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Photographs of endangered species by Nebraska’s Joel Sartore featured on new stamps

Joel Sartore.jpeg
Posted at 10:38 AM, May 24, 2023
and last updated 2023-05-24 11:38:47-04

LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) — Nebraska-based photographer Joel Sartore has spent much of his career documenting endangered species across the globe, starting with a naked mole rat at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo.

Now his work, featured on National Geographic Explorer, will also be displayed in a new series of stamps.

A series of 20 stamps, showcasing endangered animals found within and near the U.S. and its territories, were dedicated during a ceremony Friday in Wall, S.D.

The images are among more than 14,000 taken by Sartore as part of his “National Geographic Photo Ark,” a 20-year project to document every endangered species living in the world’s zoos, aquariums and wildlife sanctuaries.

In a 2018 interview with “60 Minutes,” Sartore said he hoped to educate and inspire action to preserve even the most obscure species, such as the Palawan Stink Badger of the Philippines.

“The big, charismatic mammals get all the ink,” he said. “They get all the press, the gorillas and the rhinos and the tigers. Nobody’s thinking about these little guys. I am.”

The U.S. Endangered Species Act was signed into law in 1973 by then-President Richard Nixon. Scientists have estimated that hundreds of species have been rescued from the brink of extinction because of it.

Stamps can be purchased through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps.

Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and Twitter.

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