Rolling Hills Zoo has made the cover of one of the most beloved nature magazines in the world.

Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark project is the cover story for National Geographic magazine’s April issue. According to the zoo, Rolling Hills Zoo worked with Sartore on the project.

For the first time in National Geographic’s history, they are publishing 10 different covers. One of the covers features Rolling Hills Zoo’s own waxy monkey tree frog.

According to National Geographic, the April covers highlight the National Geographic Photo Ark project, a multiyear effort with Sartore to photograph all captive species and inspire people to save these animals before they disappear. For many of Earth?s creatures, time is running out. Species are disappearing at an alarming rate. To motivate people to care and help stop the crisis, Sartore is creating intimate portraits of an estimated 12,000 species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. To date, he has photographed nearly 6,000 animals. Once completed, Photo Ark will serve as an important record of each animal?s existence and a powerful testament to the importance of saving them.

Published alongside the story is an extensive photo gallery of Sartore’s portraits and a new interactive that asks readers questions to allow them to discover which of the 10 cover animals they are most like. The “What Animal Is Most Like You?” quiz features questions such as, “Do you like warm weather, or snow? Are you a night owl or do you just like to sleep all the time?” The quiz, which will is published at www.natgeo.com/animalquiz, will let readers find out what animal most closely matches their own behavior while learning about the species on the covers. At the end of the quiz, readers can choose to download their animal’s wallpaper.

The 10 published covers feature portraits of the following animals: waxy monkey tree frog, hippopotamus, Reimann?s snake-necked turtle, snowy owl, Malayan tiger, Brazilian porcupine, southern three-banded armadillo, Indian peafowl, mother and baby koalas, and Coquerel’s sifaka.

Sartore shot the cover images at a number of locations, including Rolling Hills Zoo, the San Antonio Zoo, Zoo Atlanta, Raptor Recovery Nebraska, Omaha?s Henry Doorly Zoo, the Saint Louis Zoo, Lincoln Children?s Zoo, the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital and the Houston Zoo.

The April issue is on newsstands and live online now.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/04/photos-saving-rare-animals-conservation/

© Joel Sartore / National Geographic