A police officer holds a pistol during clashes with protesters near a burning tyre barricade in the Kariobangi slum of Nairobi, Kenya Friday, May 8, 2020. Hundreds of protesters blocked one of the capital's major highways with burning tires to protest government demolitions of the homes of more than 7,000 people and the closure of a major food market, causing many to sleep out in the rain and cold because of restrictions on movement due to the coronavirus. (Photo by Brian Inganga/AP Photo)

A falla damaged by yesterday's heavy rains is pictured during the Fallas festival in Valencia on September 2, 2021. In Valencia, yesterday's deluge of water disturbed the organization of the Fallas, the major festival in the region featuring parades of floats and giant cardboard sculptures, postponed from March to September due to the pandemic. (Photo by Jose Jordan/AFP Photo)

A young Iraqi shepherdess cools down buffaloes in wastewater filling the dried-up Diyala river which was a tributary of the Tigris, in the Al-Fadiliyah district east of Baghdad, on June 26, 2022. Iraq's drought reflects a decline in the level of waterways due to the lack of rain and lower flows from upstream neighboring countries Iran and Turkey. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

An affected boy walks along a muddy street after heavy rain in Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Friday, September 2, 2022. Planes carrying fresh supplies are surging across a humanitarian air bridge to flood-ravaged Pakistan as the death toll surged past 1,200, officials said Friday, with families and children at special risk of disease and homelessness. (Photo by Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo)

Firefighters and military officials rescue one of the missing residents from the underground parking lot of an apartment building in Nam-gu, Pohang-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, which was submerged in heavy rain caused by Typhoon Hinnamno in Pohang, South Korea, 07 September 2022. According to fire authorities, two people were rescued alive and three bodies found out of seven people who were reportedly missing in the incident. (Photo by Kim Hee-Chul/EPA/EFE)

People splash mud water in a paddy field on National Paddy Day in Tokha village, on the outskirt of capital Kathmandu, Nepal, 29 June 2021. Nepal is celebrating National Paddy Day with various events on 29 June. On this day, known as Asar Pandra, farmers begin the annual rice planting season and mark the day with various festivities such as preparing rice meals with muddy water, mud being a symbol for a prosperous season. Sixty percent of Nepal's agriculture industry relies on monsoon rain while 40 percent is carried out through irrigation. Agriculture is a major contributor to the country's GDP. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA/EFE)

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.