Joel Satore

I have again been reminded of Nebraskans who work tirelessly on issues involving conservation and preservation at the international, national and state levels. I appreciate their efforts and believe those individuals are worthy of praise for their good work.

Joel Satore is one such Nebraskan.

Behind his many, highly regarded picture assignments for National Geographic and numerous photography books, Satore has embarked on a project to photograph the 6,000 animal, insect, reptilian, amphibian species captive in American zoos to create of record of what animal species used to be a part of our world. This self-assigned and self-funded project is garnering, as it should, both national and local attention. For example, earlier this month his project was the subject of a segment on the NBC Nightly News and last Sunday’s Lincoln Journal Star had a feature article on the project.

While the attention is welcome as a means of increasing awareness of the often-fragile state of wildlife, that such a project is necessary is very disappointing.

The Journal Star article reports there are 1.25 million animal species and half of those are predicted to be extinct by the end of the century. And the species expected to die away include such well-known and treasured animals as panda, polar bear and woodland caribou. What a shame!