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.

In this Monday, March 10, 2014 photo, a 9,000 year-old mask is on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The exhibition called “Face To Face” shows eleven stone masks, said to have been discovered in the Judean desert and hills near Jerusalem, which date back 9,000 years and offer a rare glimpse at some of civilization's first communal rituals. (Photo by Tsafrir Abayov/AP Photo)

Fossil records indicate that this early lizard, Megalania (Megalania prisca or Varanus priscus), was a whopping seven metres in length. They were part of a megafaunal assemblage that inhabited southern Australia during the Pleistocene. The youngest fossil remains date to around 50,000 years ago. The first aboriginal settlers of Australia might have encountered them and been a factor in their extinction. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)

A file photograph dated 07 January 2006 and released by Greenpeace, showing the Yushin Maru, a factory ship in a Japanese whaling fleet, injuring a whale with it's first harpoon attempt. A UN court in The Hague on 31 March 2014 halted Japan's much-criticized whaling programme, ruling that it contravenes a 1986 moratorium on whale hunting. Japan must end its 'research whaling' programme, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said. Japan said the programme was for scientific research and permitted under international conventions. Australia had brought the case to the ICJ in 2010, charging that Japan was breaching international law by killing hundreds of whales every year for commercial purposes. Japan was “deeply disappointed” by the ruling, an unnamed government official was quoted by the Kyodo News agency as saying. But the official said Japan would stand by the ruling. (Photo by Kate Davison/EPA)

A woman taking a nap on mangoes at city market area after the city eased the lockdown in Bangalore, India 12 July 2021. The Karnataka government eases in covid-19 related lockdown restrictions in the wake of lower coronavirus cases and positivity rate falling below 5% percent. The Karnataka state government administering record 2.5-crore doses till date since the vaccination drive was launched across the state on January 16, Karnataka ranked first in South India in inoculating maximum number of its eligible population, said state Health Minister K. Sudhakar. (Photo by Jagadeesh N.V./EPA/EFE)

South Korean performers participate in a re-enactment of the battle of the Korean war during the ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War in Cheorwon, near the border with North Korea on June 25, 2020 in Cheorwon, South Korea. Over 66,000 South Koreans have been separated from their families during the Korean War which started on June 25, 1950, and effectively split the Korean Peninsula into two over the 3-year conflict. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A man impersonating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gestures as he stands before North Korean cheerleaders attending the Unified Korean ice hockey game against Japan during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Kwandong Hockey Centre in Gangneung on February 14, 2018. (Photo by Yelim Lee/AFP Photo)

This handout photo taken on August 31, 2023 and provided by the South Korean Defence Ministry shows South Korean soldiers participating in an air assault drill at a training field in Jangseong, as part of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military drills between South Korea and the United States. (Photo by Handout/South Korean Defence Ministry/AFP Photo)