A participant wearing a fantasy costume poses for a picture during the Hero Festival in Marseille, France November 12, 2016. (Photo by Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

A woman paints the floor of a pond as her child pulls at her saree in Delhi, India November 23, 2016. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

A woman walks past a stall at a market in Banjul, Gambia December 15, 2016. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

Kaw-Claa, a Tlingit native woman in full potlatch dancing costume, 1906. (Photo by Case & Draper/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

A woman poses for a photograph during Holi celebrations in the town of Barsana in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, March 6, 2017. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

Vendors selling vegetables wait for customers under a flyover in the early morning in Ahmedabad, India on February 1, 2017. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

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)

A worker applies colour to strings which will be used to fly kites, by a roadside in Ahmedabad, India, November 23, 2017. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)