Slimbridge Wetland Centre teams up with National Geographic Society photographer in Photo Ark Project

WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire is excited to be involved in the National Geographic Society photographer, Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark project – ‘Saving Species One Photo at a Time.’

Photo Ark uses the power of photography to inspire people to help save species at risk before it’s too late. Founder and photographer Joel Sartore has taken portraits of 13,000 species — and counting — in his quest to document our world’s astonishing diversity. He is over half way to his goal of documenting all of the approximately 20,000 species including  birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates living in the world’s zoos and wildlife sanctuaries.

Photographer Joel Sartore visited WWT Slimbridge back in February 2020 to photograph various animals from Slimbridge’s collection and they’re excited to now be able to share some of these stunning photographs.  Joel photographed dozens of species at Slimbridge including Hawaiian ducks, Anatolian spotted newts and Greenland white fronted geese.

Joel Sartore returned to Slimbridge in June 2022 to photograph the Critically Endangered spoon-billed sandpiper, which joined National Geographic Photo Ark as 13,000th species. 

The Photo Ark has helped raise money to save species from extinction and in the bigger picture it raises public awareness to the extinction crisis.

From projections on buildings including St. Peter’s Basilica and the Empire State Building, to publications in the National Geographic Magazine. The Photo Ark images get people to care about some of the least known animals on the planet, while there’s still time to save them. Slimbridge hope that Joel’s photographs of their endangered animals help people understand the importance of wetlands and the wildlife that relies on them.