nationalgeographic

From being ten feet away from a huge grizzly bear in Lake Clark NP, to hearing the eery early morning bugling of the elk rut in Rocky Mountain NP, I had a lot of amazing wildlife encounters along the way. However, my absolute favorite was a red fox in Alaska's Katmai national park. This beautiful little creature came up the path to greet me, and stopped to take a better look at me. Wanting to be eye-level with the little fox, I took my camera and got down on my stomach to start to take photos. The little fox kept coming closer and closer, until it was about 6 or 7 feet away. it eventually laid down as well, and then fell asleep right in front of me. It was a blissful moment to be so close to this wild creature, and to be accepted. I will remember it forever.

I like this question... mostly because I can't answer definitively answer. I'd like to poll some experts. That said, my sense is that 8 hours is better. While light can disturb sleep, once the body is fully launched into a good night's rest, one is usually unaware of the amount of ambient light.

Hmmm. There are loads of sites in places that are hard to get to, and challenging to work in, but so potentially interesting. For instance, there are intriguing traces of communities all along the trade network that we call the Silk Road that connected Asia with Europe. Archaeologists have barely touched those places.

Ooooohhh…good question. I do have a sort of strange recurring theme that happened along the way. We dubbed it “the kindness of strangers” affect. On any large assignment like this, you are going to run into troubles. And we certainly had our fair share. But just when we thought we were really in trouble, some stranger would show up and save the day. It was an odd thing. For example, we got a flat tire way out in the desert of Big Bend NP in Texas, without cell service. I tried to change the tire, but one of the bolts was way too stuck for me to get loose. Just when we thought we were going to have to spend the night out there, a stranger comes walking around the corner (Of a mound in the desert!) with a bottle of wine and a german shepherd by his side. He was just out there camping and offered to help us with the tire. It was the last thing we expected way out there, and it was so welcome. Truly, little things like that happened over and over again, to the point where we really took notice and started writing them down.

Zoos and aquarums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), meet the highest standards in animal care and welfare, and make up only 10% of over 10,000 facilities licensed by the USDA to have animals in their care. As part of the AZA standards, accredited facilities like the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium are required to participate in conservation projects benefitting wildlife in their native habitats.