RFE/RL photojournalist Amos Chapple was recognized by the science journal, Nature, for a photograph which is a part of his multimedia essay on Russians mining for mammoth tusks in the Siberian permafrost, “The Mammoth Pirates.”
A 65-kilogram tusk, photographed a moment after it was plucked from the permafrost, was sold for $34,000. The two men who found it unearthed three more in just over a week, including one weighing 72 kilograms. (RFE/RL Amos Chapple)
Each year Nature’s creative departments pick a small selection of images to represent the best photojournalism in the field of science.
Chapple gained exclusive access to one site where between bouts of vodka-fueled chaos and days spent evading police patrols, teams of men are using illegal new methods in the hunt for what remains of Siberia’s lost giants.