A massive sand storm cloud is close to enveloping a military camp as it rolls over Al Asad, Iraq, April 27, 2005. (Photo by Cpl. Alicia M. Garcia, U.S. Marine Corps/Reuters/U.S. Department of Defense)

A showgirl in a face mask stands by the door at the reopening of Bally's Las Vegas hotel and casino, Thursday, July 23, 2020, in Las Vegas. The casino reopened for the first time since March following a closure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo by John Locher/AP Photo)

Sgt. William Olas Bee, a U.S. Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmsir in Helmand Province of Afghanistan, May 18, 2008. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

A woman wearing a face mask rides a bicycle with a child, following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China on February 8, 2021. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

An indigenous woman looks on during the Terra Livre (Free Land) camp, a protest-camp to defend indigenous land and cultural rights that they say are threatened by the right-wing government of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, in Brasilia, Brazil on April 4, 2022. (Photo by Adriano Machado/Reuters)

A Maasai warrior makes the high jump, in which athletes must touch a high line with the top of their heads, at the annual Maasai Olympics in the Sidai Oleng Wildlife Sanctuary near to Mt. Kilimanjaro, in southern Kenya, Saturday, December 13, 2014. Maasai men and women from the Amboseli and Tsavo region compete for medals and prizes in the event which aims for a sports competition of Maasai skills such as running, jumping, and throwing, to replace lion-hunting as the traditional warrior activity. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

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)