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Can Florida’s gentle manatees rebound—again?

RJ Hamster
SO BIG. SO BELOVED.
SO FRAGILE.
Saturday, December 10, 2022
In today’s newsletter, we cover how die-offs are prompting a new effort to save Florida’s gentle manatees, learn that scientists may have a cure for hot flashes, prepare for a fusion of the flu and RSV … and check out what our photo engineers call the best new compact cameras. Plus, take our latest photo quiz—and enter our photo of the year contest.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON GULLEY

Once, the manatees came back from near extinction. Can they do it again? How can an animal so beloved face so many threats simultaneously?

That’s what photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Erika Larsen kept wondering as she worked to show the gentle grazers of the sea (above, a ribbon of eelgrass in the mouth of a manatee). At dark, from Florida’s Crystal River, she could hear them, “these gusts of breath.”

“We began calling them ‘the sounds of the ancients.’” What’s being done to save them?

See the full story here.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIKA LARSEN
Popular: The presence of manatees seems everywhere in Florida, photographer Larsen says. At left, the Cotton family stops at Blue Spring State Park to see manatees. At right, Torie Arrison shows off her face painting at Crystal River’s Florida Manatee Festival.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON GULLEY
The Fish Bowl: That’s the name of the underwater observatory in a warm natural spring where visitors watch the swimming and ever-eating herbivores—the manatees consume about 100 pounds of food a day. Increased development has reduced seagrass, manatees’ main food, prompting several alarming die-offs. Calves learn from their mothers and other manatees where to go in winter. Read more.
STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING
ILLUSTRATION VIA NORTH WIND PICTURE ARCHIVES, ALAMY
How did an ancient astronomer map stars better than anyone for hundreds of years?(Pictured, Hipparchus doing his thing.)
Scientists have discovered what causes hot flashes—and how to stop them
These American diets could extend your life
What happens if the flu and RSV fuse into a single virus? Now we know.
Why sleep should be near the top of your New Year’s resolutions
After decades of inaction, the FDA is finally poised to ease limits on gay and bisexual men giving blood
How did this tomb become one of the seven wonders of the ancient world?
What archaeologists tells us about the real Jesus
Need a compact camera? Here are the picks from our photo engineering team
Have a great image in your photo library? Join 1,800 entrants so far and send it in for our photo contest!
WHERE IN THE WORLD?
VIDEO BY LUISA DÖRR
Where are these skateboarders? They are rebels with a cause—to promote young women and Indigenous heritage in their nation. They’ve spurred a movement. “We need to feel proud,” says one of the women athletes. Where are they? Click here to find out.
WHERE IN THE WORLD?
OVERHEARD AT NAT GEO
PHOTOGRAPH BY KATIE ORLINSKY

Without them, we don’t get our pictures: Sure, photographers take the images, but an array of people get the photographer to the story—and try to keep them safe. That’s the theme of this story and this week’s Overheard at Nat Geopodcast. Pictured above is Corinne Danner, who brought Nat Geo Explorer Katie Orlinsky aboard as camp cook on an annual spring bowhead whale harvest in Alaska. “It was a privilege and awe-inspiring to spend time with Corrine and her family and to learn about their land and way of life,” Orlinsky told our Mallory Benedict. “None of it would have been possible without her.”
READ MORE
PHOTO OF THE DAY
PHOTOGRAPH BY @VINCENTJMUSI

All in the family: Endangered great apes and chimps are our closest living relatives. Photographer Vincent Musi mentioned that to Viktor (pictured above from our Instagram), a 37-year-old bonobo at the Fort Worth Zoo. (Viktor wasn’t sure to what to make of that, Musi reports.) Viktor and nine other bonobos at the zoo resolve many conflicts with love and affection over hostility. Primatologist Frans de Waal believes that bonobos may have more empathy for one another than humans are capable of.
ABOUT BONOBOS
Today’s soundtrack: “I’m a Manatee,” John Lithgow

This newsletter has been curated and edited by Mallory Benedict, David Beard, Sydney Combs, and Jen Tse. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Alec Egamov, Rita Spinks, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading!
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