A Sri Lankan elephant, accompanied by his mahout, browse through a roadside fruit stall in Colombo on January 19, 2015. The Sri Lankan elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as the population has declined by at least 50 percent over the last three generations, with the species threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. (Photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP Photo)

Rare images of wild tigers in Bhutan, captured by camera traps, show tigers and other animals using high-altitude wildlife corridors which are lifelines to isolated tiger populations and critical to genetic diversity, conservation and growth. Here: A wild Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) captured on a camera trap in corridor eight at an altitude of 3,540 metres in Trongsa, Bhutan. (Photo by Emmanuel Rondeau/WWF UK/The Guardian)

An injured vulture is treated at the VulPro Vulture Rehabilitation Centre in Hartebeepoortdam in the Magalisburg region on September 15, 2015. Confined to southern Africa, just under 4,000 breeding pairs of Cape Vultures remain in the wild, mostly in South Africa, Lesotho and Botswana. Unless conservation efforts are successful, Africa's largest vulture species may be facing eventual extinction. (Photo by Mujahid Safodien/AFP Photo)

A person takes photos of Vervet monkeys that are eating in a parking lot near the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Dania Beach, Florida, USA, 10 May 2022. Over 40 descendants of smallish vervets, escaped from now closed breeding facility, are living within 1,500 acres around the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport. The Dania Beach Vervet Project is an organization established in 2016 with the purpose of promote the conservation, and education about the local free ranging vervet monkeys in Dania Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cristóbal Herrera/EPA/EFE)

Zookeeper Agata holds a rare newborn Brazilian three-banded armadillo inside its enclosure at the Wroclaw Zoo in Wroclaw, Poland on May 11, 2023. The Tolypeutes matatus, or the southern armor also known as bolita or tatu-bola, is a fairly popular animal in South America but is increasingly rare. The new zoo child was born on March 23. The species is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and threatened by habitat loss and hunting. (Photo by Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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)

Taiwanese-US artist Chin Chih Yang poses for a photograph with 30,000 aluminum cans after his performance called “Kill Me or Change” in Taipei, Taiwan, 23 April 2016. “Kill Me or Change!” is a performance piece that aims to raise awareness of the benefits of recycling and, encourage people to recycle to conserve resources. (Photo by Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA)

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.