National Geographic MagazineWallpapers 2° Trimestre 2013[39 foto]

National Geographic Magazine Aprile 2013

Photograph by Paul Nicklen From "Manatees," National Geographic, April 2013 Manatees swim close to the water’s surface because they are air-breathing mammals. They use their stiff facial bristles to guide food into their mouths.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "Delaware, at Last," National Geographic, April 2013 The Brandywine River powered American industry in the 19th century. Walker’s textile mill joins many others that dot the riverbanks. Upstream, the DuPont Company made gunpowder; other mills produced everything from paper to snuff.

Photograph by Zahoor Ahmed From "Top Shots," National Geographic, April 2013 "I'm deeply in love with birds," says Ahmed, a wildlife photographer. He spent two months near a saltwater lake in Kallar Kahar to capture this shot of an Asian paradise flycatcher feeding its chick. Despite his fancy feathers, the male does the feeding and incubates eggs in the nest.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "Delaware, at Last," National Geographic, April 2013 Du Pont descendants still live in the 1923 Granogue mansion, one of many grand estates that have preserved a lush natural corridor along the Brandywine River in Delaware. Portions of the corridor form the backbone of a proposed park.

Photograph by Evgenia Arbugaeva From "Mammoth Tusks," National Geographic, April 2013 The journey from permafrost to market—nearly 90 percent of Siberia’s tusks end up in China—begins by small boat.

Photograph by Paul Nicklen From "Manatees," National Geographic, April 2013 The Florida manatee is thriving in Kings Bay, and so is tourism.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "Delaware, at Last," National Geographic, April 2013 As dawn breaks, a lone sycamore tree emerges from the mist at Woodlawn, the 1,100-acre heart of Delaware’s proposed national monument. Industrialist William Bancroft bought this land for a park, predicting in 1909, “It may take a hundred years to work out.”

Photograph by Paul Nicklen From "Manatees," National Geographic, April 2013 Propeller scars mark this manatee—graphic evidence of a too-close encounter with a boat. About one in four of Florida’s 360 manatee deaths in 2012 resulted from collisions. Slow-speed zones help, but some boaters resent the restrictions.

Photograph by Alex Webb From "Red Gold," National Geographic, April 2013 A kapok log dangles from a crane on the Ucayali River outside Pucallpa. Soaring giants draped with orchids, kapok trees provide rich habitat for primates, birds, amphibians, and insects. They’re also in high demand for pulp and plywood.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "Delaware, at Last," National Geographic, April 2013 Along a road through Woodlawn, oaks and maples shimmer with the season. Woodlawn is one of the last large undeveloped sites in an area increasingly hemmed in by the encroaching outskirts of Wilmington and Philadelphia.

Photograph by Eiko Jones From "Top Shots," National Geographic, April 2013 Jones was photographing water lilies from four feet under when he saw a "black cloud" in the corner of his eye. Countless tadpoles streamed by. "It went on for ages," says the 41-year-old photographer. "It was like a huge flock of birds flying through a forest, but completely silent."

Photograph by Paul Nicklen From "Manatees," National Geographic, April 2013 Young manatees nurse from teats behind the mother’s flippers during a period of intense maternal care that may last two years. Constantly swimming beside their mothers, calves learn how to find food and sanctuary.

Photograph by Evgenia Arbugaeva From "Mammoth Tusks," National Geographic, April 2013 A tusk hunter scours the coast of Bolshoy Lyakhovskiy Island. Lured by rising prices for mammoth ivory, hundreds of men cross the frozen Arctic seas each spring to search for it along eroding shorelines.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "Delaware, at Last," National Geographic, April 2013 A Pennsylvania field splashed with grape hyacinths was the site of heavy combat in 1777 during the Battle of Brandywine. British troops outflanked Washington’s army, clearing a path for the redcoats to march on Philadelphia and take the city.

Photograph by Paul Nicklen From "Manatees," National Geographic, April 2013 Solitary by nature, manatees are forced into sociability on winter days. Lacking the blubber that insulates whales, they crowd warm springs and power plant discharge sites.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "Delaware, at Last," National Geographic, April 2013 Painter Andrew Wyeth kept a secret studio a few miles from this Woodlawn farmhouse, creating works of art inspired by the surrounding landscape until his death in 2009. Some of his paintings evoke similar wintry scenes.

National Geographic Magazine Maggio 2013

Photograph by Michael Yamashita From "China's Grand Canal," National Geographic, May 2013 Barges long plied the 1,100-mile canal between Beijing and Hangzhou, its glittering southern terminus. Bankside revitalization includes replicas of ancient temples.

Photograph by Peter Essick From "The Curse of Fertilizer," National Geographic, May 2013 To grow plentiful food crops, farms need more nitrogen than naturally occurs in the soil. Fertilizer runoff is minimized on this Wisconsin farm by planting strips of alfalfa between corn and soybeans.

Photograph by Sergey Gorshkov From "Wrangel Island," National Geographic, May 2013 A barrier beach of marine rubble stretches toward desolate Cape Blossom, at the southwestern tip of Wrangel Island. The Siberian mainland lies 88 miles to the south.

Photograph by Sylwia Domaradzka From "Top Shots," National Geographic, May 2013 On a tour of central Poland's countryside last fall, Domaradzka saw many small battles between white-tailed eagles. These two birds in particular wanted to sit in the same spot. "There was an awful lot of fighting and bickering among them," she says.

Photograph by Peter Essick, NDVI processing by Bill Stocks From "The Curse of Fertilizer," National Geographic, May 2013 The light orange in an infrared image shows where this Iowa cornfield has the least nitrogen. Farmers use such images to target fertilizer application to avoid the runoff that pollutes waterways.

Photograph by Michael Yamashita From "China's Grand Canal," National Geographic, May 2013 Steel rods on a flatbed at Huaigang Steel in Huaian will be loaded onto barges for shipment on the Grand Canal. The waterway yearly carries some 400 million metric tons of coal, bricks, grain, and other cargo to points between Hangzhou and Jining; north of Jining it has largely dried up.

Photograph by Peter Essick From "The Curse of Fertilizer," National Geographic, May 2013 Chickens provide the fertilizer on this Pennsylvania farm. The mobile coops are relocated daily to distribute manure evenly so that it won’t drain into the Chesapeake Bay.

Photograph by Michael Yamashita From "China's Grand Canal," National Geographic, May 2013 Fishermen work the Hai River in the shadow of the Ferris wheel in Tianjin. The Hai, which flows through Tianjin, fills a stretch of the canal that has been restored to attract tourists.

Photograph by Eva Kraaijenbrink From "Top Shots," National Geographic, May 2013 At an animal show near Barneveld, Netherlands, this Angora rabbit was being inspected for the quality of its fur, which is often used to make luxury sweaters and scarves. "It was lying so still, it looked almost dead," Kraaijenbrink says. She zoomed in to see if it was still breathing. It was.

Photograph by Peter Essick From "The Curse of Fertilizer," National Geographic, May 2013 An Amish farmer spreads manure and straw from his barn on a recently harvested field. The manure provides nitrogen for next year’s crop. If applied properly, the homegrown fertilizer won’t add excess nitrogen to the local watershed.

Photograph by Sergey Gorshkov From "Wrangel Island," National Geographic, May 2013 Two bull muskoxen size each other up. In September, with mating season under way, bulls engage in frequent head-butting confrontations to establish dominance.

National Geographic Magazine Giugno 2013

Photograph by Rahul Tailor From "Top Shots," National Geographic, June 2013 After a weekend visit to a flea market where people sold furniture and old clothes, Tailor passed by a pink mosque wall in his hometown. In front of it, two birds stood with their heads obstructed by an old roof that offered an element of privacy.

Photograph by Mark Thiessen From "Pressure Dive," National Geographic, June 2013 Divers wrangle a 3-D camera while filming a test in the New Britain Trench off Papua New Guinea. The sub bristles with lights, cameras, and scientific equipment.

Photograph by Amy Toensing From "First Australians," National Geographic, June 2013 Aboriginals in touch with the land see desert oaks and imagine the drinking water in the trees’ cavities. They see a full moon above Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and find light for a nocturnal event.

Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale From "Viking Whalers," National Geographic, June 2013 On Røst an abandoned sheep hut testifies to the changing times.

Photograph by Santanu Paul From "Top Shots," National Geographic, June 2013 At the start of Diwali, a festival across India celebrating light, Paul went with three friends to a neighborhood fireworks show. As the sky lit up, he realized that his friends' spellbound reaction offered a unique angle.

Photograph by Joel Sartore From "Miracle in Mozambique," National Geographic, June 2013 Clear-cuts and remnants of rain forest flank the Vanduzi waterfall, on the east side of Mount Gorongosa. The mountain was added to the national park in 2010, but thousands of people still live on it. “Many cut firewood to burn for heat and cooking,” says photographer Joel Sartore, “and many practice slash-and-burn agriculture.” Philanthropist Greg Carr is funding efforts to restore the park.

Photograph by Joel Sartore From "Miracle in Mozambique," National Geographic, June 2013 Blue waxbills—awake or dozing off—are a common sight in Gorongosa’s dry, bushy grasslands. So far, nearly 400 bird species have been documented in the park.

Photograph by Chandrabhal Singh From "Top Shots," National Geographic, June 2013 During a trip last year to photograph flamingos that spend the winter near India's Ujjani Dam, Singh watched as this brown-headed gull scanned the glassy water. He pressed the shutter, luckily, at the very moment the bird dipped to catch a fish.

Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale From "Viking Whalers," National Geographic, June 2013 Rich in natural beauty, Skrova boasted the highest percentage of millionaires in all Norway as recently as 1980, thanks to its thriving fish factories and whaling station. All but one factory has since closed.

Photograph by Amy Toensing From "First Australians," National Geographic, June 2013 The Anangu of central Australia call the iconic sandstone monolith Uluru. They believe it was created by their ancestral beings. Europeans dubbed it Ayers Rock in 1873, but the name was changed back to Uluru in 1985.

Photograph by Mark Thiessen From "Pressure Dive," National Geographic, June 2013 DEEPSEA CHALLENGER is lifted on deck by a shipborne crane after a test dive to 26,972 feet. The orange bag adds buoyancy for the ascent; the gray ones shift the sub to a horizontal position for recovery.

Photograph by Rudranil Ghosal From "Top Shots," National Geographic, June 2013 It was raining outside, so Ghosal wanted to find something to photograph in his home. Using three forks and a lotus bud that he cut in half, he created a design on a glass table that resembled an intricate flower growing sideways.