Konuma Rokuko

Indian star tortoises are slow to mature and breed, so they cannot effectively replace their losses, says Chris Shepherd, executive director of Monitor, a nonprofit organization in British Columbia, Canada, dedicated to combating the illegal wildlife trade. “I think the trade is continually decimating the species, and there should be more work to monitor prices, routes, and quantities,” he says. “But at the end of the day, there are only two things that can be done really: Consumers have to stop buying these things, and enforcement agencies in key places along the trade route really need to do their job.”

The event also inspired the City of Vienna to make the q***r community more visible in public spaces, for example, by including illustrations of same-sex couples in traffic lights. But while much progress has been made for the q***r community, Ledinski says there is a potential to do more. "There is always room for improvement, especially when it comes to the recognition of inter and trans people," he said.

The exciting news was accompanied by a much sadder announcement, however: the filter-feeding whales, often called the Gulf of Mexico whale because of their home base just south of the Florida panhandle, are critically endangered. Only 51 whales remain, according to researchers’ best estimates, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

Switzerland’s understated capital blends art and architecture with inspiring results. Its UNESCO-listed old town is a maze of covered arcades and striking sights, from the huge Zytglogge clock tower to the gothic Bern Minster — climb the 344 steps to the viewing deck for far-reaching views across the Aare River to the Alps. The Kunstmuseum delivers a fine arts feast, with Picasso, Monet and Klee originals. Perhaps the greatest highlight is Renzo Piano’s Zentrum Paul Klee, caught like a wave in mid swell, with rotating exhibitions of Klee’s art. When it’s warm, join the locals for a dip in the turquoise Aare River. Pop your clothing into a dry bag and float along the classic route from Camping Eichholz to Marzili’s free lido.

The Tanami, as locals call it, is one of Australia's greatest Outback adventure tracks. The 1,077km road bisects the namesake Tanami Desert – one of the most isolated and arid regions in the world – connecting the Red Centre and Kimberley region, the country's rugged north-west frontier.

Although the route is mostly traversed by ranchers and lorries running to the remote Granites goldmine, plus the odd feral camel, the Tanami also attracts intrepid travellers who come for the raw scenery, the bush camping and the notoriety for driving across one of Australia's longest and most challenging roads.

For centuries, the Colorado River network connected tribes and trade. It is central to Hualapai identity and their creation story. Its oxbow curves once traced the boundary of the nation's seven-million-acre ancestral land. But when gold was discovered in 1863, that river and its access was divided up by the US government for mining, leaving the Hualapai exiled until they secured a one-million-acre reservation in 1883.

Today, the Hualapai River Runners take guests rafting down the Colorado River and explore sacred places by hiking with tribal river guides. "The Hualapai people are immensely proud to show off their backyard... one [of the] wonders of the world: the Grand Canyon and Colorado River," said Jackson-Kelly.

Months after my time in Chilean Patagonia, I would find myself lying in the comfort of my bed and thinking about the night I spent in a tent on the shore of Leones Lake, listening to the faint popping from the campfire and the incantation of a distant glacial waterfall. Then, piercing the semihushed soundtrack, would come the unmistakable sound of fracturing ice, followed by the detonation of the lake’s surface—and after that, the near-stillness. The cycle would then resume. I fell asleep to it.

It is indisputable that climate change is being fueled by greenhouse gases, but what is less clear is where the tipping points may reside—breaking points where slowly building changes push parts of the climate system into a dramatically different state, with potentially chaotic and troublesome consequences for the planet.

One of those tipping points relates to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or the AMOC, a giant oceanic ‘conveyor belt’ that redistributes heat around the planet.

“There’s an excessive pressure on residents. We have to try to find balance. If we just go after [tourist] numbers, we’ll implode,” says Pecunia. She says that many day-trippers arrive without knowing anything about the Cinque Terre. “They turn up, take selfies, eat a gelato, and go,” says Pecunia. “Often they think [Cinque Terre] is just colorful houses.”

Sixty-nine miles south of Miami, Key Largo is the northernmost of the Florida Keys and great first stop. Gators, snakes and other water-bound critters may have terrified Flagler's construction crews, but these days, travellers come to Key Largo (the self-proclaimed "dive capital of the world") to marvel at its abundant marine life. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary adjoining John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park attracts snorkelers and divers eager to immerse themselves in North America's only living coral barrier reef. The seagrass beds here provide a critical habitat for fish, manatees and sea turtles, but the main attraction is swimming into the outstretched arms of Christ of the Deep, a submerged 9ft-tall bronze statue of Jesus that has been watching over visitors since 1965.

"Go and pick a piece of kelp that speaks to you," said Janice, a palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) woman and cultural storyteller on our tour. She pointed to a bucket full of thick, blubbery bull kelp we'd collected off the beach that morning to make baskets for carrying water. Meanwhile, Jam, our main guide, reverentially placed leaves and branches from a black peppermint gum tree on the fire embers as he prepared a smoking ceremony to welcome us to Country. Around us, some young Aboriginal men were lounging around the firepit, carving spears out of branches.

In 2022 alone the U.S. imported almost 32,000 of the animals according to a report published by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine in May. More than half of these two-foot-tall monkeys came from Cambodia, the report said, while others were sourced from Mauritius, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

That data comes even as controversies have besieged the monkey shipment industry—and exports from Cambodia in particular. Criminal allegations from the U.S. government, revealed in an unsealed indictment last year, charge that thousands of supposedly lab-bred monkeys were plucked from the wild and passed off as animals bred in captivity.

Spring is colorful in North Carolina. Buttercups paint the Blue Ridge yellow by late March, and in May, the peaks are blanketed in ethereal pink mountain laurels. Find other seasonal blooms at the waterside Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island. At Biltmore estate near Asheville, roses and azaleas brighten extensive grounds designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

Summer: On North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the summer months of June through August draw families and groups of friends to rental houses and waterfront hotels. The surf and sand offer swimming, kayaking, fishing, and shoreline walks.

One of the largest toads in the U.S., up to seven inches from snout to webbed foot, with a Jabba the Hutt-like countenance, the toads emerge to eat and breed as the wet summer unfolds, heading for water wherever they can find it in ponds, rivers, streams, irrigation ditches, puddles, cattle troughs, spas, swimming pools, or golf courses.

Nocturnal, they frolic with fervor, honking and croaking into the night. Then, as the monsoon flattens in September and the toads are fortified for the year with food and kin, they head back to their lairs.