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)

Labourers work at the installation site of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) pipeline on May Day or Labour Day in Chandigarh, India, May 1, 2015. (Photo by Ajay Verma/Reuters)

Children play on an uprooted tree along a beach in Mele, Vanuatu that was once lined with vegetation, now largely lost to storms, erosion and other environmental pressures on Saturday, July 19, 2025. (Photo by Annika Hammerschlag/AP Photo)

A Mai-Mai rebel soldier shows off his guns at a checkpoint near the Mugunga refugee camp in Zaire; 1996. (Photo by Carol Guzy/The Washington Post)

Police officers detain a demonstrator as people protest to defy a ban and march on Taksim Square to celebrate May Day in Istanbul, Turkey on May 1, 2023. (Photo by Dilara Senkaya/Reuters)

Fishermen are seen near thousands of fish found dead at Lake Maninjau due to lack of oxygen levels at the bottom of the lake and bad weather that hit the area in Agam, West Sumatra Province, Indonesia on April 29, 2021. (Photo by Muhammad Arif Pribadi/Antara Foto via Reuters)

A young trumpeter joins the Anglican Church band as the coffin of late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu arrives outside the St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, 31 December 2021. The anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who was a key figure in the dismantling of apartheid, died on 26 December 2021 at the age of 90. A full state funeral will be held on 01 January 2022. (Photo by Nic Bothma/EPA/EFE)

A sommelier serves the glass with 2021 Beaujolais Nouveau wine of a young woman bathing in a red colored hot water bath, on the day of the Beaujolais Nouveau official release, at Hakone Kowakien Yunessun hot spring resort in Hakone, Japan, 18 November 2021. Japan is a major market for the Beaujolais Nouveau. However, the country's total Beaujolais Nouveau imports are expected to fall by 20 per cent from 2019 to around 3,6 million bottles, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)