Stunning photos of critically endangered animals

Photographer Tim Flach is known for his photographs that show the emotional or human side of animals.

Flach's photos often show moods, expressions, and gestures and force us to rethink our relationship to the natural world.

His newest book, Endangered, includes text by zoologist Jonathan Bailey and tries to get readers to consider the impact they have on these animals and think about what it means to them to disappear.
 
Along with the animals themselves, Flach photographed the landscapes in which they live.

He spent days in the cold snow to capture the rare saiga. He swam with sturgeons and hippos.

The ecosystems that many of these creatures live in have already been destroyed to make way for cities and farms. But by eliminating such habitats, we are erasing the only places that some of the most unique creatures on Earth can live in.

Check out some of the photos from the book.

12 PHOTOS

1. Pangolins are the creatures most threatened by the illegal wildlife trade. This pangolin hangs from its mother's tail.

2. Hippos are hunted for meat and teeth.

3. Yellow-eyed forest frogs are suffering from climate change.

4. The Madagascar beak-breasted turtle is the rarest turtle in the world.

5. Rhinopithecus was thought to be extinct before one was seen in 1962, although the rest of the populations are small and isolated.

6. Fireflies help us learn how bioluminescence works, although even light pollution and the loss of forests threaten these creatures.

7. Philippine eagles suffer from deforestation and poaching.

8. African vultures - orderlies. They suppress the spread of disease and warn against poaching. And some poachers have begun killing these endangered birds, which draw attention to illegal hunting.

9. Snow leopards are the most elusive cats in the world. And they are losing their habitats.

10. Saiga has survived since the Ice Age - the species shared the world with mammoths and saber-toothed tigers. But poaching has put this species on the brink of extinction.

11. Previously it was possible to find a 5-meter long beluga in the Black and Caspian Seas. But these giants are gone, and the babies, who are still in danger, are threatened by humans who hunt for their eggs.

12. Sudan pictured here is the last white rhinoceros in the world.