. APRIL 2013 BACK ISSUE by Kevin Schafer Harvard Biologist E. O. Wilson has estimated that if current rates of human destruction of the biosphere continue, one-half of all species of life on earth will be extinct within 100 years. Many may vanish virtually without our notice. With this in mind, I have, for the past five years, dedicated myself to documenting some of the least-known animals on the planet, concentrating on species whose stories have rarely been told. I have been lucky enough, along the way, to spend time in the company of some of the world's most extraordinary creatures : Amazon River Dolphins in Brazil, wild Cassowaries in Australia, and Lemurs in Madagascar. The faces that appear here are those of animals linked only by their shared vulnerability. All are species that are either globally, or locally, threatened, some critically so. To me, they serve as ambassadors for the ecosystems in which they live. For while pictures cannot stop extinction, they can help communicate what is at stake, and possibly inspire action.    Kevin Schafer Seattle, Washington 2013 Laysan Albatross return to their nests at dawn after a night spent at sea.  These birds are particularly vulnerable to widespread plastic debris in the ocean, which kills thousands of birds every year. In the upper Amazon of Peru, a Brazilian Tapir crosses a rainforest stream at dusk.  At midstream, it paused and rested - a vision of a threatened animal at peace in a dwindling Eden. Unlike most of its cousins, the Yellow-eyed Penguin may never encounter ice and snow in its entire life. Instead, it is a creature of coastal forests, the air filled with the songs of bellbirds and parakeets. Long-term changes in the ecology of the Arctic, including reduced sea ice cover, could make life more challenging for animals like these Beluga Whales in Hudson Bay. On lonely Ascension Island, the first light of dawn catches a female Green Sea Turtle still tossing sand over her buried nest, hoping to disguise its location.    Verreaux's Sifakas are endangered lemurs of the southern deserts of Madagascar. To travel between isolated trees they must hop on their hind legs in a style like no other animal. The trouble is, their desert forests have nearly vanished. A cluster - possibly a family group - of Honduran White Bats roosts together in their leafy tent. Lying on the ground, shooting straight up, I captured these rare, fist-sized bats waiting for nightfall. Once considered common, and near-sacred, Amazon River Dolphins are now killed simply as bait for commercially valuable fish. Editors are vital partners. I almost discarded this image among thousands of others. It was rescued by my editor at National Geographic, and went on to be a crucial picture in my story on these little-known cetaceans. After a morning spent feeding, Amazon Dolphins become immensely playful, jumping out of the water and toying with floating sticks and seeds.  I consider it a miracle that I managed to get this jump inside the confines of a very tight frame. Living along the rugged coasts of Chile and southern Peru, the endangered Marine Otter is a hard-working hunter. Here, a female brought a live, squirming octopus back to its hungry cub. In a postage-stamp-sized park in eastern India I found one of very few remaining viable troops of Pig-tailed Macaques. This male climbed up into a tangle of vines to stand guard as 100 or more of his extended family passed underneath. A Southern Cassowary plucks wild figs from a rainforest tree along the Queensland coast of Australia.  Their habitat already reduced, these giant birds also fall victim to the ravages of hurricanes. Crossing between ice floes, a mother Polar Bear carries her young cub on her back. In twenty years of Arctic travel, I have seen the ice vanish from areas where once it was common even long into summer. Back to current issue