In this photograph taken on April 16, 2014, a veterinary staff member of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme center conducts medical examinations on a 14-year-old male orangutan found with air gun metal pellets embedded in his body in Sibolangit district in northern Sumatra island. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/AFP Photo)

In this July 12, 2007 file photo, a two-day-old piping plover runs along a beach in the Quonochontaug Conservation Area in Westerly, R.I. (Photo by Steven Senne/AP Photo)

People celebrate outside the Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

Giant pandas play in the snow at the Shenshuping Base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda on January 13, 2022 in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province of China. (Photo by Chen Xianlin/VCG via Getty Images)

A fight between two female musk oxen, Norway, 2021. The image was captured in Norway’s Dovrefjell national park, where the musk ox (Ovibos moschatus) was reintroduced several years ago for its conservation. It is normal for males of this species to engage in fierce battles during the mating season but unusual for two females. (Photo by Miquel Angel Artús Illana)

It doesn’t make for the most flattering photoshoot, but there is a reason these zebras at Lewa wildlife conservancy in Kenya in the second decade of August 2025 are stood head to tail: they use their tails to swat flies from each others’ faces. (Photo by Andrew Campbell/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Tim Laman is a field biologist and wildlife photojournalist. His pioneering research in the rain forest canopy in Borneo led to a PhD from Harvard and his first National Geographic article in 1997. Since then, he has pursued his passion for exploring wild places and documenting little-known and endangered wildlife by becoming a regular contributor to National Geographic. He has eighteen articles to his credit to date, all of which have had a conservation message. Some have focused on endangered species such as Orangutans or Hornbills, while others, such as a series of articles on Conservation International’s Biodiversity Hotspots, have highlighted regions under intense pressure.

A 6-month old female giant panda cub, an offspring of Xing Xing, formerly known as Fu Wa and Liang Liang, formerly known as Feng Yi, plays at the Giant Panda Conservation Center at the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, February 18, 2016. (Photo by Joshua Paul/AP Photo)