bioGraphic

2 weeks ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

Few animals can stand their ground against a swarm of angry bees, but this crested honey buzzard appears unperturbed. Although the bird belongs to the same family as flesh-eating kites, hawks, and eagles, its main foods are bee and wasp pupae and larvae—the developing broods found inside the insects’ nests. When the buzzards encounter a colony of honeybees—as in the image above, captured by photographer Staffan Widstrand in western Taiwan—they will lunch on honeycombs, too.

3 weeks ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the spring of 1994, David Noble rappelled down the sheer cliff of a narrow canyon, part of a tangled maze of escarpments deeply incised into the sandstone tablelands in Australia’s Wollemi National Park, some 145 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Sydney.

3 weeks ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

Like a chicken nugget in an air fryer, our planet is getting hotter and drier all the time. This, coupled with centuries of fire suppression and ecosystem mismanagement, has created a world that’s prone to bursting into flames. Large wildfires are becoming more frequent and severe. Preventing them from getting even worse will require cutting carbon emissions and righting centuries of flawed land management.

3 weeks ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

Brazil’s Caatinga dry forest is about as inhospitable as it gets. Daytime temperatures are sizzling. The thorn-covered shrubs and cacti seem equipped for battle. And if you brush against the wrong plant, you’ll quickly meet the forest’s territorial guard—more than 40 species of ants ready to defend the forest with powerful bites, venomous stings, and, ultimately, their itty-bitty lives. Fortunately, neither you nor I are the ants’ intended target.

4 weeks ago | biographic.com | Mark Garrison

Reporting for this story was supported in part by an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship. Standing in a thicket of poplars, surrounded by tangled brush and magpie chatter, there’s an air of wilderness. But reminders of the urban world beyond the trees are everywhere: the whir of a passing car, a dog’s bark, a discarded sneaker. “That shoe’s been around for a long time,” says wildlife biologist Sage Raymond.