By ERIN ANDERSEN 
Population 330: The red wolf is photographed at the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, S.D. The U.S. population numbers are recent estimates from wildlife experts. (Photo courtesy Joel Sartore)
The last of the Salt Creek tiger beetles live in Lancaster County.
At last count, only 194 of this species remained in all of the United States.
Odds are this insect will become extinct, a victim of commercial development.
Who cares?
It's just an ugly bug.
But the Salt Creek tiger beetle and its 1,362 fellow animal and plant species on the U.S. endangered and threatened species list serve as ominous warnings for the future of homo sapiens - unless we change our ways, National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore says.
"It's foolish to think we can kill off different parts and pieces of the natural world at no consequence to us," Sartore said in an interview at his Lincoln home. "We are killing off the Ark."
To help us see what we stand to lose -- just here in the United States -- he photographed and wrote "Rare: Portraits of America's Endangered Species."
Published by National Geographic Focal Point, the book profiles 69 animals and plants in America whose declining numbers place them well along that precarious path toward extinction.
The implication of that potential loss is devastating -- far beyond the depressing reality of never seeing another black-footed ferret (population 800), Mexican gray wolf (392) or Woodland caribou (46), according to Sartore.
Endangered species serve as "a canary in the coal mine," warning us of the dangers ahead to all species if we do not address the threats of development, pollution and human behavior, he said.
The goal of "Rare" is to show people these creatures.
"To look at species that may not get another look ever," Sartore said.
"A lot of critters will go extinct without people even knowing about them. You can't push to save something if you've never seen it.
"My goal is to get people familiar with all creatures great and small, to see if they care," he said.
Case in point: The book opens with the portraits of two animals that are gone forever - the dusky seaside sparrow, photographed in its final and permanent habitat, a jar of liquid preservative; and the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit. Bryn, one of two remaining elderly females of that species in the United States at the time, died a few months after she was photographed. Raphaela, the last known Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit, died before Sartore's book went to print.
"The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit is now extinct, a passenger pigeon for the 21st century," Sartore writes in the book's foreword.
"To see the last of any species in a glass jar of preservative is an absolute outrage to me. To know that it will happen again is truly heartbreaking."
***
Sartore was just a child flipping through his mother's Time Life book "The Birds" when he came upon a page devoted to the passenger pigeon.
In the 1800s, the large birds numbered in the billions. Flying in flocks of hundreds of thousands at a time, they would blacken the sky and block the sun for hours or days.
According to Cornell University, the passenger pigeon may have been the most numerous bird species in history.
Yet by the early 1900s, its numbers dwindled because of the American appetite for fat fledglings and loss of habitat because of deforestation.
On Sept. 1, 1914, Martha -- the last passenger pigeon -- died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden. She was 29.
The story of Martha and her ancestors continues to influence Sartore.
A National Geographic photographer for 20 years, Sartore's passion is conservation, particularly endangered species and land use issues.
He is the global spokesman for the U.N. International Year of Biodiversity (2010), which will celebrate the variety of life on Earth. He is co-founder of the Grassland Foundation and a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers.
His assignments have long taken him to exotic places all over the globe.
But in 2005, his wife, Kathy, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sartore stayed home with her and their three children - Cole, Ellen and Spencer -- as she underwent chemotherapy and radiation.
As Kathy started to feel better, Sartore's urge to get out increased. He wanted to make only little trips that kept him close to home.
So he contacted John Chapo and Randy Scheer at the Lincoln Children's Zoo and pitched his newest concept: photographing animals in a portrait setting by placing them on stark black or white backgrounds.
He began with the naked mole rat, Chapo recalled. He progressed to other Lincoln Children's Zoo residents: Fez, the three-banded armadillo; Millie, the giant African millipede; Sarge, the pygmy hedgehog tenrec; as well as the zoo's panther chameleon and leopard tortoise. None is pictured in "Rare," but Fez and his DNA are the featured photo in a May National Geographic magazine article on biodiversity.
Sartore then traveled to accredited zoos and aquariums across the country, including Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and the Raptor Recovery Center in Elmwood, using the same studio technique to photograph the nation's most endangered species.
"The photographs in this book were all taken on black or white backgrounds in a desperate effort to get people to care," Sartore writes in "Rare."
"We know that the polar bear is in trouble, but few have heard of most the species on these pages. By doing closeups of a rare mussel, mouse or flower on plain backgrounds, we give equal weight to each. The goal is to show that there is beauty, grace and value in every species."
Sartore's ambition is to photograph every endangered or threatened species.
"There is not enough time," he said. "But ‘Rare' is a good start."
"Rare" does more than show us the species. It shows us the numbers -- how many remain in the United States - and tells us why their population is disappearing.
Maybe, if people see this, they will care, Sartore said.
"Rare" is his testament to how bad it is.
"It's amazing to me how on any given Saturday I hear 90,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs for a football game. I have nothing against football, but just imagine the good we could do if we had that many people in one place who cared that passionately about something that really matters -- the future of life on Earth.
"Could we help save the Earth? You bet we could," Sartore said.
"It would be a good start, at least."
This story was published in the Lincoln Journal Star on March 13, 2010.
More of Joel Sartore’s beautiful Mexican gray wolf and other endangered species photos can be seen on his website.
Click here to read more about Joel Sartore and his book ‘Rare'
