National Geographic brings to Porto the largest "photographic ark" in the world

The Biodiversity Gallery - The Live Science Centre hosts as of 17 October "a bit" of the largest "photographic ark" in the world, made of unique images of endangered species.

The city of Porto welcomes the International project Photo Ark by photographer Joel Sartore, whose aims is to "connect the right people to commit with biodiversity of our planet and to protect it".

This project first began in 2006, and it arrives in Portugal, Porto by National Geographic, with which Sartore has been collaborating for over 20 years. Since then, more than seven thousand species of endangered captive animals have been documented.

Also featuring in other countries, such as The United States and Australia, the Photo Ark debuts in Portugal, Porto at the Live Science Centre (Department of the Natural History and Science Museum of Porto University, inaugurated in July at the Casa Andresen - Botanical Garden), "with the very special mission of raising Portuguese people's awareness to this global challenge: the need to preserve wild life and biodiversity"- highlights the communiqué issued by National geographic, pointing out that "by protecting biodiversity, we are in fact saving the planet and the human species".

In the 250 square metres of display space, around 40 photos, computer graphics, and videos of threatened species will be shown to the public and visitors will get to know more about the animals represented, "look them in the eye, knowing they are on the verge of extinction". 

Joel Sartore's purpose is to gather over 12 thousand photos of species in captivity in the Photo Ark. 

"There cannot be a better time to save endangered species specially because there are so many that need saving", concludes the photographer.