Man on a Mission:
Building the Photo Ark

Book Joel To Speak Explore the Photo Ark

I’m Joel Sartore.

Ever wonder about those wildlife photographers who risk life and limb to get the perfect shot? That’s me. I’ve spent 25 years with National Geographic—and I’ve got the stories and scars to prove it. These days my focus is on the Photo Ark, the world’s largest collection of animal studio portraits. My goal is simple: to get the public to care and save species from extinction.

13,000 species photographed for the Photo Ark
A modern-day Noah

—NBC Nightly News
1 porcupine named Piper on the cover of
National Geographic
4 times chased by grizzlies
300 talks given worldwide
2 spitting cobras found in camera gear

Speaking Engagements

“Joel never fails to dazzle.”
Known for his sense of humor and incredible stories from the field, Joel is a popular speaker with conservation, corporate, and civic groups.

Hire him to entertain and inspire your audience.

Book Joel to Speak

Recent Talks

Photo: An endangered (IUCN) and federally endangered mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) at the Vrendenberg Lab.

Picture of a naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) at the Saint Louis Zoo.

Photo: Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) at the MK Nature Center in Boise, Idaho.

Picture of Federally threatened spectacled eiders (Somateria fischeri) at the Alaska SeaLife Center.

Picture of an endangered six-month-old western red panda (Ailurus fulgens fulgens) named Cinnamon at the Virginia Zoo.

Picture of an endangered (IUCN) and federally endangered, male Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) at the Kamla Nehru Zoological Garden in Ahmedabad, India.

Photo: Palawan stink badger (Mydaus marchei) at Avilon Zoo.

Photo: An Indian roller (Coracias benghalensis affinis) at the Santa Barbara Zoo.

Portraits of 'Orange', the last dusky seaside sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus nigrescens). This species went extinct in 1987, after their last habitats in northeast Florida were ruined by man, from the construction of an expressway to mosquito spraying. The bird, along with 'blue' another one of the last to die, are kept in vials of alcohol in the Natural History Museum at Florida State University.

Joel Sartore prepares to photograph El Segundo flower-loving fly (Rhaphiomidas terminatus terminatus). With fewer than 100 individuals left on Earth, this species is as close to extinction as you can get. This animal was thought to be extinct since the end of the 1960s but a small remnant population was discovered in the early 2000s.

A male common genet (Genetta genetta), named Little Guy at the Conservators center.

Joel is the founder of the Photo Ark, a 25-year effort to photograph every species in human care around the globe.

Explore the Photo Ark

A pair of four-week-old old Asian leopard cats, (Prionailurus bengalensis bengalensis). These two were found abandoned by their mother in a burning field and brought to the Angkor Centre for Conservation of Biodiversity (ACCB), a wildlife rehab center in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Photo: Hibernating Arctic ground squirrels (Spermopilus parryii) at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

A green tree python (Morelia viridis) at the Riverside Zoo.

Picture of an endangered silvery Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch) at the Gibbon Conservation Center.

A compton tortoiseshell butterfly (Nymphalis vaualbum) from Cross Lake, Minnesota.

Photo: Visayan leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis rabori) at the Avilon Zoo.

Photo: Gelada baboons (Theropithecus gelada) at Parco Natura Viva in Bussolengo, Italy.

Major Mitchell's Cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri) also known as Leadbeater's cockatoo or pink cockatoo, at Parrots in Paradise, a bird attraction in Glass House Mountains, Queensland.

Picture of an American bison (Bison bison) at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

Photo: A Barbary lion (Panthera leo leo) at the Plzen Zoo in the Czech Republic.

Photo: Green grass lizard (Takydromus smaragdinus) at Wroclaw Zoo.

Picture of a vulnerable female Bengal slow loris (Nycticebus bengalensis) at the Endangered Primate Rescue Center in Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam.

Photo: A female giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, AK.

Uno, a federally endangered Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) at the Naples Zoo. A gunshot wound caused Uno to go blind in 2014.

An endangered baby Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) named Aurora, with her adoptive mother, Cheyenne, a Bornean/Sumatran cross (Pongo pygmaeus x abelii) at the Houston Zoo.

Photo: An endangered flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps) at the Taiping Zoo.

Photo: An endangered Peruvian woolly monkey (Lagothrix cana) at Cetas-IBAMA, a wildlife rehab center in Manaus, Brazil.

Picture of a brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus) at the PanAmerican Conservation Association in Gamboa, Panama.

A red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) at the Sutton Avian Research Center.

Photo: Mediterranean jelly or fried egg jellyfish (Cotylorhiza tuberculata) at Loro Parque's aquarium in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain

Picture of an endangered pileated gibbon with her eight-month-old infant (Hylobates pileatus) at the Gibbon Conservation Center

A federally endangered Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) named Lucy at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.

Joel Sartore News

Photo Ark Sweet 16 Birthday Celebration

You’re invited to celebrate the Photo Ark’s Sweet 16 this year! While there might not be any cake or confetti, it’s still going to be a special day and we want to celebrate with you. Since it first began with a pink, buck-toothed rodent on August 9, 2006, the Ark has come a…

Get the Story