Wildlife Photography by Joel Sartore

Award winning Nebraskan photographer Joel Sartore is well known for his National Geographic magazine special assignments such as National Wildlife Refuge, Brazil's Wild Wet Pantanal or the latest one Mystery of Great Migrations during the last two decades.

Joel is committed to conservation, especially in the Great Plains where he has lived his whole life. In his time with National Geographic, he has focused on endangered species and land use issues. He is co-founder of the Grassland Foundation, and a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers.

If you think about the stuff I'm photographing here, it's mainly ghosts. It's all ghosts. Just little remnants. Just little bitty pockets of wildlife. That's all that's left. You know, this and a couple spots of prairie around Lincoln, but for most of my job, it's just little remnants, little scraps of what used to be. I'm just photographing the last of everything. Whether it's wolves or grizzly bears or rhinos, jaguars or parrots in South America. It's the last of everything I'm photographing. It's really kind of tragic.