Northern Common Cuscus (Phalanger orientalis), New Britian Island, Papua New Guinea

With every major book project that I’ve undertaken over the last twenty-five years, there have been experiences that have colored my life and my attitudes. Tribes provided memorable encounters with indigenous cultures from some of the world’s most remote locations. While working on Light on the Land, I witnessed extraordinary moments when light and form miraculously came together. With Migrations, my senses were assailed with the sight, sound, and smell of two million wildebeest crossing the African plains. Migrations was my first book where form, style, and pattern took precedence over biology. It was a book that reflected the essence of what I was photographing, not simply the reality of a species’ existence.

With this in mind, I decided to photograph The Living Wild from a perspective that placed as much emphasis on the environment as on the animal in it. After all, an animal without a habitat is simply a curiosity bidding time to its extinction. But an animal within its habitat is a vibrant representation of natural selection. To accomplish this broader photographic vision, I utilized wide-angle lenses whenever possible. Doing so allows the subject to hold center stage in the image, while still offering a satisfying proportion of the surrounding environment. An example of this approach can be seen in my image of the elephant seals on South Georgia (on the cover). Using a wide-angle lens also requires that the photographer gets close. Many of these photographs were taken within 1to 2 meters of the subject. Often I could not get so close to an animal, however, and relied on my telephoto lenses. Common sense and respect for wildlife govern my own photographic practices. And increasingly, parks and reserves wisely regulate how close visitors can approach an animal, ensuring the safety and well being of both the wildlife and the viewer.

There are more than 140 different species included in this book. Each was selected because it is either a key representatives of its habitat, or because it has a commanding presence in the minds of people around the world. Many could be categorized as "charismatic." They include the giant panda, tiger, polar bear, mountain gorilla, and African elephant. I do not mean to imply that other species, most notably the insects are not important; from an ecological perspective they certainly are. However, conservation efforts around the world have often focused on large mammals to act as vanguards for greater preservation goals. Ensuring the preservation of viable wild populations of jaguars, African forest elephants, or lowland gorillas requires the protection of vast areas. Within those areas other organisms can thrive, riding the conservation coattails of the animals that can galvanize public concern.

Amazonian Poison Frog (Dendrobates ventrimaculatus), Rio Napo, Peru

In addition to including animals that are now considered extremely rare (such as the Bornean bay cat, Przewalski’s horse, Florida panther, and golden frog), I have included some of the success stories of conservation: animals that were once driven to the brink of extinction, but have been brought back to healthier population levels through the adherence to environmentally sound policies (for example the gray whale and bald eagle). Other species, although not generally considered rare, like the polar bear, elk, walrus, and grizzly bear, have seen their populations decline in some areas as a result of environmental pressures that include pollution, habitat destruction, and overhunting.

I have taken more than one million images in my photographic career, and within those million slides are pictures of over one thousand different species. I have photographed in more than fifty countries covering every type of habitat from polar to tropical, and from oceanic islands to high mountains. While there are many species that I still want to photograph, there are some that no one will ever have the opportunity to see or photograph ever again: the thylacine, least hare-wallaby, Okinawa flying fox, Falkland Island wolf, Mexican grizzly bear, Syrian wild ass, bluebuck, black-backed bittern, Labrador duck, Cuban red macaw, and the Seychelles parrot. They, and too many others, are extinct.

But this book is not about the species we are too late to save. It is about the species that we still have time to save. The Living Wild provides a look at a world of animals that few get the chance to see in their natural habitat (and all of the photographs included here were taken in the wild). It also presents an honest look at how these animals are doing at this point in time. The beginning of the new millennium may be a somewhat arbitrary date (after all it is the year 5760 for Jews, and the year 1420 for Muslims), but it gives us all an opportunity to take stock of where we are, and where we want to go. Each of the essayists included in this book provide compelling statements about the role of conservation today and in the future. The Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson once said, "There’s one good thing about our species: we like a challenge." We can only hope that he is right, and that it is a challenge we can rise to meet.

Art Wolfe, Seattle, Washington, USA
© Art Wolfe