(CNN) --
When photographer Marc Schlossman got his hands on a dead, extinct bird, he had what he calls a "moment of conversion."
While in the bird division of the Field Museum in Chicago with her two young children in 2008, she realized that the specimen drawer from which the bird had been removed was the only place anyone could see the avian species.
"It was like being punched in the stomach and thinking, 'We've done a lot of damage. What kind of world do we want to live in? Enough is enough,'" said Schlossman, who lives in London.
The experience led Schlossman, who specializes in environmental and travel photography, to wonder why biodiversity loss was occurring so rapidly, whether it was too late to do anything about it, and if not, what could be done? .
What he discovered became part of his new photography book, "Extinction: Our Fragile Relationship With Life on Earth."
In the image, the cover of "Extinction: Our Fragile Relationship With Life on Earth".
Credit: Marc Schlossmann
Through compelling photos of specimens captured nearly 15 years after that transformative museum visit, "Extinction" serves as both warning and hope, featuring extinct and endangered animals that have suffered loss due to habitat destruction. , hunting, legal and illegal trade in wild animals, diseases and other threats of human origin.
But Schlossman pointed out that it's not too late for some of these endangered species.
In the photo, a Field Museum specimen of a Carolina parakeet, an extinct species that was once coveted for its colorful plumage and disappeared due to disease.
Credit: Marc Schlossmann
Of the 82 species that appear in the book, 23 are extinct, explains Schlossman.
"The rest have been brought back from the brink of extinction as conservation successes, or can be saved with strong conservation and habitat preservation work."
"We have done a lot of damage as a species. But we have to continue with what we have to do, because we are at a critical point in history."
A detail of a Floreana giant tortoise from the Field Museum collection is shown.
The species was hunted to extinction in 1850. Credit: Marc Schlossman
Schlossman's call to action comes at a crucial time, as the accelerating loss of global biodiversity threatens the interconnectedness and future of all life forms, including humans.
worldwide losses
Biodiversity loss means that despite there being some 8.7 million species on Earth, of which 85-90% have yet to be discovered, scientists are in a race against time to understand how declining numbers, variety and genetic variability of species affect ecosystems, according to Thomas Gillespie, a professor in the department of environmental sciences at Emory University in Atlanta.
"We are potentially losing species faster than we are discovering them," he said, "and before we even realize what their roles are in the world's ecosystems."
It is necessary to conserve more than 40% of the earth's surface to stop the biodiversity crisis, warns report
Schlossman's ability to document some of these lost species dates back to the 1970s, when as a teenager he volunteered in the Field Museum's mammal division for a few summers, he said.
After visiting the museum with his children, he contacted the Field Museum's curator, John Bates, to see what he could do as a photographer to tell the stories of certain specimens in the museum's collection and to see how far he could go. get.
Over the next decade, he photographed his way through specimens of birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, mammals, insects, and plants.
"In any natural history museum, on average, 1% of the collection is on display. I was given access to the 99% that you don't see. ... Each collection manager had to agree to it, so it took me a while to get it," Schlossman said.
"I have that relationship with the Field Museum, and the culture of the Field Museum is very progressive."
The
ethos
underlying Schlossman's curation is that all species are important, especially the pollinators involved in the process of bringing food to our tables, but even "uncharismatic" species, he said.
They create a highway of 150,000 hectares for the "traveling" insects of the United Kingdom
The bumblebee
Bombus affinis
, known as the rusty-patched bumblebee featured in "Extinction," is one of those crucial pollinators.
Once thriving in the United States and Canada, it has experienced the most serious decline of any bee species in North America.
Scientists estimate that this critically endangered species has disappeared from 87% of its natural range, and in recent decades the population has decreased by 95%, the book notes.
This critically endangered Bombus affinis bumblebee specimen is from the Field Museum collection.
Credit: Marc Schlossmann
Among some of the extinct species Schlossman photographed, only one remained, such as a small Mexican ray-fin fish, whose inclusion reflected the book's most heartbreaking message.
"It was on a tributary that passed through Mexico City and due to urban development, it was put under too much pressure," explains Schlossman.
Urbanization, the concentration of human beings in areas converted for residential, commercial, industrial and transportation purposes, also caused the extinction of the Xerces blue butterfly, which was last seen in the wild in 1941. It was the first North American butterfly to became extinct due to human action.
The last known thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, died in captivity in 1936. This specimen is in the collection of the Field Museum.
Credit: Marc Schlossmann
As Schlossman worked on his book, themes or patterns of human behavior were revealed.
"Why do we need to hunt these things to extinction? What happens to our species that we don't manage our resource use sustainably?" she wondered.
"We are poisoning ourselves by acting recklessly in this way of overexploiting natural resources," Schlossman said.
"It's very important that people understand that. I don't know how we think we're going to dodge this bullet we're creating for ourselves."
The Chinese pangolin (specimen in the Field Museum collection) is critically endangered due to being hunted by humans for its scales, meat, and blood.
Credit: Marc Schlossmann
a ray of hope
Schlossman hopes his images inspire ideas and optimism for the conservation of the remaining species.
"Human activities can nurture as well as harm," says Jeremy Kerr, professor and chair of the biology department at the University of Ottawa, Ontario.
One example is the success of the California Condor Recovery Program, which Schlossman included in "Extinction" as an example of how human intervention has saved a species.
The initiative, which began in 1975, is the result of cooperative efforts led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, involving a number of federal and state agencies and non-governmental organizations.
Two California condors reproduced asexually for the first time, scientists say
"The population was down to 22, and they captured them all and set up this captive breeding program. And they encourage the birds to lay two eggs a year to rapidly increase the population," explains Schlossman.
"The chicks from the hatchery eggs were handled and reared with condor puppets so they wouldn't imprint with humans. That is, basically, if the condor chick saw a human face, it thought it was its mother," he added.
"[So] they used condor puppets to raise them. ... By 2020, there were more than 500 condors."
The New Zealand kākāpos (items in the Field Museum's collection) have been preserved thanks to a government-supported relocation and recovery program, according to "Extinction."
Credit: Marc Schlossmann
Get up and fight harder
Deforestation for the production of beef, soybeans (produced in large quantities for livestock) and palm oil harms the biodiversity of tropical rainforests and coral reefs, Emory's Gillespie said.
Much of the burden of biodiversity loss falls on large industries and companies, such as agriculture, Schlossman said, but everyone can do things to help, such as making dietary changes to reduce demand for products from those systems.
Since habitat conservation is the most important antidote to biodiversity loss, habitats for species such as the monarch butterfly, declared endangered in July by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, can be fostered by growing milkweed, one of their main food sources, Schlossman explained.
In the photo, monarch butterfly specimens from the Field Museum collection.
Credit: Marc Schlossmann
For bee species, you can reduce pesticide use or plant a variety of flowers and shrubs in your yard to prevent habitat loss and provide bees with shelter from extreme elements.
If you feel powerless or overwhelmed by these environmental issues, know that it's not too late to start making changes to build a better future, according to Schlossman.
"Everything that happened yesterday or in the days before doesn't exist anymore," he said.
"Eco-anxiety doesn't make things any better; we just have to get up and fight harder."
"Extinction" is available now in the UK and US.