Local Wildlife Center visited by National Geographic photographer

“He’s ‘National Geographic material,’” - that’s how Ryan Reines, director of the North Florida Wildlife Center always introduces his 16-year old Long-tailed Hornbill, Einstein.

But now, the white-faced-and-crested stunner will no longer have to be alone in his enclosure; he’s going to have a ‘friend’, being paired up with the latest avian addition to the refuge - ‘Matilda’, a White-thighed Hornbill.

Together, assures Reines, the two hornbills will be the center’s ‘famous couple’.

The White-thighed Hornbill Matilda, at the North Florida Wildlife Center, was recently photographed by a National Geographic photographer for a “Photo Ark” project that highlights species of endangered animals.

In November, however, the lovely ‘Matilda’ got her picture taken; the ebony-and-white bird with the pale beak became the muse - the photographic inspiration - of National Geographic’s Joel Sartore and his Photo Ark.

The ark is an ongoing venture to document the 22,000 species of the animal kingdom ensconced in zoos and sanctuaries around the globe.

“Across all classes – mammals, invertebrates, birds, snakes, frogs, lizards, fish,” says Sartore. “From ants to elephants…animals you can see with the naked eye.”

So far, after 15 years, Sartore says he has already photographed 12,000 species.

“I’ve got enough work for another 10-15 years…it will probably take me the rest of my life to complete.”

At the wildlife center, behind his camera, Sartore peers through his viewfinder at Matilda.

“I’m very excited. Hornbills are very charismatic animals…they’re super smart,” Sartore says. “That’s really the goal of the project…to get people to care about the extinction crisis and want to save species while there’s still time.”

Already, several of the subjects he’s photographed, since the inception of the Photo Ark program, have gone extinct.

"It saddens me greatly. But also angers and inspires me to want to give everything I've got to this [undertaking],” admits Sartore. “If we can really get people to look these animals in the eye, they’ll see there’s great intelligence there…grace…beauty…and that they have a right to exist.”

That’s why Reines and Satore keep in close touch.

“We are focusing on animals in human care,” Sartore explains. “I [visit] the places I hope to work with. Places with big collections of birds.”

Places like Reines’ 11 acres in the backwoods of Florida’s Panhandle.

This is Sartore’s fourth visit to the North Florida Wildlife Center, to photograph Reines’ assortment of endangered birds, so by now he’s an old pro at setting up his equipment in the sanctuary’s Animal Care Building.

Satore is intent on obtaining that flawless image for his ark.

Click, the shutter exposes the film.

Sartore studies the likeness of ‘Matilda’ in his camera sight.

National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore angles his camera, getting a shot of ‘Matilda’, the White-thighed Hornbill housed at the panhandle’s North Florida Wildlife Center.

“It’s work…not fun,” he comments. “The logistics of pulling off a project of this scope is numbing at times. The travel, the long hours, the setup and teardown of our mobile photo studio… it wears me down just thinking about it.” Then, he forwards to the next frame, and grins at a potential winning snapshot. “But, I like to think it’s for a good cause.”

That good cause, in this instance, being notoriety for an exquisite, native African hornbill at the center, and, overall, that brings National Geographic one species closer to showcasing all of the world’s beautiful animals, surviving in captivity, in a race for their lives.

A race against extinction.

Vickie Lillo - Gadsden County News Service

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Local Wildlife Center visited by National Geographic photographer

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