>>> finally tonight, saving the animals. some of the most unusual and spectacular species on earth. our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson has the story of a man using his unique eye to help all creatures great and small and show the rest of us what's at stake here.
>> reporter: joel satori is a modern-day noah, building a portfolio instead of an ark to preserve the world's animals, sometimes two by two.
>> this is my attempt at getting people to understand that these things have value and we shouldn't be throwing away -- we are throwing away the ark.
>> reporter: satori calls his efforts the biodiversity project. half the world's plants and animals, he says, could be gone by the next century.
>> we're right on the cliff right now. and if we don't change our ways, we're going to go right now.
>> reporter: satori spent most of his career in the wild for " national geographic." but now he's going to american zoos and aquariums.
>> good morning.
>> reporter: including the children's zoo in his hometown, lincoln, nebraska.
>> i hope that they see these animals on black and white backgrounds and they look them in the eye and they realize that all creatures have a right to exist.
>> reporter: like the african dwarf crocodile, made vulnerable by hunting and habitat loss.
>> wow.
>> does that look good?
>> oh, that's great.
>> reporter: breeding in zoos helps the golden lion tamarind fend off extinction. and here the camera.
>> how much stress does this put on the animals?
>> minimal. we work with the keepers ahead of time.
>> reporter: every shoot is meticulously planned, hoping to catch the unexpected. a perfect moment in a cyclone of chaos.
>> so how do you get a perpetual motion machine like a ring-tail lemur to stop long enough to take a photograph? you just offer him a little food.
>> reporter: he sells his photographs to fund the project, working to create a connection between the animals and the people who can help protect them.
>> when you learn about something and you respect it and you really want it to stay around, you work hard for it.
>> this is where my heart is and this is what i want to do.
>> reporter: hoping if a picture is worth 1,000 words his photos can protect 6,000 species. anne thompson, nbc news, lincoln, nebraska.
