Photos

Once or twice a month during Costa Rica’s rainy season, female olive ridley sea turtles come ashore by the tens of thousands and lay eggs in a mass nesting event known as an arribada. Hatchlings begin emerging about 45 days later.
PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS P. PESCHAK

Kenyan wildlife experts approach a reticulated giraffe that has been tranquilized in the Loisaba Wildlife Conservancy. They’ll attach a GPS unit to one of its ossicones—the bony knobs on its head—so scientists can follow it, part of a plan to track 250 giraffes in key parts of Africa to better understand how much space giraffes need.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE

Late in the dry season in Gorongosa, a remnant pool in the Mussicadzi River channel attracts a mob of hungry birds, including storks, egrets, and hammerkops, along with a couple thirsty waterbuck. Gorongosa’s avian richness swells further in the wet season, when nomads arrive to feed.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES

Gluay Hom, a four-year-old elephant trained to perform tricks for tourists, is chained to a pole in a stadium at Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo near Bangkok, Thailand. His swollen right foreleg hangs limp. At his temple is a bloody wound from lying on the floor.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KIRSTEN LUCE

A male panther jumps over a creek in Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. A panther would visit this camera trap site approximately once a month. Because panthers are mostly nocturnal, it took nearly two years of camera trapping to capture this daylight image.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CARLTON WARD, JR.

A predatory katydid rears back in a threatening display in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park.
PHOTOGRAPH BY PIOTR NASKRECKI

This armadillo was rescued from the fire zones around Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and treated in a hotel-turned-animal-hospital in the small community of Aguas Calientes. Hotel owner José Sierra tries to calm the animal ahead of his release back to the wild.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JUAN PABLO AMPUDIA, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Every winter, rough-skinned newts visit the same pond in Oregon’s Willamette River to mate. Eight years and thousands of photographs later, David Herasimtschuk finally captured "the perfect newt image."
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID HERASIMTSCHUK, FRESHWATERS ILLUSTRATED

A white fox named Rowyn relaxes in the sun in front of the barn at Save a Fox, where founder Mikayla Raines takes in foxes from fur farms and pet owners who got in over their heads.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBIN SCHWARTZ

Muskoxen are one of the few prey animals that can work together to form a defensive line to protect the herd’s calves and counter wolf attacks.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RONAN DONOVAN

An orphaned giraffe nuzzles a caregiver at Sarara Camp in northern Kenya. Samburu cattle herders found the abandoned calf and alerted Sarara—known for raising orphaned mammals and returning them to their habitat. The young giraffe now lives with a wild herd.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE

In September, Valentina the anteater was one of 70 animals rescued from fire zones around Santa Cruz, Bolivia, by the staff of a small rehab facility. She suffered fourth-degree burns on all four paws. Here she enjoys some termites and milk.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JUAN PABLO AMPUDIA, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Jessica Burkhart, a University of Minnesota neurology PhD candidate, is in charge of physical therapy for two cubs surrendered by Pienika Farm, a lion farm in South Africa, during a welfare inspection. The cubs could barely walk when they arrived at the veterinary clinic. Burkhart says that when she’s with them, she crawls on all fours so as not to intimidate them.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NICHOLE SOBECKI, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

As the sun sets in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, a beaver munches on a tree branch next to a fallen trunk. Beavers, brought to the region from Canada in the 1940s, have overpopulated in the area and wrought havoc on the ecosystem.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LUJÁN AGUSTI, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Behind netting, a polar bear dances at the Circus on Ice in Kazan, Russia. Performing polar bears are extremely rare. The show’s four bears wear metal muzzles, and their trainer, Yulia Denisenko, carries a metal rod. Between tricks, the bears lie down and rub themselves on the ice.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KIRSTEN LUCE

Jellyfish float among the fronds of a kelp forest off Isla de los Estados, Argentina. Giant kelps (Macrocystis pyrifera) are the largest algae in the ocean, growing upward to more than 45 metres. Their forests harbour one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ENRIC SALA

Thousands of migratory songbirds are caught in Florida each year to supply a thriving illegal market. It can sometimes takes weeks of rehabilitation to strengthen the wings of confiscated songbirds so they can fly again. Here, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Lt. Antonio Dominguez releases rose-breasted grosbeaks back into the wild.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KARINE AIGNER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Clay, Daniel, and Enzo, three of 39 tigers rescued from an animal park in Oklahoma, gather at a pool at the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado. These cats will live out their lives here, with proper nutrition and vet care.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE WINTER

Zakouma National Park, a region of grasses and acacia in southeastern Chad, lost more than 90 per cent of its elephants during the century’s first decade, mostly to mounted bandits (janjaweed) from Sudan. Conservation group African Parks took over management in 2010, and now the elephants feel safe enough to disperse more broadly and produce an abundance of calves.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRENT STIRTON

This giant salamander, known as a hellbender, hopes to make a northern water snake its next meal. Photographer David Herasimtschuk says this image may be the first of a hellbender attempting to eat a snake.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID HERASIMTSCHUK, FRESHWATERS ILLUSTRATED

In the largest relocation of wild lions in history, 24 big cats were sedated and transported from South Africa to Mozambique in August 2018. After years of civil war in Mozambique, lions were all but lost in the Zambezi Delta region. These two dozen lions could grow the population to as many as 500 within 15 years.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AMI VITALE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

A pangolin peeks from a box on the way up a remote mountain in Vietnam, where 25 pangolins rescued from the illegal trade will be released back into the wild. Based in Cuc Phuong National Park, the nonprofit Save Vietnam’s Wildlife helped train the country’s first anti-poaching team and has rescued more than a thousand pangolins.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRENT STIRTON

Alchisme grossa has thornlike barbs that may dissuade would-be predators. This perturbed bug perched on a red leaf after flying away from photographer Javier Aznar González de Rueda. But members of this species are more commonly found on foliage matching their own hue. They may appear unappetising, but there’s no need to tempt fate by sticking out.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAVIER AZNARGONZÁ LEZ DE RUEDA

Green sea turtles congregate near a dock in the Bahamas. They were so numerous during Christopher Columbus’s day that "it seemed the ships would run aground on them. Now, six of the world’s seven sea turtle species are considered vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered.
PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS P. PESCHAK

A male elephant grabs an evening snack in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. Most of the park’s elephants were killed for their ivory, used to buy weapons during the nation’s 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992. With poaching controlled, the population is recovering. 
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES

Wolves pick at the remains of a muskox. To get this image, photographer Ronan Donovan placed a camera trap inside the carcass. The pack returned to feed on and off for a month.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RONAN DONOVAN

At the Tikki Hywood Foundation in Zimbabwe, each rescued pangolin—like Tamuda, seen here—is assigned a caretaker. The pangolins bond with their humans, who help them learn how to feed on ants and termites. Rescued as a baby from poachers, Tamuda was stubborn and impish, his caretaker says.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRENT STIRTON