PHOTO ARK

Award-winning National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore is back! joel nearly killed himself in pursuit of the elusive Cross-River Gorilla in Cameroon, cursed on public television as a spectacular hornbilled sandpiper ruthlessly attacked his camera and drew blood from his hand, joyfully picked through piles of dung in search of new species of dung beetle, and brought home thousands of indelible images of animals on the brink.