Photographer Spends 2 Years Photographing Extinct Animals, And It Breaks Our Hearts

Most of us have no idea what endangered creatures are. Tim Flach, a British photographer, has spent two years bravely exploring their habitats and capturing the endangered creatures’ precarious lives. Endangered, the resultant collection of work, gives us an intimate and rare look into the magnificent lives of Earth’s most vulnerable animals and reminds us of everything we should be frightened of losing.

Flach presents a wide spectrum of biodiversity of endangered species, shedding light on the unique challenges each animal faces in order to survive, from species we’re all familiar with (polar bear, snow leopard, cheetah) to exotic wild animals we’d only imagine in fantasy films (saiga, Philippine eagle, olm salamander). Some have had their numbers reduced as a result of habitat degradation. Others are subjected to more heinous ordeals, such as hunting, poaching, and being sold on the underground market.

Flach has often claimed that he hopes to show the ties that bind us to our wilder counterparts in his animal paintings. When you look into the eyes of the creatures in Endangered, it’s difficult to conceive that any of them would ever be regarded as less deserving of life than one of us. Scroll down to discover the most gorgeous images of animals from the series, then vote for your favourites.

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#1 Ploughshare Tortoise

#2 Hippopotamus

#3 Snow Leopard

#4  Iberian Lynx

#5 African Elephant

#6 Saiga

#7 Polar Bear

#8 Philippine Eagle

#9 Hyacinth Macaw

#10 Cheetah With Cubs

#11 Ring Tailed Lemur

#12 White Bellied Pangolin

#13 Red Panda

#14 Fireflies

#15 Giant Panda

#16 Red Crown Crane

#17 Golden Snub Nosed Monkey

#18 Pied Tamarin

#19 Sea Angels

#20 Shoebill

#21 Northern White Rhinoceros

#22 Military Macaw

#23  European Honey Bee

#24 Egyptian Vulture

#25 Scimitar Oryx’s

#26 Western Lowland Gorillas

#27 Scallope Hammerhead Aggregation

#28 Blue Throated Macaw

#29 Proboscis Monkey

#30 Kaiser’s Newt

#31 Indian Gharial

#32 Yellow-Eyed Tree Frog

#33 Arabian Oryx

#34 Marine Iguana

#35 Beluga Sturgeon

#36 Lemur Leaf Frog

#37 Yunan Snub Nosed Monkey

#38 Smooth Fronted Cayman

#39 Yellow Eyed Tree Frog Eggs

#40 Hooded Vulture

#41 Olm Salamander

#42 Siamese Crocodile

#43 Partula Snails

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