L HOO YOU LOOKIN’ AT?

Photog embarks on quest to save the animal kingdom — by snapping every single creature in captivity

ast week poachers broke into a zoo outside of Paris and shot a 4-year-old white rhino in the head before trying to hack off its horn with a chain saw. In a world where even our zoos can’t safely protect animals threatened by extinction, people like National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore are needed more than ever.

Sartore has devoted his life to snapping every single animal species held in captivity — yes, every single one of the 12,000 creatures held in zoos and sanctuaries around the world from Tampa, Fla., to Cundinamarca, Colombia.

He has compiled the results of his efforts in a gorgeous new coffeetable book “The Photo Ark” (National Geographic), out now.

His end goal is ambitious: to build a modern-day visual ark and “halt, or at least slow, the loss of global diversity.”

Time is of the essence. Scientists estimate that every day around 200 plant and animal species go extinct. At this rate, half of Earth’s species will be extinct by 2100.

“I think of myself as an animal ambassador, a voice for the voiceless,” he writes. “If [readers] look into the eyes of these animals and see what is at stake, I’m hoping they will learn to care more and find ways that they, too, can make a difference.”

Sartore’s mission started with a naked mole rat, whom he photographed against a white background at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo a few miles from his Nebraska home in 2006. Now, more than a decade later, he has photographed 6,583 animals and counting. He estimates that the project will take 25 years to complete, but because the list of animals is ever-growing as new species are discovered and placed in captivity, he may never finish.

Each animal in his book is pictured against a stark white or black background because it “levels the playing field. The tortoise counts as much as the hare, and a mouse is every bit as magnificent as a polar bear,” he writes.

But wrangling a polar bear is not as easy as he makes it look. A cast of characters — including zookeepers, volunteers and his own trained crew — help build the backdrop, calm the animal and hide the equipment and lights from particularly anxious critters.

The result, for every specimen, shows the true beauty of our planet’s beasts.