Wild Chronicles - Joking With the Yugoslavian Army

In this week's Wild Chronicles segment, Boyd details a lapse of judgment that involves the Yugoslavian Army, cheap cross country skis, and a recently resurfaced photo.

Analyzing the Northeast's Bumper Winter Snowfall - Joel Gratz

With the consistent snow storms pummeling the northeastern United States and North Carolina, and a drought starving ski resorts in the west, the early winter months of 2015 have been abnormal. But Joel Gratz, founder of OpenSnow, says that weather is often abnormal. He said that it's almost impossible to make a long-term weather prediction, but says that the bumper snowfall in New England should hold with cold weather to maintain the base that has already fallen, while the western states should get the snow they crave late in February and early into March.

Touring Morocco's Ancient Markets - Sarah Casewit

Morocco isn't just desert and mountains. The predominately Muslim nation is home to scenic Saharan dunes and the Atlas Mountains, but it is also boasts many centuries-old cities that are living museums. Sarah Casewit, a travel expert at Blue Parallel Luxury Tours, was raised in Morocco and says that Casablanca, among the best known Moroccan cities, isn't her favorite city in the country. She recommends UNESCO World-Heritage site Fes, and "fun, exciting, exotic, smelly, loud, vibrant" Marrakesh as two highlights of the country's historic markets and welcoming locals.

Climbing in China and the Virtues of Bird Watching - David Anderson

Bird watching is a low-risk way to enjoy the outdoors, which is why the hobby is as popular as it is. David Anderson has enjoyed observing the birds around him since he was young. But the climber and tour guide operator also explains that understanding birds can help fully appreciate the risks that we take in other aspects of our lives. His example: while recnetly climbing in the Andes, he noticed a group of condors wheeling overhead. A non-birder may have dismissed the behavior as odd; Anderson understood that the birds were hoping for the climbers to slip and provide an easy meal for the scavengers. In addition to South America, Anderson regularly runs tours into remote parts of the Tibetan Plateau in China, which can be difficult to get to alone, and are ripe for adventure.

The Chimp and the River: The Genesis of the AIDS Epidemic - David Quammen

Zoonotic viruses are those that pass from animals to humans. They've plagued us for as long as we've existed and they cross over with more regularity than we may realize. Most zoonotic diseases stop in a relatively short amount of time, because humans aren't an ideal host. SARS, West Nile, avian and swine flus are all familiar zoonotic diseases. But none of them have been as difficult for our medicine to manage as HIV. Most people think of the virus that causes AIDS as a relatively recent affliction, but, as David Quammen explains in his new book The Chimp and the River, HIV made the leap from chimps to humans in the southeastern corner of Cameroon over a century ago. Quammen's book explains how the virus likely spilled-over and turned into the global scourge that it is today.

Beautiful Destruction: Pleasing to the Eye, Devastating to the Planet - Louis Helbig

Just as the United States is embroiled in debate over whether or not to build the Keystone XL pipeline, Canadians can hardly agree on what to call the substance the pipeline would be moving. Photographer Louis Helbig's new book, Beautiful Destruction portrays the "bituminous sands" more commonly known as "tar" or "oil sands," depending on one's view of their relative value. The book includes aerial photos of the whole tar/oil-sand industry in Alberta and the book also includes essays from people on both sides of the Canadian bitumen debate.

Learning the Chimpanzee Language - Simon Townsend

Non-human animals use verbal cues to communicate, but it has been difficult for scientists to prove that they use specific vocalizations to refer to other things in their environment, often food or predators. University of Zurich researcher Dr. Simon Townsend says that chimpanzees are one of the animals that use these "referential calls". The apes are so malleable in their verbal skills that after two chimps were moved from a zoo in the Netherlands to one in Edinburg, Scotland. Once in their new home, over time, the chimpanzees changed their vocalizations used to refer to "apples" to better integrate with their new troop-mates. Dr. Townsend says that despite his time studying chimpanzee calls, he isn't inclined to try to speak their "language".