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)

Devil Ark manager Dean Reid reacts as Tasmanian Devil joeys climb on him before the first shipment of healthy and genetically diverse devils to the island state of Tasmania leave the Devil Ark sanctuary in Barrington Tops on Australia's mainland, November 17, 2015. The largest group so far of disease-free Tasmanian devils has been released in the wild, as part of plans to save the carnivorous marsupials from a cancer threatening them with extinction. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

British fashion designer Mary Quant, right, waves as she poses with models wearing her Mod creations in Little Rock, Ark. on October 25, 1968. The models, from left, are, Amanda Tear, Rory Davis and Penny Yates. (Photo by AP Photo)

Store owner Sidney Graham removes storm damage debris at Living Loved Lash and Body Studio on West Walnut Avenue Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Rogers, Ark. Powerful storms left a wide trail of destruction across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. (Photo by Charlie Kaijo/The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP Photo)

Decaying fishing trawlers known collectively as The Fleetwood Wrecks, are seen at low tide on the banks of the River Wyre in Fleetwood, Britain on September 26, 2023. (Photo by Lee Smith/Reuters)

A youth in make-up waits for the start of the annual Zombie walk in Mexico City, Saturday, October 22, 2016. Hundreds dressed in rags and ghoulish makeup to look bloody and decaying, gathered in the historic center of Mexico's capital. (Photo by Christian Palma/AP Photo)

Built for over a million people, the city of Ordos was designed to be the crowning glory of Inner Mongolia. Doomed to incompletion however, this futuristic metropolis now rises empty out of the deserts of northern China. Only 2% of its buildings were ever filled; the rest has largely been left to decay, abandoned mid-construction, earning Ordos the title of China's Ghost City.

A tunnel with electric switches are seen in Josip Broz Tito's underground secret bunker (ARK) in Konjic, October 16, 2014. In the early 1950s, Josip Broz Tito, the late leader of the former Yugoslavia, ordered the building of the secret bunker, located 900 feet (270 m) underground and near the Bosnian town of Konjic, to safeguard the country's ruling class in case of a nuclear attack. Construction at the complex, which had a cost equivalent price tag of $4.6 billion, continued until 1979, the year before Tito died. (Photo by Dado Ruvic/Reuters)