Beautiful photos of animals facing extinction | Joel Sartore | TEDxMidwest

As more than half of the world's species are threatened with extinction, Joel Sartore has embarked on a personal mission to document a world worth saving. With his Photo Ark project, Joel looks animals in the eye and shows you why we should care.

Joel Sartore, veteran National Geographic photographer, has chased after - and been chased by - all kinds of wild animals. He has also photographed more than 2,500 species in studio set ups at zoos and rescue facilities for the Photo Ark project to raise awareness about the extinction threats. It is a subject that has been close to Sartore's heart since childhood, when he first read about the death of the last passenger pigeon.

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