At the Tikki Hywood Foundation in Zimbabwe, each rescued pangolin—like Tamuda, seen here—is assigned a caretaker. The pangolins bond with their humans, who help them learn how to feed on ants and termites. Rescued as a baby from poachers, Tamuda was stubborn and impish, his caretaker says.
From "Poaching is sending the shy, elusive pangolin to its doom," June 2019.
- Animals
- Best of 2019
These are our best animal photos of 2019
Rescued songbirds fly to freedom and an orphaned giraffe nuzzles her caretaker in these beautiful pictures selected by National Geographic editors.
National Geographic photographers have always captured animals in nature at their most beautiful, fascinating, and mysterious. In 2019, a different theme dominated our photojournalism: animals, as they’re affected by us.
In the Bolivian Amazon, John Paul Ampudia photographed a man soothing an injured armadillo rescued from a forest fire. In Vietnam, Brent Stirton captured a pangolin’s little face peering out of a wooden box as his caretakers bring him to a remote mountainside, where he’ll have a second chance at life after being rescued from poachers. At a clinic in South Africa, Nichole Sobiecki photographed a veterinarian as she crawled with formerly neglected lion cubs, patiently helping them learn to walk again.
The photos illustrate just how much animals’
