【国家地理】每日一图：4月1-10日（图） - 珍珠湾ART

Photos and English scripts are from Nationalgeographic.com

April 01, 2008

Longnose Hawkfish, Namena Island, Fiji, 2004

Photograph by Tim Laman

Longnose hawkfish, like this brightly patterned creature resting in a bed of soft coral off Fiji Island's Namena Island, are tropical marine fish known for their needle-like snouts and striking red-and-white scales. The fish's common name originates from its hawklike habit of perching on the high ground of reefs, where it surveys its surroundings for predator or prey.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Fiji's Rainbow Reefs," November 2004, National Geographic magazine)

April 02, 2008

Aurora Borealis, Acadia National Park, Maine, 2005

Photograph by Michael Medford

Nature's light show—aurora borealis—bathes Maine's Acadia National Park in a pink glow. These dazzling patterns in nature, called aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere, are created when charged particles outside the Earth's atmosphere collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere, producing a glowing display of curtains, arcs, and bands stretching across the sky.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Autumn in Acadia National Park," November 2005, National Geographic magazine)

April 03, 2008

Just-Hatched Froglets, Papua New Guinea, 2001

Photograph by George Grall

Carrying out his fatherly duty, a male Oreophryne frog in Papua, New Guinea, guards his clutch and two newly hatched froglets that rest atop the egg mass. Like many of the Microhylidae family, these frogs bypass the tadpole stage, developing fully within the egg. Male frogs embrace their clutch each night to keep the eggs moist and protect them from predators such as insects.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Fragile World of Frogs," May 2001, National Geographic magazine)

April 04, 2008

Yawning Cheetah, Okavango Delta, Botswana, 1999

Photograph by Chris Johns

The world's fastest land animal takes a moment to relax with a yawn on Botswana's Okavango Delta. The teeth of these fleet-footed predators are too small to use as daggers for large kill, but the cats have strong jaws that lock around the throat of prey until the victim stops breathing.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Cheetahs: Ghosts of the Grasslands," December 1999, National Geographic magazine)

April 05, 2008

Lights on Street, Key West, Florida, 1999

Photograph by Jim Richardson

Headlights leave a stream of light in a time-exposed photograph of a busy Key West street. Key West is also known as the Conch Republic, a reference to a mock secession the island staged in protest of an April 23, 1982, roadblock the U.S. Border Patrol set up en route to Key West. When complaints that the roadblock hurt tourism went unanswered, the island's mayor declared the Keys' independence from the U.S.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "South to the Keys," January/February 1999, National Geographic Traveler magazine)

April 06, 2008

Blue Mosque, Iran, 1999

Photograph by Alexandra Avakian

A tranquil reflecting pool mirrors a blue-tiled mosque in Iran. An Islamic republic since the country's autocratic monarchy was overthrown in 1978, Iran is ruled by a supreme religious leadership that controls most aspects of Iranian society. But a youthful populace—70 percent of Iranians are under 30—with increasing access to Western media is beginning to push against its boundaries.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Iran: Testing the Waters of Reform," July 1999, National Geographic magazine

April 07, 2008

River Boats, Sitlakhya River, Bangladesh, 1993

Photograph by James P. Blair

A canoe glides past fishing boats at dusk on Bangladesh's flood-swollen Sitlakhya River. Notched into eastern India, this predominantly Muslim nation is a dominated by water, with the Bay of Bengal to the south, mighty rivers throughout, and seasonal monsoon and cyclones that flood up to a third of the country every year.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Bangladesh: When the Water Comes," June 1993, National Geographic magazine)

April 08, 2008

Leopard Seal With a Penguin, Antarctic Peninsula, 2006

Photograph by Paul Nicklen

Photographer Paul Nicklen watched as this 12-foot-long (3.7-meter-long) female leopard seal toyed with her catch, a live penguin chick. "She dropped it on my camera," he said. "Then she opened her mouth and engulfed the camera—and most of my head. After 45 minutes of more threats, she finally relaxed and ate."

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Deadly Beauty," November 2006, National Geographic magazine)

April 09, 2008

Workers Planting Rice, India, 2003

Photograph by William Albert Allard

Women from India's so-called Untouchable caste plant rice in a large field. Consigned by birth to the lowest social strata, Untouchables number some 160 million, about 15 percent of India's people. Considered impure by Hindu law, they are generally permitted to perform only the most menial jobs.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Untouchable," June 2003, National Geographic magazine)

April 10, 2008

Whale's Tail, Frederick Sound, Alaska, 1999

Photograph by Michael Melford

Commercial hunting of humpback whales, like this one flashing its flukes in Alaska's Frederick Sound, reduced their population to just a few thousand worldwide in the 1960s. But an international whaling ban has helped them rebound, and new census numbers show the North Pacific population alone could be more than 10,000 and possibly as many as 25,000.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "A Wilder Passage," May/June 1999, National Geographic Traveler magazine)