Sharjah24: During his participation in the seventh edition of the International Photography Festival "Xposure 2023," National Geographic explorer Carlton Ward revealed that he uses his lens to encourage people to save the endangered " Florida Panthers," and his colleague Ronan Donovan confirmed that his work encourages the study of the ways in which climate change has harmed the world around them, which is threatening the lives of wolves in the remote Canadian Arctic.
National Geographic Explorer and conservation photographer Carlton Ward talked to “Sharjah 24” about his participation in "Xposure 2023," noting that he documents the lives of wild animals in a shrinking region while the Florida Panthers, the only large cat left in the eastern United States, require a home range of up to 500 square kilometres.
The only way for these animals to survive into the future is to secure a wildlife corridor that spans the length of the state, protecting farms, ranches, and other public preserves and green space, so he is using his job to encourage people to save it.
Since he'd only ever seen one Panther while holding a camera, he called this endeavour the most difficult undertaking of his career. It took us five years to gather some of these photographs since our studios (camera traps) had to be set up in the woods.
Another National Geographic Explorer, Ronan Donovan, spent a year and a half in Yellowstone National Park photographing wolves and documenting the scientific findings related to the reintroduction of wolves to the park after they had been missing for 70 years.
The closeness that makes a snapshot so appealing to viewers would be lost. He was familiar with the remote Canadian Arctic region. The wolves are located in a remote area, distant from civilisation.
He focused mostly on the Arctic of Canada to get a sense of the true wolf, free from human harassment.
His work is significant because it not only gives viewers insight into the daily lives of Arctic wolves, but also encourages them to examine the ways in which climate change has altered the world around them, serving as a reminder that there are wild communities struggling to survive in a world that has been drastically altered as a result of human activity.
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