HE RIVER FLOWS VAST AND soundless. It’s December in southern Kazakhstan, and the landscape near the Syr Darya River is smudged in shades of brown and taupe—dormant grasses, silted floodplains, leafless trees. This is not the most picturesque stretch of riverbank, strewn as it is with food wrappers, bottles, a decomposing sedan. Overhead, the sun is obscured by a haze of coal-and woodsmoke. But when it comes to what Bernie Kuhajda is searching for, the spot feels perfect.
“This is the habitat we need,” says Kuhajda, an aquatic conservation biologist with the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. He’s hoping to find a species of sturgeon—the Syr Darya—that’s native to these waters but hasn’t been seen since the 1960s, after a series of Soviet dams was built throughout the river system. Those…
You're reading a preview of
National Geographic (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025