Wildlife Photo Essays / Galleries

Conservation organizations from around the world have joined together to create the Alliance for Zero Extinction, an initiative that focuses on preventing extinctions by identifying and protecting key sites that are the last remaining habitat for one or more endangered species. The Alliance for Zero Extinction is currently focusing on the species and sites in most urgent need of protection. The Alliance for Zero Extinction used three basic criteria to identify critical sites in need of immediate protection, endangerement, irreplaceability, and discreteness.

The wildlife of the Galapagos Islands includes some of the world's most unique animals—marine iguanas, Galapagos land iguanas, blue-footed boobies, Galapagos tortoises and many others. The Galapagos Islands are part of the country of Ecuador and are located on the equator about 600 miles west of the South American coast. The Galapagos are an archipelago of volcanic islands that includes 13 larger islands, 6 small islands, and over 100 islets. Although the Galapagos are located on the equator, they are not exceedingly hot by tropical standards, with average daytime temperatures in the lowlands reaching about 85°F.

Snails are invertebrates, which means they lack a backbone. They belong to a large and highly diverse group of invertebrates known as the Phylum Mollusca (also known more commonly as 'mollusks'). The Phylum Mollusca includes slugs, clams, oysters, mussels, squids, octopuses, and nautiluses, in addition to snails. Terrestrial snails belong to a group within the Order Stylommatophora called the 'pulmonates'. This classification level is as yet unassigned (it is not officially a family) but the term pulmonate is used to refer to air-breathing land snails.

Slimbridge Wetland Centre consists of 325 hectares of internationally protected wetlands and serves as the headquarters of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT). In total, there are 128 species of wildfowl at the centre—it is the world's largest collection of swans, geese, and ducks. It's also the only place where you can see all six species of Flamingos together. The centre, located in in Slimbridge, England, consists of several loops of walkways (all easily accessible) that snake through the wetlands.

The cat family is diverse and includes the familiar domestic cat, lions, tigers, ocelots, jaguars, caracals, leopards, pumas, lynxes, and many other groups of cat. Cats have muscular bodies and are efficient hunters armed with acute eyesight, great aqility, and a sharp set of teeth. Cats are superb hunters. Some felids can take down prey that are much larger than themselves, providing evidence of their well-honed skills as predators.