The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)

Once upon a time a myth was born that insects, unlike animals, are just a machines that not capable of learning and survive only based on their instincts. That myth has become the widespread opinion. Of course, this opinion is indeed erroneous, like many other widespread opinions. Let us try to find out which part is a myth and which part is true.

An employee in a bookshop adjusts packaged cigarettes which have to be sold in identical olive-brown packets bearing the same typeface and largely covered with graphic health warnings, with the same style of writing so the only identifier of a brand will be the name on the packet, in Sydney on December 1, 2012. A new world-first law forcing tobacco companies to sell cigarettes in identical packets came into effect Saturday in Australia in an effort to strip any glamour from smoking and prevent young people from taking up the habit. (Photo by William West/AFP Photo)

Tatiana Osorio, of Orlando, cries while giving blood at the OneBlood blood center near the mass shooting at a nightclub, June 13, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. Osorio lost three friends in the shooting. (Photo by David Goldman/AP Photo)

The work of Kirby Sattler is fueled by an inherent interest in the Indigenous Peoples of the Earth. His current images evolve from the history, ceremony, mythology, and spirituality of the Native American

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A woman places her fingers into the crucifix-shaped holes in one of the ancient columns in the Church of the Nativity on December 22, 2011 in Bethlehem, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

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