National Geographic (May 2021)

141 pages. Features: In South Pacific waters, a humpback whale calf focuses on photographer Brian Skerry, and vice versa. Skerry has spent years observing the distinctive behaviors and traditions of many cetacean species *Mining marks a landscape: Viewing mines from above, a photographer captures the results of extracting coal to fuel electric power plants *Conservation's popularity contest: Wildlife funding and advocacy focus most on charismatic species. Is it time to rethink that approach? *Ice Odyssey: A huge Antarctic iceberg posed a risk to an island wildlife preserve *Bridging cultures, causes with music: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma pars concerts with activist events on environmental and other issues *Fleeing the flood: As water threatened rare giraffes' habitat, former enemies joined forces to move them via a modern-day ark *Secrets of the whales: Some dolphins and whales have their own cultural traditions and dialects, characteristics once thought to be unique to humans *All episodes of the series Secrets of the Whales will premier April 22 on Disney+ *Planet ocean: About 70% of Earth's surface is ocean. This is how it's connected *Rescuing reefs: Images made years apart show how warming ocean harm corals *28 days under the sea: Diving on the floor of the Mediterranean, four explorers found amazing life-forms *Searcher of the deep: Decades after locating the wreck of the Titanic, Robert Ballard still hunts for cultural and scientific treasurers