Helping Hand Sartore started taking photos. Yet


the animals didn’t always cooperate. T e St. Andrews beach mouse was one of them. “T ese mice never stop moving,” Sartore says. He tried to follow the scurrying mice with his camera. He couldn’t capture a good image. Finally, one mouse stopped to groom itself. Sartore got the shot. T e mice weren’t the only difficult


animals. T e southern three-banded armadillo tried to run away from Sartore. When it couldn’t, it just curled up into a ball. Sartore had better luck with a


woodland caribou. T is animal was willing to stand still. Sartore just had to feed it grape leaves. “I wish everything were that easy,” he says.


St. Andrews beach mouse


Finding Answers Sartore worries that time is running


out for many of these animals. Scientists think many of them face extinction. Sartore agrees. Sartore thinks we can fix the


problem. Endangered animals need protection from hunters and disease. T ey need space to move around. T ey need food and a safe habitat. T ey need a healthy planet.


On the Rise Not all animals facing extinction


die out. Some survive in healthy ecosystems. An ecosystem is an area where diff erent kinds of plants and animals live together. T ey depend on each other to survive. T e Karner blue butterfly is an


example. It depends on one kind of wildflower for food. When farmers cleared land for farming, the wildflowers died. T e butterflies began dying, too. T en farmers started clearing less land. T at protected both the wildflowers and the butterflies. T e Mexican gray wolf is another


example. People poisoned, trapped, and killed them. T ey almost became extinct. Sartore wanted to know more about these wolves.


8 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


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