A competitor shows her tattoos at the MBK Tattoo Contest in a shopping mall in Bangkok October 23, 2014. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Bikini Contest in Daytona Beach, Florida’s Atlantic coast, circa 1980s. (Photo by Evan Hurd/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)

A contestant poses for a photograph backstage ahead of the Miss Gay Jozi pageant in Johannesburg, May 23, 2015. (Photo by Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)

Participants adjust their make up backstage during a breast model contest in Hefei, Anhui province September 24, 2014. Over 100 models participated in this contest, which was held by a cosmetic company. The winner was awarded 680,000 yuan ($110,825) as cosmetic funds and 30,000 yuan ($4,890) in cash, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Holocaust survivors are seen backstage during a beauty contest for survivors of the Nazi genocide in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, November 24, 2015. Thirteen women took part in the third annual beauty contest for Holocaust survivors in Israel on Tuesday. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

A Japanese girl participates in a calligraphy contest to the celebrate the New Year in Tokyo January 5, 2015. Over 3,000 calligraphers, having qualified in country wide competitions throughout Japan, took part in the annual contest to celebrate the new year. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

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 leopard seal feeds Paul Nicklen a penguin. (Photo by Paul Nicklen/National Geographic). Antarctic Peninsula, 2011