“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)

“The red panda (Ailurus fulgens, or shining-cat), is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs. It feeds mainly on bamboo, but is omnivorous and may also eat eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. It is a solitary animal, mainly active from dusk to dawn, and is largely sedentary during the day”. – Wikipedia

Photo: In this handout image provided by Taronga Zoo, Seba, a baby Red Panda, explores his new home at Taronga Zoo on April 7, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. The Red Panda cub was born at Christmas and is the 45th to be born at the zoo since 1977. (Photo by Peter Hardin/Taronga Zoo via Getty Images)

A reef shell lies on a beach as the sun sets on Lady Elliot Island located north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 10, 2015. UNESCO World Heritage delegates recently snorkelled on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, thousands of coral reefs, which stretch over 2,000 km off the northeast coast. Surrounded by manta rays, dolphins and reef sharks, their mission was to check the health of the world's largest living ecosystem, which brings in billions of dollars a year in tourism. Some coral has been badly damaged and animal species, including dugong and large green turtles, are threatened. UNESCO will say on Wednesday whether it will place the reef on a list of endangered World Heritage sites, a move the Australian government wants to avoid at all costs, having lobbied hard overseas. Earlier this year, UNESCO said the reef's outlook was “poor”. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

Sheep walk as they are herded to summer pastures in Serra da Estrela, near Seia, Portugal June 27, 2015. In late June, shepherds young and old in the Seia region of central Portugal start guiding sheep, goats and cattle to the Serra da Estrela, the country’s highest mountains, in search of better pastures. There they stay until the end of September. Modern-day shepherds may have mobile phones to keep in touch with family and friends, but their lifestyle has changed little for centuries. The sound of cowbells and the bark of longhaired mastiffs starts early in the morning as the animals – often decorated with traditional woollen balls on their horns – are herded up steep, narrow paths. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

Piper Hoppe, 10, from Minnetonka, Minnesota, holds a sign at the doorway of River Bluff Dental clinic in protest against the killing of a famous lion in Zimbabwe, in Bloomington, Minnesota July 29, 2015. A Zimbabwean court on Wednesday charged a professional local hunter Theo Bronkhorst with failing to prevent an American from unlawfully killing “Cecil”, the southern African country's best-known lion. The American, Walter James Palmer, a Minnesota dentist who paid $50,000 to kill the lion, has left Zimbabwe. He says he did kill the animal but believed the hunt was legal and that the necessary permits had been issued. (Photo by Eric Miller/Reuters)

A young moose stands behind a window in an administration building of Siemens in Dresden, Germany Monday August 25, 2014. Police are trying to capture a moose on the loose in the eastern German city of Dresden. A spokesman for Dresden police says the young bull walked into the offices of German industrial giant Siemens on Monday and got stuck behind a glass wall. Marko Laske says officers and wildlife are trying to shoo the moose into a container so he can be taken to the local zoo. Moose are rare in Germany and the animal is likely to have come from neighboring Poland. (Photo by Arno Burgi/AP Photo/DPA)

The buffalo bull charges, on March 23, 2014, in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa. A young elephant calf tried to attack an old buffalo bull and was taught a lesson it will never forget. The calf was with its herd at a watering hold Addo Elephant National park, South Africa, when the buffalo ventured towards the water. The elephant ran towards the buffalo but the larger animal picked up the young calf and tossed it four metres in the air. Luckily, the elephant was not hurt, but its pride was seriously injured. (Photo by Conrad Cramer/Barcroft Media)