Every Animal Deserves a Story | Explorer's Fest

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Ah, this might be the most exciting part of the entire day! I have to say that for many of you, you're probably here for this highlight. And of course, I was taken out backstage and accosted our next speaker to sign my book.

So please welcome photographer, conservationist, National Geographic fellow, and the founder of the Photo Ark, 2018 Rolex explorer of the year, and of course a true visionary and hero for wildlife and the natural world, Joel Sartori.

"I guess we should talk about what's going on out there. What's the most recent stuff? Everybody wants to know, what's the number? Well, the number is eight thousand two hundred twenty-five as of today. This was our eight thousand shot in Porto, Portugal. This is a perineum Desmond. You've never heard of this guy? They are, they're either completely stopped as if they're dead, or they're going a mile a minute. They're insectivores, aquatic. They use that little trunk on the front of their heads as a snorkel, as a sensory organ to hunt down worms, the other aquatic invertebrates. They just eat them like I eat Hershey bars, they really go for it. Quite amazing animals, and most people that have worked on this species have never seen one. So it was quite a big deal for them to catch one. They put tags on it, collars, did blood work, and let me photograph it in the middle of the night.

"More recently, as in last week, we were in the Philippines working on six different islands. Thanks to funding from Geographic, we got the harpy eagle. They crest when they're nervous or agitated, angry. This one would never crest. Yes, we were too sweet. He tried to photograph. He's the only one in the world that is trained to ride on the fist, and so he's with a keeper all the time. Hand-raised, he went into our shooting tent. That beak's used for tearing monkeys apart, by the way.

"The first thing we did there was photograph this. That's called the Tamra. It's a dwarf water buffalo. It's the only one left in captivity. It's in a pasture, a very old male. Daughter Ellen is in the background there. These folks had set up basically a studio in the middle of this pasture. They drug a 220-volt generator up on skids behind a domestic water buffalo, and the animals used to go in there eating for several weeks, maybe even months.

"This is the one we ended up going with. The Tamra house horns are very distinctive, and there's an animal that's at real risk of extinction, critically endangered. And so we shot him as if he was taking about. From there, we moved on to the Avalon Zoo. This is a very typical reaction from a cat when we put him in my little cloth shooting tent.

"Three minutes later, like this. Two minutes after that, he's starting to fall asleep. Most of these animals we photograph are born and raised in human care. They're part of assurance colonies like this tarsier, they're part of captive assurance colonies making sure that they don't go extinct before people get smart enough to save the woods, the mangroves, the oceans. These places we go to, these zoos, aquariums, private breeders, wildlife rehabbers, they are the true arks.

"Yeah, this is the Photo Ark, but these guys are the true arks. They're saving animals for all of us until we realize that we have to have forests ourselves to survive and we need to protect giant tracts of habitat. This is one of the remarkable things about zoos people don't realize, is that they are conservation centers. Now, good zoos are conservation centers, not simple menageries anymore.

"In fact, this female had lost her hoof in a poacher's snare. She would have been killed and eaten by any number of things, mainly people hunting them. Visayan warty pig, very rare, and yet she was saved by a rescue group, brought to the zoo. And now she's the leading breeder. She's had multiple dozens of piglets that are now being re-released into the wild. So zoos do great work, not to mention the conservation efforts that they do through education. Most zoos do a ton of education.

"This is a stink badger, by the way. They actually squirt a green goo out of their rump, and it smells just like a North American skunk, and it is nasty! Really bad! We photographed that one last. We don't just photograph cute and furry; we do everything we can.

"New tube ranks a grasshopper that carries this mechanism around on his back so he blends in with dead thorns on a bush, all the way to ants. Everything that you can see with the naked eye. We work in captive situations, but that's just so we can get pictures. It's very hard to convince a tiger to come out and lay on a background in the middle of the jungle. We go places where the animals don't have any choice, and that's how we do it.

"This is why we're a little bit anxious to hurry up. This is from 2011. The mammalian biomass that exists on the earth, the stuff we eat, is in blue: cows and pigs, goats on the left. People. And this is 2011. So that green slice at the top, that's what's left in terms of wild mammals, and that slice has gotten a lot thinner since 2011.

"Seems to me we're talking about a lot of stuff at this conference, but we don't talk about the elephant in the room that's driving this animal to extinction, or this one, or this one. These have all gone extinct in the time we've done this project. What's the elephant in the room? Us! Almost eight billion people, easing to ten or eleven billion. Boy, how do you stop that juggernaut? We're doing all we can, right? That's really a huge problem.

"The most encouraging thing I heard today was we're talking about contraception some with ladies in Uganda; that's great. And who am I to talk? I've had three children! What a hypocrite, right? Totally! What do we do about this? I don't have good answers, I really don't. And I see extinction all the time. There's not a month goes by I don't meet face to face something that's going to go extinct imminently. This one actually is extinct now.

"We do these portraits on black and white backgrounds to try to give a voice to everything. It ain't just about polar bears, even though the world would like it to be. It's about the piranha pool fish; it's about penguins; it's about sturgeon with the most sensitive electronic array in their nostrils, in the rostrums, more incredible than any machine man's ever built. They can locate prey in a number of ways with this extremely sensitive instrument in the most muddy, roiling water. They've survived millions of years. Endangered, of course, right!

"We try to do this with eye contact as best we can to get people to engage. We're primates; we react to eye contact. That's what draws us in. We can monitor what people are thinking now. The web is an incredible tool. It's a great time to be in conservation, actually, because we can reach so many people. But we can also read their minds. We can see how long they linger on things, how many likes, how many times these things are shared. We can literally read their minds: they like this; they like things that look like us; they like anthropomorphic animals; they like them cute and weird.

"There’s a long-haired jerboa that hops; it’s a mouse that hops around like a kangaroo with elephant ears. It lives at the Moscow Zoo. They love baby animals especially, so we feed people a steady diet of things that intrigue them, that they want to share, and that works well for us. But we do have to slip in a message now and then, and we try to do that as frequently as we can without turning people off.

"It seems like snakes and rodents, people don't dig that very much. If we do insects, we do them in a really colorful way, just things that engage people, things that they want to share. This is about playing to the ego, isn't it? Sharing, liking. When you share something online, you are saying to somebody else, 'Look at what I found! Look at how smart I am! Look at what a great hunter I am! I've brought this back to the cave for you!' That's how it all works; it’s very basic.

"So we play to that. Whatever it takes to try to get people to pay attention. You're the bird, of course, right now going on, and they're amazing. But then again, so is everything else we photograph. We try to love them all. We don’t choose sides. We figure that a cockroach counts just as much as an elephant, and that's a hard thing to say to a group of elephant biologists, which I've had to do before. But they all count. Primates especially, people really, really love primates.

"I still haven't gotten a good picture of a chimp after all these years. This explains it a little bit. I can use hope they're pretty strong; a hitter can rip your arm off and beat you. Doesn't this look nice? Nice, perfect. It's perfect for chimps. Always gets a laugh.

"So one reason I'm very inspired is I meet people like all the fine folks we've seen here today that are really reminding us what it's about, why it's so important. But I keep thinking about population, listening to Asha talk about blue whales and all those boats chasing down those blue whales. I was in Cebu two weeks ago in the Philippines, and we took a morning to swim with the whale sharks. It was thousands of people in the water around these 14 animals, Chinese and Filipino tourists, and they’re kicking.

"Yeah, and they're all trying to grab at these sharks, and it was just very depressing. It was 14 sharks and literally 2,000 people over the course of four hours, and we were in row boats, and it was just bedlam. And it was inspiring to see the sharks, but it was very depressing to be a human being that morning. I just found it very... Wow! We are just pressing down so hard, and yet we have to be inspiring. We cannot send out gloom and doom, or people will just click; they'll go away from us.

"So we celebrate things like the whooping crane and the California condor and the Vancouver Island marmots and Mexican gray wolf—animals like the black-footed ferret. All of these got down to fewer than two dozen individuals, and yet they’re safe today. They’re not out of the woods entirely, but safe today because of people who cared, bred back habitat restored, public education campaigns, brought these things back from the very brink of extinction.

"So I believe that if we help zoos, we help everybody. National Geographic helps us; we get the lift we need. We can educate people as to what the needs are, and they will respond. People love to fill a vacuum; they love to feel good about something, and it plays to the ego, doesn’t it? We give these pictures away free to whoever helps us, to try to make these pictures go to work, go to work long after we’re all dead and gone for decades and decades.

"We want this to be a permanent archive. Geographic is the home of it, and we want the zoos to run with these things. We want everybody to run with these things. That's really the goal. It isn't so I have something to do till I die. This Houston Zoo has been a big supporter early on. I mean when Geographic came on board, and they had come on board a long time ago, story after story through the magazine with Kathy Moran as my editor. She knew I would moonlight and shoot Photo Ark portraits wherever I was sent.

"Then once Geographic came on board as a full sponsor, wow, the lift you get is tremendous. Reasons for hope, for sure. We have a big, big campaign to get together and try to save species. The Outdoor Advertisers Association of America has been putting these up on billboards all over the country: bus stops, subways, and now it's spreading internationally as well, which is great.

"Then, you know, talking about the need to keep this top of mind for decades. A decades-long campaign. We have to make this interesting and fun, that's how you do it. Louie Psihoyos, who did the movie “The Cove,” he asked to use some of the stills and videos on buildings. I said, 'Sure, go ahead,' and he really ran with it. These things became the number one trending topics on social media for days afterwards, but it has to be really entertaining, really interesting.

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"So I guess I would close with this: for those of you thinking that, well, if we just educate the next generation, they'll take it from here; they'll do a better job than we did. I think it's maybe the opposite. The next generation, they’re really stuck to these screens and they don’t get out much. There's no place for them to go, and even if they could go someplace, they don't really want to get off the internet; they don’t want to get away from video games.

"The people in this room, I would argue, are some of the most important people in this entire city right now, and none of them come to work at Geographic without feeling that sense of obligation and nobility. Here the fact is Geographic has shifted into a conservation group in a major way, and that's critical, that's critical.

"So I would ask you this: at the end of your lives, in your declining hours, when you look in the mirror, what are you gonna see? Who are you gonna see? You're gonna see somebody who really, really did as well as they possibly could to save the future of life on Earth. Are you? I’m trying to do everything that I can. How about you?

"Dolph's artillery, everybody. And now to moderate our panel discussion, the senior director international for the National Geographic Society in Latin America, Gaël Almeida, and the five fellows from the photo arc project."

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"Hello everybody! I'm so excited to be here. I think it's the first time I see so much Latino power on stage, which is...

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"If this panel is going to be amazing because it's gonna be the first time we hear about the work that the first group of Photo Ark Edge fellows is doing. We were lucky that this group is coming from Latin America, so they are all working in Latin American countries. Each of them is working with a species that is part of the Photo Ark, and that is also, when you see, if I can say, the edge, it worked correctly; it's an evolutionary distinct and globally endangered species.

"So it's not that they were randomly picked; there's an intention behind it. And I have to say that after hearing the award ceremony yesterday, it is incredible to see the amazing work they are doing. They're working with communities, engaging the local communities, and really trying to change the status of all of these species.

"And I also want to thank the Zoological Society because we're doing this project in partnership with them, so thank you so much! I know you're somebody, so we will do this session differently from the other panelists. It's gonna be more of an interactive session.

"So we will go from north to south, and I will ask Joe if you can give us, and I think, what about taking this photo of this beautiful species in it? On each animal, I'm supposed to. So for this, the volcano rabbit, I'm ever going to the Mexico City Zoo. It was really hot, and there were very few of them. They are really, really threatened by our pets; dogs and cats; all rodents are, actually. If you want to save birds in your neighborhood, keep your cats inside your house and never let that cat outside again. Even if they're declawed, they are efficient killing machines.

"So we work for our first fellow; her name is Jahaira Garcia. Jahaira works in Mexico near Mexico City in the volcano area, and she works to save all kind of rabbit better known in Mexico as a Capuchin. So go ahead.

"Yeah, hi! Thank you, guys. When we think of a rabbit, the majority of people think that rabbits don’t have problems because they reproduce like rabbits, and they are so common and abundant. But that's not true for all the species. One example is the volcano rabbit or 'soccer touches' (Kyle said this); this species only has two young per litter, so its fecundity is low.

"In addition to this, this species has many problems; there are a lot of threats. One of these is that its distribution is so restricted; its habitat is only in the pine forests with bunch grasses that are distributed in this low, mainly on volcano kernels in the valley of Mexico. The other threats are because of activities conducted by humans. For example, human development is one of these. The agricultural activities, cattle grazing, burning, logging, hunting, feral dogs.

"Feral dogs are coming, and in the future, climate change. So we have a great challenge because its habitat and these species is decreasing time by time. Another more important is that many people don’t know about what kind of rabbit. Also, the local people think that this species doesn’t have problems, that there is another rabbit that is common.

"For that reason, in collaboration with the National Geographic Society and the Zoological Society of London, we want to implement a monitoring program with the local people, the owner of the land, and we want to train all these people in different activities like radio tracking. And with the children, we want to implement awareness activities.

"So we think that we can only conserve this beautiful and cute species if we can work together. Thank you."

"What about this photo, Joe? Look! It's a bird taper."

"So I could talk; I could tell you a boring story about how I photographed this at the Omaha zoo; it's a great zoo. I could talk about the fact that they're relegated to the mountains now; they used to be in the lowlands too. But people, they're a big meaty animal.

"But what I want to talk about is the lady I met who is the tapir keeper at a zoo in Oklahoma. She had a plastic arm. I said, 'What happened?' She said, 'Well, the tapir I was taking care of ripped it off,' but it wasn't a Baird's tapir; it was a Malayan tapir.

"So go ahead!"

"Let me introduce you to Marina Rivero. Marina Rivero is from Mexico, and she's working in the southern part of Mexico in the state of Chiapas with a picture in Costa Rica because in Mexico, it's getting harder and harder to see these animals in the wild because they are highly threatened.

"So tapirs are called living fossils because they had been on the earth for almost thirty million years. So, but today, only four species are left. So this is the Baird's tapir, and these species range from South Mexico to North Colombia. It has been estimated that we have around 3,000 individuals in the wild. Well, one of the smallest populations is located in the Sierra Madre, Chiapas, which is a region where I work.

"The main threats for the species there are poaching, habitat loss, and fragmentation. So yeah, so I know that we are the problem; we are causing the reduction of the wildlife populations, but we are also the solution. So, in order to conserve and to protect the tapirs, we need and we must work with local communities.

"So that's why I developed that a tapir project last year, a project with the help of National Geographic and the Zoological Society of London to identify the main critical areas where the tables are more vulnerable to poaching and habitat loss, so we can direct conservation efforts to these areas.

"I'm also... I have a community monitoring program since 2015, and we are training these local people so they can learn how to use camera traps, and they can learn the basic concepts of biological monitoring. Finally, we are developing an environmental education campaign so the kids from the Sierra Madre, Chiapas can learn more about the species and know how to protect these species."

"This is a manatee, I think. And I was locked overnight in the Dallas World Aquarium, which takes up a full city block in downtown Dallas. I was staying in the apartment they have, but I couldn't get out, and so I couldn't sleep, and so I wandered through the aquarium.

"I had a single flash on a camera, and they have a big tube, a tunnel you walk through, acrylic. This animal was sleeping on that tunnel, and so the first flash woke him up, and the second flash he started to drift up, and I got a picture and he swam off. And that's the only picture I have of a manatee. I'm glad it's in focus."

"So our next speaker is John Malkovich."

"Jemelle Galvez Weston works in the west coast of Belize, and he worked to save the West Indian manatee."

"So tomorrow, I'm a proud Belizean. I grew up in a very small village in Belize near Gills Point, and until FEMA seaman permanent residents there as a kid, I always knew about manatees but never knew that they were in trouble.

"At the age of 11, I used to observe the researchers go by my grandparents' house, so I was looking both ways really curious. I showed up at the dock one morning, and I said to the crew, 'I want to come out with you guys.' The leader looked at me; he said, 'You're too small.' I mean, I was 11 years old, I don't know if it was my... I’m about the crisis, the myriam changes violence! They are kids! Let's go!

"What I’m sure of is that I never asked my grandparents for permission, which had some consequences. And this is where my journey began being a manatee and the best friend. And this is where it brought me, to National Geographic and the Zoological Society of London.

"I'm using my project to combine efforts of conservation, education, and awareness, targeting four qualities and working closely with my stakeholders to try and improve the sustainability, the viability, and productivity of the endangered manatees in Belize for the habitat benefits of world wildlife and human livelihoods.

"Thank you."

"So Hawksbill turtle, this was at a rescue center actually in Mexico on the East Coast. The thing I think about these turtles every time I see turtles is that their shells help lead to their demise. A lot of turtles are eaten; this is a small... sometimes these are collected; it's very small animals used to make beautiful objects out of their shells, and that's still a threat.

"And it's too bad they're so pretty, isn't it? So our next speaker is Anya La Rose."

"Vanilla Rao's is from Colombia; he works in the coast of Colombia, Colombia, Costa Rica. I saw you from Colin. He's from Costa Rica, and he works on the coast of Costa Rica with the Hawksbill turtle."

"Well, I think I'm a very lucky guy, seeing both of my parents are also sea turtle biologists, and they're hopefully watching us from the live stream on the way back in Costa Rica. So hi, Mom, we made it!

"Basically, the first steps that I took were patrolling the beaches of Costa Rica with my parents looking for sea turtles, and as growing up, I heard a lot of times that of the four species of sea turtles that we have in Costa Rica, I would probably never get to see a Hawksbill live since illegal poaching and unsustainable fisheries were bringing this species to regional extirpation in the whole Eastern Pacific Ocean, where now there are an estimated 500 nesting females left in the whole region.

"So fast forward a little bit more; when I was 20 years old, I was a research assistant for a group of very dedicated biologists exploring the whole coast of Central America, looking for critical places to protect in order to ensure the survival of these species. Now, I'm leading this project where we not only discovered that a small and fragile juvenile population of hawksbill sea turtles are using our waters to feed and grow, but we are also tagging them and tracking them using different techniques to follow their movements to learn where they are going, where they are coming from, and just as we learned from Pablo yesterday, I'm also taking kids from the local communities to these waters to swim with these turtles, to connect with this animal and to get mesmerized by their beauty so that we can enforce the government authorities to create and manage new marine protected areas in the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

"Thank you!"

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"And the giant anteater, this was photographed at the Caldwell Zoo in Texas. What's amazing is when the baby is riding the mother, the stripes line up, and you can't really see at a distance that she's carrying young. I learned that firsthand. I was doing a story for the Geographic on the Pantanal in Brazil, and I saw some grasses moving, and the grass kept moving into one spot.

"So of course, eager to get a picture, I ran right out, and what's amazing is a mom with a baby on her back can stand up and try to eviscerate you with her big claws on front of him. So I kept going; I didn't get any pictures that day at all."

"Vinícius Oliveira, he's from Brazil."

"Oh, I'm not going to change nationalities; he's from Brazil, and he's working with the giant anteater."

"Thanks so much! Giant anteaters are pretty unique, and they are unlike any other animal that I have ever seen in the wild. The first time I saw one, I was in Brazil, which I think is the best place to be for looking for them, and I was fascinated about everything!

"So they are bigger than they look, and they have this huge front claws, so you don’t want to get too close. But also, there’s a male, and even the sound that they make, and I just kept thinking, you know: How can this animal still be here? And giant anteaters are facing local extinction both in Central and South America, and in fact, in the last decade, almost 30 percent of the population decreased.

"So the major threats to the species right now are habitat loss and fragmentation, and also fires and roadkill. In Brazil, they are one of the top species killed on roads. So last year, we started the Anteaters in Highways project, and we want to understand, quantify, and mitigate the impacts of roads on giant anteater populations. To do that, we are using camera traps and GPS tracking devices, and we are also working with the local communities and with the government to develop a long-term conservation plan for the species in this region."

"I know this is a big effort! I know that for some of you, it's the first time they are on stage, so I would like to ask for another one!"

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"Before I turn it over to the audience to do some questions, I would like to ask some questions to the five of you, and I will start by Marina and Vinícius. So how much has the use of these photos and other videos from your camera traps helped you to really inspire action in the communities that you work with?"

"So I will... two weeks before I came here, I was in Madrid, Chiapas working, putting some camera traps, and the community monitors there just asked me, like: 'Marina, we can we show the people from the community like the photos and the videos that we have been gathering from the camera traps since 2015?' And I was like, 'Okay, let's do it!'

"So they get the canon, the projector, and we make like this night of videos and animations, and it was like incredible to see the faces of the people there because they were like so happy to see these animals working in front of the camera traps, and these cameras are in their forests. So they were super happy to have this information, and eventually, they were telling me, 'What can we do to conserve these species?'

"Now they are very engaged."

"Yeah, I agree, Varina! And, you know, just this week we are all in schools here in D.C., and one kid asked me: 'What does the giant anteater have in common with humans?' And I told them about the baby and the fact that the mother carries the baby for the first year of the baby's life, and the kids loved that!

"I know that children get excited about everything, right? And I feel like as we grown up, we kind of lose that ability of being amazed with the world around us, and I truly believe that these pictures can help us to bring that back. And that is like the first step to make people care."

"So, Yahaira and Jemal, how important has been adding this storytelling component to the scientific work that you're doing in your conservation projects?"

"I consider the series Day, I am not sure if they only, but just the best way that we have to get the attention of the people. Many people don’t know about these amazing animals and histories, and if we can tell them all about these animals, its traits, the different problems that they're facing, we can get their attention. And if we get their interest, we can involve them in the different activities of conservation."

"I think it’s really, really important. I think there’s no other way about it! Like the title 'A Deep Analysis,' every animal is a desert story. As scientists, we may collect data and sit on a boat and take all these equipment, and that’s okay.

"But if we cannot collect the information and transform it in a way that the layperson can understand, people that are actually causing the problem, make that can contribute to making the change, then we’re wasting our time. We’re doing it the wrong way; we need to start all over because we need to be able to take that data and transmit it to the people so that they can see how they can be a part of it.

"Let them realize that they can be a part of change; change is not only for scientists and for researchers; it’s for a normal person, for the individuals, that show garbage in the water. It is silliness! Change requires a one-world, one-people effort."

"Thank you, Danny. After the six months of experience of being part of this fellowship and being trained on storytelling techniques, how much have you incorporated that component into the work you're doing?"

"So well. Just like Jamal was saying, I believe that one of the greatest challenges of the scientific community right now is to be able to deliver our information in an understandable way for the general public.

"So, you know, we need to be able to tell a compelling story that moves people to try to change and work with us. And, you know, for me, it's been very helpful using Joel's pictures and using all that we have learned during this experience to be able to go to the local communities, to the kids, to everyone, people with no education, and be able to touch them and to motivate them to, you know, start moving, start protecting stuff."

"Yeah, thank you! So Joel, how do you feel about this first cohort of Photo Ark fellows? On seeing that it’s actually happening?"

"Fantastic! And see? This isn’t so bad sitting up here; they might even buy you lunch; I don't know! You guys all did a great job, and you continue to do a great job.

"I have a question about the baby manatee. Can you tell us the story about how that baby landed in your arms? You have a red spout from a milk bottle in one hand, and you're caring for this animal. I would just love to know the backstory of that."

"That, the manatee, they named her Mayhem, Lucky, because he was a lucky animal! When I didn’t normally look that way; they normally fully wrong, lady! You can see the floods; I mean, love, loves it, because it’s really dehydrated, haven't eaten in a while, been separated from its mother.

"But it wasn’t a... it was at an abundant beach, and this guy coincidentally went to this beach, and there’s this one on the line on the shore waiting to die. He jumped on his bicycle and rode to my mom’s house because he knew who I was to tell my mom, 'Call me immediately!' So she called me, and I went immediately, and I start up!

"And there I was! I had never seen a manatee at such a bad condition. And the reason why Mayhem and her location lock is because it’s a low-key animal, so really, really chewy lucky animal!"

"And these animals--not because they can speak, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have something to say! We are a voice for these animals to speak up, let them know what’s happening. And like the boot camp, the story boot camp, like Greg taught us, to sing out, Louise!

"If you want to be heard, you have to speak up! And our goal is to spread the word! And that’s why I mentioned I’m grateful for National Geographic and for the Edge for giving us up, giving us this platform, giving us this opportunity to get a word, get our work on the map, make people know that there are animals in other parts of the world that need your help."

"Thank the audience! I don’t know if somebody has..."

"We have one here. My question is addressed to Joe. I have two questions for you. You mentioned a number a thousand for 21, or whatever the number was; what is the N number? That’s my first question, if we know what it is.

"And my second question is if you could comment a little bit about the duration it takes to take one of those incredible photos? What is the shortest and the longest?"

"Sure! The world, zoos, aquariums, private breeders, and wildlife rehabbers, which is mostly where we work, they house currently between twelve and fifteen thousand species. We think that number will decline over the next few years because many animals don’t breed in captivity, and so what we’re seeing right now are the very last generations of these animals because they can’t be pulled anymore from the woods for various reasons.

"Some of them don’t exist in the wild anymore. Some of it’s politically incorrect; some of these animals could contain bird flu! So we're gonna see the numbers of animals in captivity contract at the same time our numbers go up, and we will likely meet him at thirteen or fourteen thousand. I think that’s the best guess!

"In terms of duration of shoots, we did a pig in the Philippines that was 56 seconds. They’d prepped this space in black; they’d practiced within three times, and after 56 seconds, he hopped over the little wall that was there, and he had been; that was that.

"So then we did another pig three days later, and the shoot was 13 seconds long just because he wouldn’t come up to the background anymore. That was, I mean, we had 13 seconds, and we got four frames, and that’s it. For many birds, we’ll photograph him for five or six frames, maybe 10 images on each color, and that takes a minute or two. For some animals that are like primates that are enjoying extra bananas that day, maybe it’s 15 or 20 minutes, just depends on the animal and how they’re reacting, really.

"But we work really closely with the zoos and the animal keepers; they know the personalities of most of these animals, and we ask before. I say, 'Is this animal sweet? Is it nervous? Is it hyper? And what’s it like?' and we try to get that understanding before the animal is ever brought into photograph."

"So far, so good! And we figure in another 15 years, we’ll get done!"

"Another question for Joe. What’s your plan B to take the next photo of a chimpanzee again?"

"Oh, try not to think about chimps too much... I don’t have a plan B! I tried again in Singapore at the Wildlife Reserve, Singapore Zoo, and I got two pictures. They had a white room, and there’s an adult female and a juvenile, the three-year-old, and the first picture is them both looking at me, kind of boring.

"And the second picture are them jumping up to the ceiling and yelling at me, and so that was it. It was a 10-second shoot, so still, nothing very intimate. I’m also not working with animals that are trained for the movies or anything; these are animals that are just there! And so I’m not in any rush, really. It makes it much fun of your story when you say you still haven’t gotten a good picture of a chimp!"

"Maybe we'll leave it at that! So you each talked about working with young children and getting them inspired to care about the animals. What are some steps young children can take to maybe follow in your footsteps and pursue a career in this area?"

"I didn’t imagine that I would be like sitting here! You know, like, just go ahead! You're never too young! I always thought kids, you’re never too young to start; it’s not a starting point; there is a finishing point which you’re near!

"If you’re never too young to start, don’t just dream; believe! Kids are easily inspired, and to be honest, they are the last hope for this time, and they make me optimistic in the sense that they are excited about conservation; they’re excited to go and do a cleanup; they’re excited about these things. And they’re the ones that are going to save this planet, and it is always a possibility to give them the knowledge they need in order to do that, otherwise you better teach them survival!"

"Can I add a little something while we're waiting? Yeah, I bet you none of you guys had anybody walk up to you and say, 'Hey, you know, we've got this opening on our team for a Hawksbill turtle specialist?' No!

"You all saw a need, and you filled it! And that’s really important for any young people that are watching today, is don’t think somebody else is going to do it! All these guys up here made their own ways; they just were very passionate about something, became experts on it, and studied for years and worked for years and years and years, and you get pretty much!"

"So all of you are outstanding storytellers, and one aspect of storytelling is sound. What do your animals sound like?"

"They, what kind of rabbits is they? The only rabbit that can make a sound, and it’s like..."

[Laughter]

"Hopefully like a few eggs."

[Laughter]

"Giant anteaters are usually quiet as well, but when we capture them, they get angry, and they just blow the air through. There’s no 'ands,' like in Spanish! They call also alligators, which just means 'like' and 'there.' So if there are no, not anymore!"

"I have one question over there."

"Yep, hi! Yes, I have kind of a different question; this is something that I've thought about, and something that I find other people who I'm trying to convince that there’s a real problem, because a lot of people in this room are very aware of that, but I feel like we’re the minority a lot of the times, and 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are extinct.

"And so there’s this sort of balance that I have to find when I explain that we’re gonna see that; we’re gonna continue to see that! But how can we demonstrate your Ark? It’s a beautiful thing! I’m a photographer; I’m shooting this event, and I love your work! But I find this sort of difficult way to find... how do I explain to someone that, yeah, we’re gonna have this extinction; we’re going to have these species go out, but there's a fine line between it's a problem and it’s sort of what’s expected.

"So how do you sort of quantify that? How do you explain that to people who I’m sure have approached you with that problem?"

"Can I jump all over that one? It rates a thousand times higher right now! A thousand times higher!

"We need these other species to exist! Especially, especially our doctor ravens! Specialty? It’s just plants! We lose plants, we lose vast stretches of rainforests that regulate our climate and our rainfall! We are in huge trouble!

"So you can get people fired up about this if you say, 'I don’t know, do you like living on the planet? You want to survive yourself?' You explain to them how pollinating insects work and they bring you one-third of every bite of food you eat. And there! And lost the rain, so rainforests, the collapse of the ocean, is the acidity that’s taking away the coral, which takes away the fish that people need to eat!

"You can get into the weeds with them if they want to go there! But usually, if you say the rates a thousand times faster and it jeopardizes humanity! I mean, it’s jeopardizing it right now!

"So you just get into that if they want to argue further! Great!"

"Thank you! So to end this panel, we’re gonna do one idea that Danny had, to wait and just close the panel. And I'm gonna ask the five of you to tell us what we can do as an audience to help you save the species that you're working with.

"So we can begin with Vinícius over there."

"So I just want to say that if you want to know more about what we are doing to help the giant anteater, you can look for our project, the Anteaters and Highways project in social media, and also go to giantanteater.org, and please help me to make this species better known because a lot of people have misconceptions about them!

"And also, next time you’re driving, think about how can we make roads safer for wildlife and for ourselves!"

"Oh, thank you!"

[Applause]

"So: 1,500 sea turtles are killed every year by the Costa Rican fishing fleet!

"I really want to encourage you to become better consumers. We've talked a lot about plastic, but Silvia mentioned the other day about overfishing, and the unsustainable use of our oceans could be, together with plastic use, the biggest threat to our oceans!

"So I really want to encourage you, if you like seafood as much as I did, ask yourselves: Where's your food coming from? Where is this tuna coming from? How was it caught? And how many sea turtles and other animals were killed in order for me to get this little shrimp on my plate?

"Because clearly this is not a serial issue but an ecosystem issue that other oceans are facing!"

"Thank you! There is just one thousand one of these left in Belize! One! That’s the last stronghold! Monkeys are literally fighting for their life! It’s not a fight that they can fight alone! It’s not one that... well, it’s one other thing! When I'm just conservation, it's for, and the few people that actually care about one!

"And this will require one world, one people's effort to change their behavior, whatever it be! Chewing garbage in the water, certain messing in my 90 areas, or spilling bustamante areas!

"But contributing isn’t just donating; it’s sharing a post on Facebook; writing a letter of encouragement! People like or sometimes get discouraged, and we need and we depend on the support of humans alike to support our stuff as well going forward!

"Thank you!"

[Applause]

"So I would like to transmit information about tapirs that you talked about, because they are really not well known, and also try to reduce your consumption of meat, because we are changing forests to cattle ranches, so we’re literally ending this forest because of this activity!

"So if you can think about it: Do you want to meet, or you had something else? Like, try to reduce this!"

"Yeah, we cannot take care of what we don’t know! So I invite you to share our stories, the story about volcano rabbits! If you want to get more information about how we’re going to do with the conservation program of rabbits, I invite you to visit our page.

"All of us have a blog, and we are posting information. And another thing that I consider is very important is, as Joel said, feral dogs... cutouts from fur and fur! Ferals are a big problem, so I invite you to care about our pets! Please don’t leave them outside our houses!"

[Music]

"Continue with our jobs and work with us! Thank you!"

"No, they said it great! You guys did great! You should have seen them in the green room, man!"

"Oh, thank you, guys! Thanks for all!"

[Music]

[Applause]

"The Photo Ark fellows, everybody! Alright, guys, our next conversation is moderated by the senior director of wildlife at the National Geographic Society, and a passionate advocate for our natural world! Please give a warm welcome to Kathryn Workman!"

[Applause]