There's Always One

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Photograph by Yashani Shantha
National Geographic

Elephants at the elephant orphanage in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka. The orphanage was originally founded in order to afford care and protection to the many orphaned elephants found in the jungle. As of 2003, there were 65 elephants. Since the captive breeding program was launched in 1982, over 20 elephants have been born. The aim of the orphanage is to simulate the natural world. However, there are some exceptions: The elephants are taken to the river twice daily for a bath, and all the babies under three years of age are still bottle fed by the mahouts and volunteers.

Imperiled Rhino

Photograph by Richard Young
National Geographic

Zimbabwe's Matopos National Park had 86 white and 36 black rhinos ten years ago. Poachers have reduced these numbers to only 9 white 17 black rhinos today. These numbers say it all. The park's oldest white rhino, Gumboot, was killed by poachers just two weeks before I took this picture of Swazi 2, his horn cut off to help protect him from poaching. If we do not act now to save them from poaching, we will be the generation responsible for the extinction of the rhino in the wild.

Deer, Richmond Park

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Photograph by Prashant Meswani
National Geographic

This was taken in early morning at Richmond Park in late October.

Reflection, Hungary

Photograph by Zsolt Szabo
National Geographic

Misty summer photo, Nagykanizsa, Hungary.

Eastern Screech Owlets

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Photograph by Graham McGeorge
National Geographic

Eastern screech owls like to take over woodpecker nests that have been dug out over the years in pine trees, which are the main species of tree at this swamp. The Fish and Wildlife Service also paints a white ring around the base of a tree that has active nests so they will be avoided when conducting controlled burns. Screech owls can range in height anywhere from eight to ten inches, so you have to have a sharp eye to find these little birds of prey.

I spent the first few weeks of April this year photographing the gray morph screech owl that was living in the nest and had no idea there were three owlets inside.

Seagulls, Alaska

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Photograph by Court Leve

National Geographic

This image was taken while flying in a helicopter from Juneau, Alaska, to Cordova, Alaska. The four-hour flight routes through some of the most desolate areas of Alaska, including what is known as the Lost Coast. We were flying at elevations up to 15,000 feet near the Fairweather Range when my pilot wanted to then follow the coastline. As we turned the corner, the beach below was filled with what seemed to be millions of seagulls. The noise from the helicopter spooked the birds and wave after wave of gulls took flight below us. It was somewhat mesmerizing.

Winter Layers

Photograph by Paul Nicklen
National Geographic

Having gorged on salmon to lay on fat for hibernation, a grizzly wears a coat of ice in Canada's Yukon.