For new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines, follow NPR's Short Wave podcast .The mood was tense one fall morning in a village in Spain.A conservation and research group called Waldrappteam was nearing the end of a remarkable undertaking — escorting a flock of 36 northern bald ibises along their migratory route from southeastern Germany to the highlands of southern Spain.The northern bald ibis has a ruddy bill and a crest of feathers that look like an intermittent mohawk.It disappeared from Europe some 400 years ago due to overhunting.
But, says Gunnar Hartmann, an undergraduate majoring in biogeoscience at the University of Koblenz in Germany, another population of the ibises was found living in Syria and Morocco a century ago.Scientists at the time brought some of the birds to Europe to rear their chicks in captivity where they can form bonds with their human handlers.
Now scientists teach them to migrate, guiding them along their 1,700-plus-mile route.In the fall of 2024, Hartmann joined Waldrappteam for 50 days as they flew an ultralight aircraft across southern Germany, France and Spain, showing the latest group of ibises their way.It was on a cool, rosemary-scented morning in Spain, in the town of Jaén in Andalusia, that Hartmann, who was the project's photographer, snapped an image with his camera that would become the overall winner of this year's Scientist at Work photography competition sponsored by the journal Nature.
The winners were announced Wednesday.In the photo, the aircraft soars in the sky beneath a yellow parachute.Nineteen of the birds flap ahead of it, even though they're the ones following the people.
A golden landscape sprawls below.Hartmann is pleased to have brought attention to the conservation efforts bringing the northern bald ibis back to Europe."For me, this special morning was super emotional," recalls Hartmann.They'd already been flying for days and the ibises were tired.
"We were struggling...