"There is no practical alternative to hope."

~ Unknown

Photos are of George Schaller. The top photo, taken by Jonathan Waterman, shows Schaller near Atigun Gorge in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, examining an Arctic ground squirrel Spermophilus parryii. In the long Arctic winters, this animal drops its body temperature to minus three degrees Celsius, during the world's deepest mammalian hibernation. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge exists in large part because of research conducted in the region by Schaller in the earliest days of his career.