The Earth Story

natgeo

Video by Muhammed Muheisen

@mmuheisen

| This is Scooter the tortoise during feeding time. Scooter developed a musculoskeletal disease that left him paralyzed. Following eight months of intensive treatment, the tortoise, rescued from a zoo in Gaza in 2016, is recovering and moving his limbs at The New Hope Center in Amman, Jordan. The center, established in 2010 by the Princess Alia Foundation @paf.jordan, provides emergency medical treatment, rehabilitation, and re-homing for animals. For more photos and videos from different parts of the world, follow me @mmuheisen and@mmuheisenpublic

The stunningly beautiful Gonarezhou National Park is a little known but incredibly diverse conservation area in the south east of Zimbabwe. It is now jointly managed by the The Frankfurt Zoological Society and The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. Poaching was a problem in the past but it is now largely under control.

chilogorge.com

Note I had permission from the authorities to film with a drone.

oregonzoo Kaya the harbor seal can make friends with anyone—butterflies included 🦋🌊 (📽 by Micah Reese, who happened upon this adorable game of chase in Steller Cove) 

wvtm13 Meet Sorrel! The #precious painting #RedPanda at The #Birmingham #Zoo! Who else loves that she sticks her little tongue out while #painting??

• nypost This rare baby black rhino will melt your heart. ❤️

natgeo Video by @joelsartore | Critically-endangered Kurdistan spotted newts reside in just four severely-fragmented streams in Iran. Though they are currently protected by law in Iran, they are often illegally exported for the international pet trade. Captive breeding now plays a vital role in the continuation of this beautiful species. @ZooWroclaw, where these newts were photographed, is breeding the Kurdistan newt, which creates a chance for its reintroduction back into those four streams in the Zagros Mountains in Iran. Recent studies estimate that there are approximately 1,000 individuals left in nature. A few dozen individuals hatched at the ZOO Wroclaw in 2005, giving even more hope that the species will survive in the long term.

natgeo Video by @joelsartore | The Sumatran rhino is considered one of the rarest mammals in the world. Poaching is rampant for this species and only about 100 are left living within the fragmented rainforests of Southeast Asia. Pictured here is a female Sumatran rhinoceros named Suci at the @CincinnatiZoo. Suci was one of only two in human care in the United States and one of only 10 worldwide. She was born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2007 and, to the devastation of her keepers and many other admirers, she passed away in 2014. Suci served as a critical component in the fight to save rhinos by contributing to research on female sexual maturity through the testing of her fecal matter. Because of this research, ongoing breeding programs will have a better chance of propagating the species. To see a portrait of Suci, follow @joelsartore.

natgeo Video by @TimLaman. Baby orangutans are completely dependent on their mothers for food, safety, and learning how to survive in the rain forest. Orangutan mothers produce a new baby only once every 7 to 8 years, making them the slowest reproducing of all mammals. So every baby is incredibly precious. If you happen to be in the Washington DC area, come here my lecture with orangutan researcher and NatGeo Explorer Cheryl Knott (who happens to also be my wife) on Dec 6 at the @NatGeo Headquarters. Cheryl has been studying wild orangutans in Borneo’s #GunungPalungNationalPark for 25 years, and I have been documenting her work and the orangutans, so we have more than a few interesting experiences to share! See more of my orangutan photography by following me @TimLaman, and follow the link in my profile for details on the lecture.

chesterzoo Muddy little elephants 🐘 

smithsonianzoo 🐣Our kiwi chick at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute is 2 weeks old! She is eating a mixture of meat, fruit and vegetables. Kiwi chick look like adults when they hatch, but are not fully grown until they are about 18 months old. 

natgeo Video by @joelsartore | Meet Gigi, a two-week-old snow monkey at @blankparkzoo. This little girl was born into a small, young troop of snow monkeys. Because her mother didn’t have an older female to learn nursing skills from, Gigi is being hand-raised until she’s old enough to be re-integrated into her troop. No other nonhuman primate lives in a colder or more northern habitat than the snow monkey. Their island homes in Japan are covered in snow for months each year. On chillier days, when their thick fur isn’t enough to keep them comfortable, snow monkeys are often found warming up in natural hot springs.

An Asian millipede at the @stlzoo. This millipede has several hundred tiny legs and grows up to 30 cm long. The majority of animals in existence are invertebrates like this one, meaning they have no spine. In fact, it’s estimated that 97-99% of animals on the planet are invertebrates. To see an up close image of this millipede, check out @joelsartore!