the Dunlow Community Bill Likens, who November 2020, its Center food pantry in opened the food pan- busiest month because Dunlow, West Virginia, try in 2003, has seen of pandemic-related nearly 12 hours after the local need increase job losses and height- the first volunteers since several pantries ened food insecurity arrived that morning. in neighboring towns around the holidays. Laid off from his coal closed, leading many Volunteers provide mining job in 2019, Mar- people to travel each family with about cum now works up to to Dunlow and even 130 pounds of food 90 hours a week to sup- spend the night in and other necessities. port his wife and seven line in their cars. The MADDIE MCGARVEY

Clay County, W. Va. Relying on nature to get by

LEFT Alex McBee (at left), Jen Lively, and Chris Lively hold their dogs outside their home in Clay County. They live miles from the nearest grocery store and have been receiving deliveries of food from Amanda Shelton, a teacher at Clay County High School, since the beginning of the pandemic. “If it wasn’t for them,” Chris says, “we’d probably starve.”

TOP RIGHT Chris searches for roots on a hillside near his home. He met his wife, Jen, when they were in junior high in Ohio. They’ve lived in West Virginia since 2016; selling roots that they find is their only source of income.

BOTTOM RIGHT Brian Lively, 18, helps his parents dig for wild roots such as black cohosh, bloodroot, and ginseng during warm seasons when he’s not in school. The roots, when dried, are sold for use in homeopathic medicines. It’s grueling work, and Brian takes pride in it. “It’s hard to take help from someone else when you could do it yourself,” he says. MADDIE MCGARVEY

AMERICA’S HUNGER CRISIS 95 most food insecure county in the United States in and early childhood programs. 2020. Almost a third—29.5 percent—of the people The paradox is that rural residents often live in Lowndes County do not have sufficient food. in areas where the very food they need is grow- Record numbers of Americans needed more ing. “So if you’re in a land of plenty, why would food in 2020, reversing what had been a down- you, if you’re driving past fields of food, why ward trend. One in seven people in the U.S. may would you have food insecurity?” Henchy asks. have been food insecure, meaning a lack of access “It seems counterintuitive,” she says, “but the to sufficient, nutritious food. The numbers are thing is that because of the ways that the sup- only slightly better this year, according to projec- ply chain works for food, the people who live in tions released in March. Feeding America expects areas that produce food, generally speaking, are 42 million people—one in eight Americans—to not having access to that food.” experience food insecurity in 2021. That includes 13 million children, or one in six, who may be short of food this year. The sorrowful images Lowndes County, AL: Aiding those in need of rows of cars lined up for food across the U.S. IT’S IN A STRETCH of Alabama once known during the pandemic illuminated a long-standing as the black belt because of the rich soil that problem, one that the coronavirus didn’t create delivered an abundance of cotton and other but made worse, says Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, crops, tended by enslaved labor. Now Lowndes Feeding America’s chief executive officer. County is part of a region people think of as the “I think there’s a heightened awareness that black belt because of the number of Black people hunger was here to begin with,” she says. “For so who live there. long, people in America didn’t think that Amer- Snow Hill Christian Church is one of the main ica has a hunger problem.” places people here turn to for help to put food Babineaux-Fontenot hopes renewed attention on the table when cupboards run low. It was to food insecurity puts to rest the fallacy that that way long before COVID-19 coursed through those who line up for food giveaways are either America’s veins, shuttering businesses, closing lazy or unwilling to work. “It’s never been true,” schools, and landing people in food lines. she says. “So many people who turn to us for “There were already a lot of people who didn’t help are working-class people who have jobs. know where their next meal was coming from, so Some of them have more than one. They’re the pandemic didn’t do us any favors,” says the working really, really hard. They work as hard Reverend Dale Braxton, Sr., pastor of the place as anyone else works, if not harder than most known as “the little friendly church on the hill.” people do. And they still can’t make ends meet.” Mrs. Brooks retired in 1998, but she didn’t retire Food insecurity is especially high in rural from helping others. She is one of the key peo- America, according to reports from Feeding ple Braxton counts on to help distribute food to America and the Food Research and Action those who need it. While she used to go it alone— Center, a nonprofit dedicated to ending organizing and packaging food for people in poverty-related hunger and undernutrition. need—she now depends on one of her ﬁve chil- Some 16.5 percent of rural households with children to drive her to the church, where volunteers dren faced food insecurity in 2018, compared with pack her car with food, and her daughter drives 13.5 percent of households in metropolitan areas, her to homes of those she knows need food. according to a FRAC report. The differences are “She’s short in stature but a giant when it attributed to higher rates of poverty related to comes to giving,” says Braxton, who leads the fewer and lower-paying jobs, longer distances food distribution efforts in the county of 9,726 to travel to get to large grocery stores with rea- people, more than a quarter of them (26.6 per- sonably priced and plentiful foods, lack of trans- cent) living in poverty, according to the U.S. portation, cost of gas, weather, and often greater Census Bureau. A May 2020 report said Lown- challenges accessing federal nutrition programs. des had the state’s highest unemployment rate “Less employment, lower income, transporta- and its highest COVID-19 infection rate. As of tion issues, lack of access to healthy, affordable this May, the county led the state in COVID-19 food without having to go a long distance, that vaccinations; more than half of eligible people pushes more people into food insecurity,” says had received at least one dose. Geri Henchy, FRAC’s director of nutrition policy Braxton, who has managed food distribution

96 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC through the Montgomery Area Food Bank for at least 30 years, didn’t think twice when he was asked to distribute weekly food boxes delivered from June through December, a part of the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Farmers to Families program. “It is our mission to feed the hungry, clothe the naked,” Braxton says. “I don’t want anybody to be hungry. I’ve always had a passion to seeing that people, especially children, are The jump in well fed as well as well educated.” Neither is easy in Lowndes County, where Americans people have to drive up to 30 miles to a city such as Selma or Montgomery to shop at a major who didn’t grocery store. “We’re a very poor county,” Braxton says. have access For Ritha Luckie, 61, a single parent who cares for two adult children with special needs, the food to enough boxes have been a great help. In March 2020, the pandemic closed the adult day-care center her food in sons attended five days a week while she worked as a lab assistant in a health clinic. A van used to 2020 reversed pick her sons up before she went to work. Once the center closed, she had to pay someone to what had been come to her home before she could go to work. That’s when she started getting the food boxes. a downward Both sons receive disability payments, but those aren’t enough to keep two grown men fed. “It’s trend. been a blessing for me, and I know it’s been a blessing for a whole lot of people around here,” Luckie says. Usually the boxes contain milk, juice, and fresh fruits and vegetables, including a big bag of white potatoes. “I can do a lot Hunger rises again with a bag of potatoes,” she says. “I can make hash U.S. food insecurity declined consis- browns, mashed potatoes, and boiled potatoes. I tently in the decade after the Great Recession of 2007-09. By 2019, it had know how to make it stretch.” reached its lowest point in more than Across the U.S., free grocery stores and com- a decade. But then the pandemic munity refrigerators are filling a void. Doctors upset this progress. and nurse practitioners are writing prescriptions People in the U.S. living for healthy food, and prominent chefs are priori- in food-insecure households tizing serving the community over profit. Volun- 50 million teers and entrepreneurs are feeding the hungry.

Los Angeles, CA: Help for immigrants JUAN MARTÍNEZ, 50, who came to the U.S. 25 from Mexico in 1998, worked two full-time jobs to D help support his wife, Elizabeth, and their three E T C sons, ages 17, 15, and eight. He’d work 10 a.m. to E J O

4 p.m., ﬁve days a week, at one restaurant. Then R P he’d go directly to the other, working 4:30 p.m. 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 to 11:30 p.m., six days a week. Most weekdays it 2 2 2 was well past midnight before he’d get home.

At the restaurants he’d do whatever needed to SOURCES: USDA (2000-2019); FEEDING AMERICA (2020-2021)

97 Where hunger WASHINGTON spiked in the U.S. MONTANA When COVID-19 hit, many in the United States already on the verge of food insecu- OREGON rity were plunged into even deeper crisis. IDAHO According to the hunger-relief organization Feeding America, an estimated 45 million WYOMING people may have lacked sufficient access to food in 2020. The pandemic—erasing years of gains in the battle against hunger— NEVADA appears to have caused food insecurity UTAH to rise in nearly every U.S. county. CALIFORNIA COLORADO

Food insecurity is defined by the U.S. Depart- Clark Co., NV ment of Agriculture as a lack of consistent (Las Vegas) access to enough food for a healthy life. 18.3% +6.5% Food-insecurity Change in food- rate projected insecurity rate, for 2020* 2019 to 2020* ARIZONA 29.6% (max.) NEW +8% MEXICO 25% Los Angeles County, CA Percentage 1.6 million food-insecure people 20% +4% point (Highest number for U.S. county) 15% increase +2% 16.2% food insecurity rate (2020*) 10% +1% +5.5% change in rate (2019 to 2020*) 4.2% (min.) No significant change

Maui County, HI Presidio County, TX Highest increase in rate Second highest rate 19.1% +8.8% 29.4% +5.2%

Troubled tourism sector ALASKA AND Projected food insecurity spiked in HAWAII NOT TO SCALE ALASKA HAWAII places that rely heavily on service and tourism industries, such as Hawaii; Las Vegas, NV; and Atlantic City, NJ.

Unequal access People in food-insecure households, 2019 Food insecure Communities of color were at a dis- Native proportionately higher risk of food American 1 in 4 people insecurity well before COVID-19, and the pandemic has exacerbated Black FOOD-INSECURITY RATES BY 1 in 5 RACE OR ETHNICITY ARE NOT long-standing inequities linked to (Non-Hispanic) YET AVAILABLE FOR 2020. factors including discrimination and systemic racism. Of the 25 counties Latino/Hispanic 1 in 6 with the highest projected food- insecurity rates for 2020, 68 percent White 1 in 12 had majority Black, Latino, or Native (Non-Hispanic) American populations—even though only 12 percent of U.S. counties have All people 1 in 9 a majority nonwhite population.

* THE FOOD-INSECURITY RATE FOR 2020 IS PROJECTED BASED ON AN ANNUAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE OF 9.2 PERCENT AND A POVERTY RATE OF 11.1 PERCENT. Oglala Lakota Co., SD Steele County, ND South Dakota disparities Third highest rate Lowest rate Nine of its counties, including 29.3% +1.6% 4.2% +1.3% Oglala Lakota, have majority Native American populations and projected food-insecurity MAINE rates above 20 percent. NORTH DAKOTA VT. N.H. MINNESOTA MASSACHUSETTS WISCONSIN NEW YORK SOUTH RHODE ISLAND DAKOTA MICHIGAN CONNECTICUT

PENNSYLVANIA NEW JERSEY IOWA

NEBRASKA OHIO DEL. Atlantic County, NJ INDIANA ILLINOIS MD. (Atlantic City) D.C. 18.0% +7.4% W. VA. MISSOURI KANSAS VIRGINIA KENTUCKY

NORTH CAROLINA TENNESSEE OKLAHOMA SOUTH ARKANSAS CAROLINA Harlan County, KY MISS. ALABAMA GEORGIA Fourth highest rate 29.1% +2.5%

Appalachian hardship TEXAS Seven of the 15 most food- insecure counties have a LOUISIANA majority white, non-Hispanic population. All seven of the Holmes County, MS counties are in Kentucky. Highest rate FLORIDA 29.6% +3.4%

PROJECTED FOOD-INSECURITY Severe southern rates RATES ARE UNAVAILABLE FOR Southern states historically have had PUERTO RICO AND OTHER U.S. TERRITORIES. FEEDING AMERICA high levels of hunger. Mississippi, Arkansas, ESTIMATES THAT FOOD-INSECURITY Alabama, and Louisiana had the highest RATES IN 2020 WERE LIKELY HIGHER IN PUERTO RICO THAN ELSEWHERE rates of food insecurity in 2019 and 2020. IN THE UNITED STATES.

Drivers of insecurity Unemployment Poverty Food Insecurity U.S. average annual rates (percent) 13.9 Unemployment and poverty have 12.9 a substantial effect on the risk of 12.0 11.1 household hunger. One job loss or 10.5 10.9 one health-care bill can drive a family 9.2 with low income into poverty and make groceries unaffordable. At the 6.7 start of the pandemic, four in 10 people

visiting food banks were there for the D D D 3.7 E E E T T T

first time. Food insecurity is expected C C C E E E to decline in 2021—and rates could drop J J J O O O R R R

even further than expected if economic P P P

conditions continue to improve—but 9 0 1 9 0 1 9 0 1 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 a slow recovery is likely. 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

RILEY D. CHAMPINE AND IRENE BERMAN-VAPORIS, NGM STAFF. SOURCES: MONICA HAKE, EMILY ENGELHARD, AND ZUANI VILLARREAL, FEEDING AMERICA; “HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN THE UNITED STATES IN 2019,” USDA 99 100 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DETROIT, Mich. Community kitchen solutions LEFT Chef Ederique Goudia stands in the kitchen at the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church. Goudia uses rescued food donated to the Make Food Not Waste organization to create healthy meals each week for local community members.

RIGHT The Detroit Commu- nity Fridge on the city’s east side was founded by two Wayne State University students in August 2020 and gives people access to free fresh and frozen foods and other nec- essary supplies such as diapers, feminine products, and clothes. Additional fridges are planned across Detroit this year. SYLVIA JARRUS 102 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Queens, N.Y. Many helping hands On Tuesday mornings, CENTI Queens, a church and community organization, passes out free groceries to those in need. Volunteers create an assembly line for food distribution as the trucks arrive. Many people who pick up groceries say they lost jobs because of COVID-19 and are struggling to feed their families. People start lining up at about 9 a.m., and the food is distributed around noon. NATALIE KEYSSAR

The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, funded Natalie Keyssar’s storytelling about faith in the American South in 2020-21.

ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY be done: wash dishes, take food to tables, do 30 eggs, six pounds of beans, six pounds of rice, a janitorial work. variety of fruits and vegetables, and tortillas made When the pandemic hit and closed both from organic, non-genetically modified corn from restaurants, he went from working up to 70 a local company called Kernel of Truth Organics. hours a week to none. The pandemic has been “It’s a huge, huge help. It feeds me and my especially devastating to undocumented work- family,” says Martínez. “I can’t imagine what life ers such as Martínez because although they pay would be like without this program.” taxes, they were ineligible for stimulus checks, Not everyone celebrates No Us Without You food stamps, and unemployment compensa- LA. Nolasco says the nonprofit group occasion- tion. Martínez doesn’t know how he’d have fed ally gets hate emails or calls from people opposed his family without No Us Without You LA. The to undocumented workers getting assistance. initiative was launched in March 2020, when Such backlash pains the group and those it helps. the nation’s economy came to a screeching halt, Merced Sánchez, a 59-year-old licensed street closing restaurants nationwide and leaving mil- vendor who came to the U.S. from Mexico in lions without work. 2001, calls the volunteers “professional servants “No Us Without You LA was born out of frus- for the community.” She and her husband, José, tration and anger,” co-founder Othón Nolasco both worked two jobs before the pandemic. says. When the pandemic hit, he and his busi- “We work hard. The majority pay taxes and ness partner, Damián Diaz, watched as people don’t commit crimes. Still, we are all labeled as reached out to help chefs, waitstaff, and other criminals and dirty people. We are not bad peo- visible faces of the restaurant industry. They saw ple,” Sánchez says. nothing being done for dishwashers, cleaning crews, and others often described as the back- bone of the restaurant business. Many of those Houston, TX: ‘Meals with dignity’ workers in Los Angeles are undocumented, they WHEN THE PANDEMIC shut down restau- say, and therefore not eligible for federal aid. rants in Texas, chef Chris Williams pivoted from Nolasco and Diaz know the importance of the serving customers at his popular Houston restau- less visible workers because they started their rant to serving the community in a city that led careers as dishwashers themselves, learning the the state in COVID-19 infections and deaths. business from the back to the front of the house, Initially he and the team at Lucille’s, well and eventually starting a restaurant- and bar- known for its southern cuisine spiced with consulting business, Va’La Hospitality. international flavor, served frontline workers, “Both Damián and I began our illustrious focusing on sometimes overlooked night shift careers as dishwashers,” Nolasco says. “We ran workers. Lucille’s served 3,000 meals in the first food, bused tables, and expedited orders as 20 days of the pandemic. Then Williams thought young college-age kids. This is where our deep of another group he feared was being over- respect for back-of-house staff comes from.” looked: senior citizens living in nursing homes After 14- to 16-hour days running a bar, the only in impoverished, mostly Black communities. time they got to sit down for a decent meal was “They’ve been uniquely affected; cut off from at the end of the day after closing, when the crew their families. Their families can’t come check prepared a plate for them to share a “family meal.” on them,” Williams says. And he suspected the “Very simple dishes often made with the meals they were receiving weren’t prepared with lesser cuts or scraps of what’s left over from the the care and consideration he knew he could day’s prep, the meals were definitely made with provide. His goal, he says, was to offer “nutri- lots of love,” Nolasco says. tious, delicious meals that they will be excited Initially the pair used their own money to feed about. You know, meals with dignity.” 10 families they know. They soon were buying With assistance from World Central more food and feeding more families, aided by Kitchen—chef José Andrés’s NGO dedicated to donations as word spread of their efforts. Now provid ing meals in the wake of natural disasters— No Us Without You LA is a nonprofit organiza- Williams’s efforts grew into a nonprofit he tion that feeds over 1,600 families a week. named Lucille’s 1913. It honors Williams’s great- Each family gets a 100-pound box of food grandmother Lucille B. Smith, a pioneering weekly. Generally it contains a gallon of milk, entrepreneur in Fort Worth. In 1913 she started a catering company that served the likes of Mar- tin Luther King, Jr., and boxing champion Joe Louis. She used some profits from her business to push for better living conditions for African Americans in Texas. Williams says Smith’s spirit guides him. “The roots of her business are the exact same for this,” he says. “She saw a definitive need in our community … and she knew that she was uniquely It’s not just positioned to make a difference in the community through the medium of food.” about handing Lucille’s 1913 now serves daily meals to up to 800 seniors, plus 150 students and 28 teachers out food boxes: and administrators at a school adjoining the nonprofit’s kitchen. But the mission of Lucille’s Attacking food 1913 extends far beyond giving out meals. Williams says he grew up with plenty but insecurity had friends who had very little on their kitchen tables. He sees lots of check-cashing stores and also means fast-food restaurants, but few markets with a variety of fresh produce. reducing waste So he’s tackling the issue of food security from the ground up. Besides preparing meals, and promoting Lucille’s 1913 will take stewardship of 74 acres in two Houston-area counties, Harris and Fort nutritious Bend. The land will be used for growing fresh produce and providing employment opportu- foods. nities through the culinary arts. Williams also plans to open two markets in those areas to sell produce and locally made products. People hired from those neighborhoods will learn farming or entrepreneurial skills while helping to feed peo- Responding to the pandemic ple in their communities. The amount of food distributed last year by Feeding America could provide every U.S. resident with three meals a day for more than six Detroit, MI: Feed people, reduce waste days. Its food banks served 44 percent FROM THE BACK LOT of Jefferson Avenue more meals in 2020 than in 2019. Presbyterian Church you see both Indian Vil- Meals distributed by lage, an upscale community of stately mansions Feeding America directly behind the historic structure, and—one 6 billion block over—a poorer community of vacant lots and modest homes that have seen better days.

People line up for food, but not just boxes of 4 canned goods and produce as is typical at many food giveaways. They get free meals, enough to feed a family of four to six, prepared in the 2 church kitchen that is called the Upcycling Kitchen because the chefs turn food that otherwise would be garbage into gourmet cuisine. The meals are an initiative of the nonprofit 0 10 15 2 0 0 0 Make Food Not Waste, an organization ded- 2 2 2 icated to improving the climate and the city’s food security by reducing food waste. By showing SOURCE: FEEDING AMERICA

105

st. paul, Minn. Aid for those in homeless camps Michelle Vue carries bags of food, delivered by volunteers from the nonprofit organization Involve MN, back to the forest encampment where she, her partner, and others live in St. Paul. Vue moved to Minnesota from Mississippi in February 2020 and stayed with a friend in Minneapolis until he was evicted from his home in July. Vue and others in the camp are ethnic Hmong and have endured racist abuse from people who fear they’ll spread COVID-19. DAVID GUTTENFELDER

The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, has funded Explorer David Guttenfelder’s storytelling about the human condition since 2014.

ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY

AMERICA’S HUNGER CRISIS 107 st. paul, Minn. A volunteer with encampments scat- Involve MN distributes tered throughout the Thanksgiving meals Twin Cities area. The Surviving at a homeless encamp- pandemic added more ment in St. Paul. The than 100,000 food- group was started in insecure people in the in tent city 2019 by Grant Snyder, state in 2020. a Minneapolis police The Minnesota officer, and his wife, Central Kitchen, an ini- Melanie, to serve the tiative of the Second homeless and vulnera- Harvest Heartland ble. Minnesota, which hunger-relief network, boasts 16 Fortune provides free meals at 500 companies, has more than 50 sites in dozens of homeless the Twin Cities metro people what can be done with the rescued food it receives, the group began an effort that it believes can save people money and help save the planet. Attacking food insecurity means more than giving away boxes; it requires systemic changes, says chef Phil Jones, a force behind Make Food Not Waste. “There’s so much more good that can be done for people and the planet,” says Jones, who also started a company called Farmacy Food. It offers freshly prepared, appealing, and nutritious dishes at low cost. Its goal is to show people, especially those living in low-income neighborhoods, that you can get fast food that’s good for your budget and your belly. Make Food Not Waste gets surplus food from grocers, vendors, and other local businesses. Meals are prepared weekly for about a thousand area residents. The group also hopes to teach them more about improving health one forkful at a time. “We’re encouraging people to try new flavors and eat more fruits and vegetables,” says Danielle Todd, founder and executive director of Make Food Not Waste. “You can get cheap food, something just to fill the body up, but it doesn’t fuel the body with the right things.” The Upcycling Kitchen aligns with her upbringing in New Orleans, Louisiana, chef Ederique Goudia says. “We were raised to treat everyone like family. This is a way I can use my skills, and do it in a way that’s dignified. Driving up for a meal is like picking up catering from your favorite chef or restaurant.” The arrangement also challenges the chefs to be creative, because they never know what ingredients they’ll have to make culinary magic. “It’s fun to see what I get, then think about what can I create,” Goudia says. “The other day I got a huge amount of broccoli and created broccoli pesto over spaghetti, so people got to see broccoli prepared in a way that if you tasted it, you wouldn’t even know it was broccoli.” Marvin Dixon, 52, a single father with two region. Through partnerships with MCK, teenagers, says the food has been a blessing. He furloughed chefs are lives off Social Security because of an injury, but paid to make meals for gets enough aid only for himself since he doesn’t the hungry. The organization has served have legal custody of his children, though they 1.5 million meals since live with him. “The food from the church helps March 2020. Eleven tremendously,” he says. “I don’t have to buy kitchens and catering companies participate extra food with the little money I do have. And, in the program, which you know, these teenagers, they can eat.” j has saved 200 jobs and rescued 1.6 million Cassandra Spratling, a Detroit Free Press veteran, pounds of surplus food. has written for National Geographic about family DAVID GUTTENFELDER issues and the toll COVID-19 has taken on Detroit.

AMERICA’S HUNGER CRISIS 109 ON THE KALAHARI’S PARCHED LANDSCAPE,

rising heat AND crippling droughts

COULD THREATEN A DELICATE balance of life.

The Edge of Sur BY LEONIE JOUBERT PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOMAS P. PESCHAK vival

111 Massive bird nests made by sociable weavers in camel thorn trees may be decades old, sheltering generations through the Kalahari’s extremes. Hungry Cape cobras and boomslange often enter the cham- bered nests looking for chicks to eat.

PREVIOUS PHOTO For meerkats —a kind of mongoose—survival is a group effort. Sentries scan for dan- ger, and lower-ranked adults, mostly females, feed and mind the senior female’s pups. It’s not clear how climate change will affect meerkats here, but hotter, drier summers may reduce their numbers.

In Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa’s largest private reserve, lions in one section keep giraffes and grazing animals such as antelope moving. This eases strain on grasses, which in times of more heat and less rain could give way to inhospitable thorny thickets.

Researchers Wendy Panaino (at left) and Valery Phakoago search a hole dug by an aardvark to analyze the nutritional value of the insects these shy, nocturnal animals eat. Understanding the Kalahari’s food chain helps Tswalu’s managers find the sweet spot for the number of animals the reserve can support.

Twin silhouettes are motionless in the night. Above, a silver-veiled moon hints of a sky. Below, Earth is a darkened disk. SOUND GIVES THE NIGHT DEPTH: Common barking geckos rattle like castanets in reced- ing waves into the shadows. The two women have been seated on a shallow dune for hours in hushed anticipation. One unfolds her legs, stretches, crosses them at the ankles. The other rocks, as if uttering a prayer mantra, limber- ing her muscles. Their radio-tracking gear drew them at sunset to this spot in the south- The National ern part of the Kalahari, which has long been Geographic Society, called a desert but has characteristics of a dry committed to illuminating and protecting savanna ecosystem. the wonder of our world, Somewhere below them in a warren of bur- has funded Explorer rows is a ground pangolin they’ve been moni- Thomas P. Peschak’s storytelling around toring for two months. She’s late to rouse—it’s biodiversity since 2017. 10 p.m.—which might have something to do ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY

116 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC with the day’s withering heat. of the interconnectedness of living things in the For the purpose of recordkeeping, she’s called dry African savanna, all of which starts with the Hopewell 3, after the place where local trackers summer rains, usually from November to March. first found her and doctoral researchers Wendy Their research, through the University of the Panaino, 28, and Valery Phakoago, 30, tracked Witwatersrand’s Wildlife Conservation Physi- her by following her spoor in the sand. Now ology lab in Johannesburg, is part of a bigger they follow her by reading the bleep-bleep- study called the Kalahari Endangered Ecosys- bleep of radio waves sent by a device fixed to a tem Project (KEEP) that aims to understand scale on her rump. how climate disruptions will tug on the delicate Tonight the researchers are on a quest for fabric of life here. pangolin dung—“Kalahari gold,” they call it— This part of the Kalahari is already red-flagged the source of a trove of information about how as a climate hot spot. Modeling by climate sci- this shy, ant- and termite-eating animal’s life entists at the University of Cape Town suggests is interwoven with grasses and the tiny insects that within a decade, when the global tempera- that reap their seeds and eat them. It’s another ture could exceed the rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius important thread in scientists’ understanding (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) that the UN’s Paris

THE EDGE OF SURVIVAL 117 AFRICA

NAMIBIA KALAHARI DESERT BOTSWANA SOUTH AFRICA

Agreement seeks to avoid, average temperatures in Botswana—just north of Hopewell 3’s foraging grounds—will already have warmed by nearly four degrees F. Beyond 5.4 degrees F in average warming globally, which would mean 7.6 degrees F here, the science points to system collapse for the Kalahari. A recent study of the pangolin’s termite- eating dune neighbor, the aardvark, during a drought in the summer of 2012-13, gives dis- tressing clues as to what climate change could mean for life here: If the rains fail, a cascade of disasters may unfold, starting with the withering of the grasses, a crash in numbers of ants and termites that feed on them, and hunger— or starvation—for anything that depends on about the secretive lives of creatures out here those insects for nourishment. If the failure of on the dunes will give conservation managers the annual greening means disaster for these emergency signals to help them better protect two insect-eaters during a drought spell, what this vestige of the Kalahari. would a longer-term system collapse driven by searing temperatures and crippling droughts mean for the many different threads of life that are entangled in a food chain that draws vitality OPEWELL 3 is the third pangolin found for from the grasses? the study on what was formerly Hopewell The Kalahari is the world’s largest expanse of Farm, one of 50 reclaimed cattle ranches unbroken sand, a rolling ocean of windblown that have been absorbed into Tswalu Kala- dunes across Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, H hari Reserve, established nearly 30 years and beyond that are topped with savanna, a ago. At 294,000 acres, Tswalu is South Africa’s mostly grassy landscape dotted with occasional largest private game reserve, a remnant of the trees. Here on the region’s southern edge, air once wild Kalahari that has been carved up by currents have swept up a series of north-south– farms, roads, and iron ore and manganese mines. running dunes lapping against the flanks of Aside from its luxury private lodgings for bare, quartzite hills that rise like whalebacks game-watchers, the reserve hosts the KEEP from the deep. research hub, managed by the Tswalu Founda- Decades of farming have thrown the region tion, which connects the work of scientists inter- into disarray, and now it seems that the freight- ested in semiarid ecologies. Their efforts focus train effects of planetary heating are bearing on a central question: How will this hot, dry down too. What Panaino and Phakoago learn place respond to rising (Continued on page 130)

118 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NGM MAPS LEFT Homebuilders enable collective survival in the harsh Kalahari. Sociable weavers share their nests with African pygmy falcons, skinks, and foraging snakes. Aardvarks are prolific burrowers that excavate underground chambers also used by jackals, porcupines, wild cats, warthogs, ground squirrels, and swallows, among others.

BELOW How to revive a snake: After a surgical pro- cedure to implant a tracking device in this Cape cobra, veter- inarian Jessica Briner delivers a puff of carbon dioxide to flush its lungs of anes- thetic and restore normal breathing.

THE EDGE OF SURVIVAL 119

In spring 2020 a clan of A years-long drought spotted hyenas arrives broke in late 2020, at Tswalu. Reintroduc- turning Tswalu’s other- ing predators is key to wise ruddy dunes (seen keeping this managed here) green and lush wilderness in balance. (opposite). The Kala- Established in the 1990s, hari is already warming the reserve is a remnant at a much faster rate island of the natural than the global aver- Kalahari, which has been age, and many climate carved up by farms, models also project roads, and iron ore and drier conditions, manganese mines. especially in summer. PROTECTIVE SPACE SURVIVING THE STRESSORS Camel thorn trees provide relief from the sun. Under- Some animals seek refuge to insulate themselves ground tunnels teem with mammals, reptiles, and insects against temperature swings. Others endure through 1 evading the heat of the day and chill of the night. physical adaptations such as improved fluid retention. STAYING STABLE Large volumes of air cool Muscles blood vessels between pump air the mouth and lungs, into the through evaporation. The mouth Weaver colonies, Sociable weaver Ostrich skin also releases heat. with as many Philetairus socius Struthio camelus Heat exchange Air sac as 250 nesting Older or breeding birds com- Woven Ostriches can maintain a stable with blood near skin chambers, can mandeer the most interior, 2 grass internal body temperature of 102°F vessels last 100 years. insulated chambers of these for hours, even when the ambient Heat temperature- controlling nests. temperature rises over 120°F. 91° Skin 4 Lung

Continuous Chamber one-way airflow 3 94° through the air sacs and lungs

Membrane Air sac 99°F For digging, Exterior Nest meerkats have temperature entrance membranes that protect their eyes, They stand with ears that close their bellies facing Wildebeest tight, and four- the sun to absorb fingered claws. morning heat.

African pygmy falcon Polihierax semitorquatus Strong back Chicks find These birds occupy the weaver muscles and cooling shade nests’ shallower, outer cham- a tail make under adults. bers, where they also prey on a tripod for weaver chicks and lizards. standing sen- try and vertical sunbathing.

Cooler under Exterior the tail 113°

Kalahari lion

102°

Without much standing water to drink, animals in the region mainly rely on food to prevent dehydration.

Vegetation Fruit Insects Animals Need to Every few Whenever drink water: months available 77° Shelter aboveground Belowground Temperature Extra molars Meerkat Bat-eared fox Cape ground squirrel Suricata suricatta Otocyon megalotis Xerus inauris Borrowing ground squirrel bur- This insectivore has specialized A large, fluffy tail works as rows to beat the heat, meerkats muscles for efficient chewing a parasol, allowing squirrels emerge to get food in the and ears that can pinpoint under- more time to find cucumbers, Adapting to extremes morning and late afternoon. ground prey such as termites. seeds, and other sustenance.

WET DRY A Climate regions A The sandy soils of the southern Kalahari hold only trace 99° TOO HOT FOR A HABITAT? I C I C SEASON 89° SEASON The Kalahari is expected to get R Arid Desert R amounts of water and nutrients that can support life. 83° F F Animals living in this harsh environment—which sees Future 76° hotter, and possibly drier, by A KALAHARI Steppe A KALAHARI 73° 2100. More frequent extreme DESERT Temperate No dry season DESERT Present 67° extreme daily temperature swings—have adapted heat could make it too hot for Dry winter 55° Present Future to the demands on their bodies in resourceful ways. ANNUAL AVG. many animals and plants. Dry summer HIGHS AND LOWS 47° (1980–2016) Tropical (2071–2100) DATA ARE RCP 8.5 WORST-CASE- Savanna SCENARIO ASSUMPTIONS. KÖPPEN-GEIGER CLIMATE REGIONS SHOWN AT RIGHT. C u it ANGOLA ZAMBIA Cubango o mb O Za ezi ka NIGHT ACTIVITY v g The heat stress and water loss animals experience during AFRICo Awetland 15 rainy season in ZIMBABWE the day from evaporation are lessened after dark. But nights n i 0 average are cold—and filled with predators—as they forage. Etosha 1 O kavango Pan rainfall 5 D e l ta

in ACACIA WOODLANDS 15 in ECOREGION Maun Dry open woodland Brown hyena Gemsbok 15 in K Makgadikgadi Hyaena brunnea Oryx gazella 15 in Pans These scavengers with bone- Gemsbok can regulate their brain A crushing jaws chew on moist temperature to reduce evaporative NAMIBIA Ghanzi tsama melons—up to 18 a night— water loss and can reabsorb liquid L BOTSWANA intermittent river to get enough water to survive. waste in their kidneys and colon. N A Sweeping sands Gobabis The Kalahari includes 10 Serowe a Windhoek H Earth’s largest contin- in uous body of sandy

m A soils, arenosols, which 5 in po KEEPING A COOL HEAD barely sustain life. po TROPIC OF CAPRICORN im R L 1 When temperatures i S tampriet Verreaux’s peak, nasal mucus cools I eagle owl a gemsbok’s blood as it b Molepolole Aquifer XERIC SAVANNA ECOREGION inhales air. Mariental Extremely dry natural grassland one 15 in The blood continues A D Gabor 2 u o N to the cavernous sinus, D b o s 1 where it cools a web of s E M 5 in o b o blood vessels going from lo e Scarce water po Tshabong S the brain to the heart. Other than what’s sandy soil s belowground, the only 3 Valves in blood ves- E sels leading to the natural water sources e in the Kalahari are 15 in brain can switch off Cavernous R the cooling process. seasonally flooded Brain sinus r pans, also known as TSWALU KALAHARI n T i al ephemeral lakes. NATURE RESERVE Va 5 2 t SOUTH AFRICA Upington 10 Augrabies in Nasal Falls Kimberley O 5 range mucosa rainy season in Bloemfontein 3 average rainfall Maseru 1 LESOTHO

Facial vein

PARCHED EXPANSE 10,500 3,200 Snouted Shutoff feet meters harvester valve Carotid The unforgiving landscape of the semiarid Kalahari plateau is termite artery 5,250 1,600 a unique and varied combina- tion of dry eco-regions, sandy Dry Humid Feces soils, and rainfall patterns. Sea level Percent water 75 mi Small 75 km teeth 75% Cape Town

Wide flat 50% Cape of Good Hope tongue Human Gemsbok s lha Agu Aardwolf Cape Proteles cristata Data shown Licking up termites on the sand, the As they produce waste, Average inches on the map aardwolf swallows without chewing. gemsbok can reabsorb per month 3 in Stomach acid breaks down toxins in 25 percent more water the termites; sand is passed in feces. than humans can.

November DJFMAMJJASOctober WET SEASON DRY SEASON FERNANDO G. BAPTISTA, MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK, CHRISTINA SHINTANI, IRENE BERMAN-VAPORIS, RELIABLE GROUNDWATER AND EVE CONANT, NGM STAFF; PATRICIA HEALY; SHIZUKA AOKI; MICHAEL STANFEL SOURCES: ANTHONY LOWNEY, U. OF CAPE TOWN; W. MAARTIN STRAUSS, U. OF SOUTH AFRICA; The wet season brings a scattering Sand, gravel, Groundwater stored in aquifers and calcrete ANDREA FULLER, U. OF THE WITWATERSRAND; JAN KAMLER, U. OF OXFORD; J.N. MAINA, U. OF of short-lived storms, with an aver- Water is a vital resource. Dampened 200 ft JOHANNESBURG; HALEY O’BRIEN, OKLAHOMA STATE U.; MARTA MANSER, U. OF ZURICH; RITA age yearly rainfall of 13.7 inches. soils above bring water within COVAS, U. OF PORTO; ANDREW MCKECHNIE, U. OF PRETORIA; COLLEEN SEYMOUR, SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY INSTITUTE (SANBI); CALLUM MUNDAY, DAVID THOMAS, AND GILES The water seeps quickly through reach of tree taproots that WIGGS, U. OF OXFORD; ABI STONE, MANCHESTER U.; FRANK ECKHART, U. OF CAPE TOWN; HYLKE the sand to deep aquifers. lift the water back up. BECK, PRINCETON CLIMATE ANALYTICS, INC; TIM MCVICAR, CSIRO LAND AND WATER; ECOREGION SNAPSHOTS, RESOLVE; ESDAC; CHIRPS; ORASECOM; KNMI CLIMATE EXPLORER; NASA Aquifer Emerging from their burrows after dark, ground pangolins will each eat about 15,000 ants and termites in a night—5.5 million in a year. Insect abundance depends on healthy grasses, the thread that binds life on these nutrient-poor sands. Without summer rains, the greening will fail. temperatures and more frequent and intense droughts if, as predicted, atmospheric carbon dioxide pollution keeps heating the planet? Answering that question will be key to how the reserve’s managers balance the abundance of the grasses with the appetites of the creatures that depend on them, from grazing insects and their pangolin predators to the roaming antelope herds and the carnivores that chase them down. When Hopewell 3 surfaces, she’ll announce herself with sound. Eventually, they hear it— even over the clicking of geckos—the scritch- scratch of bony grass rasping against the pangolin’s scales. Panaino and Phakoago glide to their feet, their headlamps casting a stage light into which Hopewell 3 sways, floating over the dune like a hunched clockwork toy in a suit of armor. Her shield of articulated plates starts with a widow’s peak over the bridge of her nose and flares out across her shoulders. It flows down her domed back and tapers across a broad plank of tail. The hem has a jagged edge. If startled, she’ll snap into a ball so tight that even a lion would struggle to pry her open. But Hopewell 3 is unfazed. She totters across the dune on stout hind legs, her feet press- ing blunt marks in the sand. Her forelegs are tucked demurely into her chest, like a mantis in prayer, touching the ground only when she tips off kilter. A button eye glints above a conical snout that nutrition and water she needs to survive in this nods this way and that, reading the ground. parched dunescape. Olfactory wizardry leads her to tonight’s first Satisfied with her first feeding, Hopewell 3 course: cocktail ants, as they’re commonly toddles off in search of her next course. The called. She claws at the bole of a runty gray humans follow behind, hoping for gold. camel thorn, pulling the cap from a nest hidden in the bark, releasing a rivulet of ants flowing up the trunk. She plunges headfirst into the stream, face CTOBER IN THE SOUTHERN KALAHARI is hidden as her sticky ribbon-tongue laps up din- anguished and liminal, poised for rains ner. It’s impossible to know how many ants she to break the fast. The dry winter of 2020 eats with each mouthful, but after five years of has drawn to a close, and the grasses that sifting through the digested remains of meals O anchor the dunes are as brittle as fine fos- like this, Panaino knows that less than a third sils. Winter has taken its usual toll. The dunes of what the pangolin takes in tonight will be are also threadbare after intermittent droughts insects. The rest will be dune sand. Panaino and decades of gleaning by cattle and, more also knows that Hopewell 3’s preferred foods recently, game such as antelope, zebras, wilde- are cocktail ants, pugnacious ants, and snouted beests, and buffalo. harvester termites. Forecasts hint that this summer’s rains may be Panaino has calculated that on average the good. A La Niña has been brewing half a planet pangolin will eat about 15,000 of the rice-grain- away in the Pacific Ocean. This cyclical ocean- size insects each night, supplying most of the atmosphere dance usually conjures rain for parts

130 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LEFT When summer thun- derstorms roll in across the Kalahari, their soaking rains bring an explosion of life, including insects such as armored katydids. Grass and insects are vital links in the food chain that nourishes Tswalu’s animals and stabilizes the dunes against the push-pull of the wind.

BELOW After this meerkat shakes off the katydid, the insect may end up as its snack. Meer- kat pups don’t gain weight as quickly in hotter weather, possibly, researchers say, because the insects they eat contain less water. Meerkat pups may lose water and energy as they battle to regulate their body temperature.

THE EDGE OF SURVIVAL 131 A long exposure shows flight trails across a night sky flashing with lightning. Scientists have counted 221 species of moths in Tswalu. Some take flight after rains soften the soil, releasing adults from buried cocoons. The reserve also has 77 species of butterflies, about 10 of which fly through the reserve every year, a journey dubbed the Kgalagadi butterfly migration.

Grass, fed by rain, makes life possible in this nutrient-scant ocean of sand. But climate change is likely to shorten the rainy season.

of southern Africa. It’s the yin to the El Niño’s paths, corralling the remaining wild herds into parching yang, and Tswalu is gasping for it. reserves like this one. On an artist’s swatch, the color of the sand Conditions are changing further still. During might show as pumpkin or carrot, tinting into the past half century, temperatures in parts of apricot when the sun’s low on the horizon. But southern Africa have risen at twice the rate of life here doesn’t have the effortless fecundity the global average. of an orchard. Rust doesn’t describe its partic- According to the South African Weather Ser- ular hue either, even though it’s mixed from a vice, 2015, 2016, and 2019 were the hottest years palette of ground-down quartzites stained by on record since at least 1950. In January 2016, oxidized iron. thermometers at Augrabies Falls, about 150 Grass is the golden thread that makes life miles southwest of Tswalu, registered more than possible in this nutrient-scant ocean of sand. 119°F. That’s “amongst the highest temperatures It tethers the dunes against the winds’ pull. It ever recorded so high above sea level in the soaks fickle moisture from the soil and dams it Southern Hemisphere,” says Stefaan Conradie, in its cells, to quench the thirst of ants and ter- a doctoral researcher with the Climate System mites; their subterranean homes are larders for Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town, pangolins and aardvarks but also insect-eating and “the second highest reliably measured tem- bat-eared foxes and aardwolves. perature in southern Africa.” Without climate Grass is the wattle and daub for the Kala- change, the 2015-16 heat wave would have been hari’s aerial architects—the sociable weaver- about a 1-in-10,000-year event, he says, citing birds, whose decades-old nesting chambers recent analysis. are stitched from grass blades. These high-rise How temperature increases will disrupt rain- tenements give shelter to generations of weavers fall is difficult to predict, but in this part of the and also draw in African pygmy falcons as ten- continent, the summer rainy season is likely ants. Their avian residents entice hungry Cape to start later and be shorter. When rainstorms cobras and boomslange whose lithe forms loop occur, they may be more intense, dropping among the chambers like strings in a chande- greater volumes of water over shorter periods, lier. Grass is fodder for the grazing ungulates which could result in surface flooding. There that themselves are food for lions, cheetahs, could be longer dry spells between storms. leopards, wild dogs, and other predators of the What could this mean for the tenuous web of African savanna. animals and plants in the southern Kalahari? Rebirth in Tswalu starts with the rain-fed flush What would happen if the summer rains failed of grass. Thundershowers deliver an average of repeatedly, if drought conditions were more fre- about 13 inches a year, and they’re notoriously quent, if the summertime greening didn’t come capricious. In some years, rain gauges might reg- on time? What would it mean for the ants and ister fewer than seven inches; in others, nearly termites that fill up their underground larders double the average. In times past, game animals with seeds and grasses each summer? responded to the boom-and-bust greening by And if the numbers of those insects fell dras- traveling across great distances, often tracking tically, what would happen to the pangolins, the rain clouds, knowing that they would lead already threatened with poaching in many them to grazing bonanzas. But decades of cat- parts of southern Africa, and the other ant- tle ranching slung fence lines across migratory eating mammals?

134 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HE AARDVARK looks as if it has trotted Tswalu limped into the next winter with poorly right out of a nonsense verse: the snout stocked pantries. of a pig, the ears of an ass, an improbably While following her study aardvarks and long face in between. It has the skin of a decrypting their scat, Weyer noted a dramatic T balding man and whiskers like the eye- reduction in grasses, which she knew would lead lashes of a drag artist, but only on the lower lids. to a decline in harvester termites. By summer’s Aardvark means “earth pig” in Afrikaans, and end, the aardvarks were wasting away, their they’re earthmoving machines. Shovel-shaped spines and hip bones straining against drum- claws on taloned feet allow an aardvark to jack- tight hides. These normally nocturnal animals hammer through baked soil crust, opening up started leaving their burrows during the day, the ground for burrow-building or to break into sometimes even before noon, in search of food rooms stuffed with bugs. to make up for their hungry nights. A host of other animals—jackals, Cape cobras, The implants indicated that the animals’ body puff adders, pythons, ground squirrels, mice, temperature swung wildly in 24-hour periods, wild cats, warthogs, swallows, chats—use the compared with more stable body temperatures underground dwellings that aardvarks hol- when their food supply was reliable and their low out in a sort of time-share arrangement to energy levels good. This suggested that they endure the Kalahari’s extremes. weren’t getting enough energy to stay warm at Nora Weyer, also with the Witwatersrand night, and they seemed to compensate by using physiology lab at the time, tracked aardvarks the daylight hours to bask and warm up. in Tswalu from the winter of 2012 to the spring But this immediate emergency adaptation of 2015 for her doctoral work. She used small didn’t see many of Weyer’s aardvarks through traps sunk into the ground to collect ants and to the next rainy season. Of the six animals looked for telltale conical soil heaps left by ter- equipped with trackers in the study in 2012, five mites in the area to measure their abundance. died in 2013. Weyer saw the bodies of many other She collected their scat to find out what insects dead aardvarks in the veld, and survivors looked they ate, and how many, and found that har- listless, dazed, and gaunt. The message from this vester termites account for about 90 percent of drought year was clear: If the rains fail, even for an aardvark’s water and energy needs. She also a single summer, the fabric that keeps grasses, monitored temperature-logging implants in ants, termites, and insect-eating animals woven the aardvarks to determine if the animals were together for survival may start to unravel. getting enough energy to keep warm through the chilly Kalahari nights, when daily minimum temperatures can dip to about 65°F in summer and even nudge below freezing in winter. FTER HOPEWELL 3 has supped on her In typical years, when the summer rains first helping of cocktail ants, she follows arrive with their usual sound-and-light show, a meandering loop to her regular haunts, the dunes burst to life, with ants and termites moving with an endearing swank and thriving and aardvarks feasting on them. But A swagger. Panaino’s sneakered feet tread in the first summer of Weyer’s study, 2012 into lightly behind her, while Phakoago slips away 2013, no rain fell during the hottest months. to scan for signs of buried dung. The overall season was well below average, and About an hour later, the pangolin pauses, and

What researchers learn about the secretive lives of creatures on the dunes could help conservation managers protect the Kalahari.

135 scoops a slim hollow into the sand. Panaino an improvised ditty about “pango poo.” shimmers with excitement, flashing her light A few days later, Phakoago is back at the to alert Phakoago. research site, with little more than a bucket, jug, Poised over the depression, Hopewell 3 delivers tea strainer, and a take-out food container as her a mound of glistening black scat. Panaino usually lab equipment. avoids interfering with study animals, but if the She weighs dried scat collected two months pangolin drags her tail as she waddles off, this earlier. Then she drops it into the bucket, sloshes Kalahari gold will melt into the sand. Using one a cup or two of water onto the sample to separate finger, Panaino raises the pangolin’s tail a frac- the good stuff from the sand, and swirls the con- tion as she moves, keeping the treasure intact. tainer like a frontier woman panning for gold. For the scientists, it’s hard enough to find an The dung dissolves into a coffee-colored animal as secretive as this, let alone the dung brew with a foam of body parts—mostly ant that might otherwise be lost in the sand. The two and termite heads and a million pinprick women are on their knees, scooping it up with legs— collecting on the surface. She sieves the bare fingers and dropping it into a sample bag. liquid, gathering a heap of what looks like cof- Once they’ve recovered every last fragment, they fee grounds. Later she’ll put a small sample of erupt into a synchronized jig, stage-whispering this under a microscope and count every insect

136 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC comparison between the two animals’ feeding patterns. Based on Panaino’s ﬁndings—that a pangolin eats an average of 15,000 ants and termites a night—she calculates that it eats 5.5 million a year. Add to that the number of ants and termites eaten by one aardvark and one aardwolf in a year, and Panaino estimates the total for all three is about 100 million insects. The number would be far higher if it included the many other animals that also feed on ants and termites, even in part. Sociable weavers, for example, eat mostly plants, but about a tenth of their diet is termites, and the ant-eating chat is as its name suggests.

ATE ONE EVENING, while Panaino and Phakoago scan the radio waves for signs of Hopewell 3 and other nearby study animals, the change comes. Aardvarks—elusive L It starts with iridescent orbs exploding night creatures, like voicelessly on the western horizon. But in less pangolins—excavate than an hour, strobes of lightning play closer on burrows and crack open heat-baked soil the surrounding dunes, followed by the sound of to tap earthen mother a drum mallet drawn across a corrugated tin roof. lodes of termites, The sky begins to shatter. Luminous cracks tear which provide most of their food and through the clouds, skewering nearby hills with water needs. A recent retina-searing blasts. The percussion is a clatter drought showed that of cymbals and a roll of shuddering bass drums. when grasses die and termite numbers crash, A timpani of droplets smacks the ground, aardvarks languish. ephemeral islands of moisture in an ocean of desiccated sand, filling the air with iron- scented mist. The researchers decide to retire for the night—it’s too dangerous to be out on the exposed dunes, and with the elements this volu- head, identifying and tabulating each species. ble, the pangolins are very likely staying inside. The researchers use this laborious technique The crescendo is brief. The space between the to understand the nuances of pangolins’ and veins of light and their accompanying drum- aardvarks’ diets. This knowledge ultimately will beats soon draws further apart and farther away yield a better appreciation for the complexity as the storm hurries off to the east. It is over for of relationships that weave back to the veld and now, but this is how the rains should come. This how it should be managed. is how the greening should begin. The grasses The drought that gripped Tswalu during will send up lush spears, seeds will swell like Weyer’s aardvark study gave her baseline data dewdrops on their tips, and the life that depends for comparing aardvarks’ diet in good and bad on their abundance will feast once more. foraging years and noting their resulting behav- The geckos once again take up their chorus, ior changes. clicking into the night. j Panaino’s study shows what pangolins eat, and how much. Phakoago’s contribution is to exam- South African science writer Leonie Joubert’s ine the dung of both pangolins and aardvarks, books include Scorched, Boiling Point, and The Hungry Season. Frequent contributor collected in the same seasons and under the Thomas P. Peschak photographed the October same conditions, and give an apples-to-apples 2019 story about sea turtles.

THE EDGE OF SURVIVAL 137 INSTAGRAM JULIA WIMMERLIN

FROM OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS

WHO To capture a silhouette against Hong Kong’s skyline A Ukrainian-born, Swiss- at night, Wimmerlin took a friend to Kowloon Peak, a based photographer who subtropical mountain forest that overlooks the city— specializes in animals, portraits, and architecture but they couldn’t ﬁnd a suitable vantage point. The WHERE next day Wimmerlin went back alone and found a Kowloon Peak, a popular steep drop-off that provided a luminous backdrop hiking area in Hong Kong for a model—which she became. For more than two WHAT hours she shuttled between the camera and the slope, A Canon 5D Mark 3 with posing perfectly still for each long exposure. She later a 70-200mm lens returned looking for the exact spot but never found it.

This page showcases images from National Geographic’s Instagram accounts—the most popular brand on Instagram. Join more than 235 million followers: @natgeo, @natgeotravel, @natgeointhefield, @natgeoadventure, @natgeoyourshot.

Subscriptions For subscriptions or changes of ad- Contributions to the National Geographic Society are tax deductible under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. dress, contact Customer Service at ngmservice.com | Copyright © 2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC | All rights reserved. National Geographic and Yellow or call 1-800-647-5463. Outside the U.S. or Canada Border: Registered Trademarks ® Marcas Registradas. National Geographic assumes no responsibility for call +1-515-237-3674. unsolicited materials. Printed in U.S.A. | For corrections and clarifications, go to natgeo.com/corrections.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (ISSN 0027-9358) PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERS, LLC, 1145 17TH ST. NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036. $39 PER YEAR FOR U.S. DELIVERY, $50.00 TO CANADA, $69.00 TO INTERNATIONAL ADDRESSES. SINGLE ISSUE: $8.00 U.S. DELIVERY, $10.00 CANADA, $15.00 INTERNATIONAL. (ALL PRICES IN U.S. FUNDS; INCLUDES SHIPPING AND HANDLING.) PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT WASHINGTON, DC, AND ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, PO BOX 37545, BOONE, IA 50037. IN CANADA, AGREEMENT NUMBER 1000010298, RETURN UNDELIVERABLE ADDRESSES TO NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, PO BOX 819 STN MAIN, MARKHAM, ONTARIO L3P 9Z9. UNITED KINGDOM NEWSSTAND PRICE £6.99. REPR. EN FRANCE: EMD FRANCE SA, BP 1029, 59011 LILLE CEDEX; TEL. 320.300.302; CPPAP 0725U89037; DIRECTEUR PUBLICATION: D. TASSINARI. DIR. RESP. ITALY: RAPP IMD SRL, VIA G. DA VELATE 11, 20162 MILANO; AUT. TRIB. MI 258 26/5/84 POSTE ITALIANE SPA; SPED. ABB. POST. DL 353/2003 (CONV L.27/02/2004 N.46) ART 1 C. 1 DCB MILANO STAMPA. QUAD, MARTINSBURG, WV 25401. SUBSCRIBERS: IF THE POSTAL SERVICE ALERTS US THAT YOUR MAGAZINE IS UNDELIVERABLE, WE HAVE NO FURTHER OBLIGATION UNLESS WE RECEIVE A CORRECTED ADDRESS WITHIN TWO YEARS.

138 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC We make bundling simple. Home + Auto = easy

Bundling your home and car insurance is super easy with GEICO. Not only could it save you money with a special discount, but you’ll also save time by having all your coverages in the same place.

scan the code to learn more! geico.com | 1-800-947-AUTO | Local Offi ce

Some discounts, coverages, payment plans, and features are not available in all states, in all GEICO companies, or in all situations. Homeowners, renters, and condo coverages are written through non-affi liated insurance companies and are secured through the GEICO Insurance Agency, Inc. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, DC 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. GEICO Gecko® image © 1999–2021. © 2021 GEICO 21_580819020 There’s no feeling quite like having the financial security to pursue what’s most meaningful to you. From maintaining monthly income in retirement to protecting you from unexpected long-term care costs, Lincoln Financial solutions can help bring you the security and freedom to live life the way you intended. lfg.com/financialsecurity

LCN-3601178-052021C. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation and insurance company affiliates, including The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, IN, and in New York, Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York, Syracuse, NY. Variable products distributed by broker/dealer-affiliates. Lincoln Financial Distributors, Inc., Radnor, PA. Product guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing company. © 2021 Lincoln National Corporation. WHAT’S ON YOUR BUCKET LIST?

I AVAILABLE WHEREVER BOOKS AND MAPS ARE SOLD