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)

Aerial photo taken on April 10, 2022 shows the construction site of Haikou duty-free shopping complex in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province. With a total construction area of about 926,000 square meters, the Haikou duty-free shopping complex project is expected to be officially put into use this year. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) was the most popular species overall based on English language Wikipedia page views. It is the world’s largest lizard, living on the islands of Komodo, Rinca and other smaller islands, and on Flores island in Indonesia. (Photo by Eric Nathan/Alamy)

In this December 13, 2014 photo, Ricardo Alegria holds his donkeys by a leash as he yells to sell their milk in the streets of Santiago, Chile. Alegria, along with his brother Marco, has been selling fresh donkey milk for the past 25 years, and says it's recommended as a vitamin boost. Shot glass size cups of the drink sell for about $2 dollars. Half a liter, which is the most he says his donkeys can give in one day, sells for about $20 dollars. (Photo by Luis Hidalgo/AP Photo)

Man prepares wigs as he waits for customers in downtown Johannesburg, on August 5, 2014. Some estimates put Africa's dry hair industry at as much as $6 billion a year; Nigerian singer Muma Gee recently boasted that she spends 500,000 naira ($3,100) on a single hair piece made of 11 sets of human hair. (Photo by Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)

A family poses for a picture in front of the carcasses of sacrificed buffalos a day after the sacrificial ceremony of the “Gadhimai Mela” festival held in Bariyapur November 29, 2014. Sword-wielding Hindu devotees in Nepal began slaughtering thousands of animals and birds in a ritual sacrifice on Friday, ignoring calls by animal rights activists to halt what they described as the world's largest such exercise. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Irish dancer Holly Venables on day three of the Cheltenham Racing Festival at Prestbury Park in Cheltenham, England on March 13, 2025. (Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile)

A racehorse is hoisted up before its operation at Veliefendi equine hospital in Istanbul March 3, 2015. A state-of-the-art hospital for hundreds of horses run by the Jockey Club of Turkey at Istanbul's Veliefendi racecourse is the country's oldest and biggest. Grooms and trainers at the equine clinic work with vets and nurses while owners hope their prize runners, often worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, will recover quickly and then run faster still. (Photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters)