How ‘cute’ sea otters escaped extinction

Monday, January 16, 2023

In today’s newsletter, we explore the unlikely escape of sea otters from extinction, find Glasgow’s improbable saint, see snuggling vipers … and share the broadened dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.

PHOTOGRAPH BY RALPH PACE

They are graceful, playful. They hug each other and give each other shoulder rides (above). Can you imagine a world without sea otters?

It almost happened a century ago, after they were overhunted for their fur. But now, the otters are back, delighting tourists, and protectors want to reintroduce them to other parts of their onetime habitat.

Not everyone, however, is on the welcome wagon, Cynthia Gorney discovers.There’s a reason.

Read the full story here.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES

Darth Vader? That’s what the suits are called that humans use while nourishing rescued otters. The suits disguise a rescuer’s shape and smell to prevent the young otters from associating humans with comfort or food once they return to the wild. Read more.

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

PHOTOGRAPH BY PHILOMÈNE JOSEPH

All over the world, these streets have MLK’s name(Pictured above, vendors on Avenue Martin Luther King in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.)

A link is found between women’s tumors and common household items

New evidence of the Vikings in America, centuries before Columbus

Japan’s aging population offers lessons for a maturing world

Is a new Alzheimer’s drug really ready for prime time?

Wild hyenas led to key Neanderthal discovery

Is there more to the disappearance of Virginia Dare?

This onetime skeptic was key to Christianity’s growth

How Cleopatra flaunted the power of Rome

See the dreamlike fungi that thrive in nature’s damp corners

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY CENTRAL PRESS/GETTY

From the mountaintop: Every third Monday in January, Martin Luther King, Jr. (above) is praised for his peaceful efforts to get voting rights and other civil rights legislation. But King knew equality required education, wage equity, peace, housing, and economic justice, Nat Geo reports. Any “spiritual and moral lag” in humanity, King once said, is due to racial injustice, poverty, and war.

AN EXPANDING LEGACY

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY @TIMLAMAN

Viper love: Why not? Nat Geo Explorer Tim Laman caught the cuddling reptiles while on assignment to document biodiversity in a national park in Indonesia. Here, a male Bornean green pit viper (Tropidolaemus subannulatus) snuggles on the much larger female. Their colors match the verdant background, a common technique in the wild.

CAMOUFLAGED TO SURVIVE

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY RORY PRIOR, ALAMY

Glasgow’s unlikely saint: He was born to a “witch”—and legend has it that his mom, with him in utero, was tossed off a cliff. St. Mungo survived, and would later found this Scottish city, which remembers him with festivities each January. (Pictured above, a modern-day depiction of the saint on a Glasgow building.)

MUNGO TIME

Today’s soundtrack: If It’s Magic, Stevie Wonder

Today’s newsletter was curated and edited by Sydney Combs, Jen Tse, and David Beard. Have an idea or link to a story you think is right down our alley? Let us know at david.beard@natgeo.com. Happy trails!

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How ‘cute’ sea otters escaped extinction

How ‘cute’ sea otters escaped extinction

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