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Dear reader,
Thank you for taking an interest in my website.
My name is Jo Kuyken. I'm a proud resident of the small country called Belgium, located in Europe. Growing up, I often visited zoos in my local area, specifically the zoos of Antwerp and Olmen (now called Pakawi Park). It must have been here where I found my love for animals and their diversity. When I bought my first DSLR camera, I was 15 years old. I remember perfectly how I visited the Kölner Zoo in Germany and was deeply impressed by the large number of monitor lizards they kept. Sorting these pictures, I placed the different species in different albums on my pc. This is where the quest began. Just me, with a few hundred pictures on my dad's pc. Never would I have thought that I would have photographed 10.000 different kinds of animals less than 8 years later.
It took me another two full years after starting before I developed the courage to start sorting fish and invertebrates. Their taxonomy and diversity are far larger than the other animals, so every fish picture felt like a needle in a haystack. I know many photographers that don't dare to start with these groups for the very same reasons. All I can say to them is that it will be worth it. Not only is it the perfect way of boosting your numbers, but the varieties can even exceed those of reptiles or birds. There are truly exceptional creatures out there that don't get the attention they deserve. To me, all animals are alike. Yet I would probably drive further for a new toucan than fifteen new ant species. It's a conflicting hobby sometimes. Finding the balance between a higher number of species, or seeing that one iconic species you have always dreamt about is difficult.
What led me to discover a great number of new species was having the right people around me. I thank those who supported me throughout the challenges of this life's work, those who helped me to identify yet another little gray frog or piece of coral & those who opened their doors for me. Unfortunately, many people out there have no good intentions, which leads to suspicion among enthusiasts and breeders. I think very highly of those who decided to trust me despite everything. I owe all of them my greatest gratitude. I would never have reached my goal without them. There are so many great and knowledgeable people out there who work every day to contribute to the protection of endangered animals, whether that is through breeding, research or otherwise. Respect to all.
I don't only visit zoos across the world. I like to believe that I'm also invested in the private animal trade, in which I discovered many unique species in the most diverse circumstances. The trade is subject to a lot of discussion. It brings both benefits for species conservation and terrible stories that deal with the extinction of certain species due to overcollecting, not to mention a lot of animal suffering. As a photographer with a mission, I try to refrain from judgment and focus on my own goals. Unfortunately for me, this also means that there are people who think that I don't have a moral compass. They say that I should keep away from illegally caught animals or animals kept in shameful conditions. I truly understand where they are coming from. It's one of my own failures to keep telling myself that it is acceptable what I'm doing. Inside, I know that I should oppose these actions, but my urge to photograph new species gets in the way sometimes. That certainly doesn't mean that I'd want these issues to continue. I would gladly give up seeing these animals if that means that they would live freely in the wild. Sadly enough, we live in a world where my opinion would make little difference and where these species are caught with or without me withholding to photograph them. Therefore, I try to continue objectively, even though my heart breaks every time for these beautiful creatures. Happily, there are also many good breeders out there that do make a difference for a species' survival. Never forget what these people have accomplished, what many zoos haven't. Governments across the world try to ban the wildlife trade, but they forget that it will only harm backup populations of endangered species. The illegal trade will continue as it is, and circumstances might even worsen to protect themselves from being caught by officials.
On this website, you might encounter species that are bred in captivity or caught in the wild, legal or otherwise. I ask you to browse through with an objective view, focusing on the taxonomy above all. I'm not an activist, just someone who really appreciates how diverse this little planet is. The human race thinks it owns everything, but we share our world with millions of other beautiful creatures. The only difference is that they weren't lucky enough to have developed a strong intelligence like we did. I'd argue that our intelligence and the way we use it will eventually lead to our extinction. But that is a whole different story.
Things you should know about taxonomy
I am aware that some of you might collect animal species via zoo tours and photography, some others might curate their own private collection, and some others might work in the local zoo, etc. But not everyone out there possesses this 'general knowledge' as those who dedicate their lives to them. Therefore, it is important to understand a few things before you start browsing this site to its full potential. The taxonomic classification of the animal kingdom plays an important role in getting the message. In this paragraph, we will go over the basics of taxonomy to give you a better idea of this concept. As with all theory, it's always good to start with an example. Let's take a look at the Sunda Island tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) for that:
This is what taxonomy looks like. On this site, there will be a main focus on the last three levels of the figure. The Sunda Island tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) is part of the genus Panthera. But it isn’t the only member of this genus. Take the southern lion (Panthera leo melanochaita) for example. As you see, their scientific names start with the same word 'Panthera', meaning they are both part of this genus. The second part of the scientific name, the specific epithet, describes the animal on the species level. In other words, the Panthera tigris is a species. In English, we would just call this animal a tiger. If a species doesn’t have a third part of its scientific name, that means that the animal is only identified at the species level. There can be many reasons why a scientific name lacks a third part. This third part is called a subspecies. There are multiple subspecies for a species, and there are often multiple species for a genus. This might all sound difficult, but it is actually quite easy when you get the hang of it. If you look at the tiger again, we will explain the importance of a subspecies. When you talk about wild animals, a tiger (Panthera tigris) is actually not even an existing animal. All tigers in the wild belong to a specific subspecies. The Sunda Island tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) is one of these subspecies. But there is another: the mainland tiger (Panthera tigris tigris). As you can see, the third part of the scientific name is different. This means they are different subspecies of the same species. But like the tiger, some animals only have subspecies in the wild. When you talk about a ‘tiger’ (Panthera tigris), you talk about all its subspecies together at once or hybrids between subspecies. When two different subspecies produce offspring, a hybrid is created. Animals like this have no pure blood and are therefore not useful for the conservation of the different tiger subspecies in the wild.
A Sunda Island tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) in the Prague zoo, Czechia. This population is from the island of Sumatra. Until 2017, this variant was considered a subspecies on itself.
Subspecies
But what is a subspecies exactly? It’s the lowest possible rank in the taxonomic classification, right under the species. There is nothing more specific than a subspecies in the animal kingdom. Different subspecies of a species can be recognised by their morphological characteristics. They can be found separately from each other and are often native to a small area. Tigers can be found across large parts of Asia, while the Sunda Island tiger can only be found on a few islands. In short, a subspecies is actually a form of a species that is unique to a certain area, both genetically and morphologically.
If an animal does not have any recognised subspecies, the lowest rank in the taxonomic classification is, of course, the species itself. A species without subspecies is called monotypic. Subspecies are something rare when talking about fish or invertebrates. The vast majority of these groups are always monotypic, mostly because ichthyologists (fish scientists) differ in their opinion from ornithologists (bird scientists) in the classification. Most subspecies can be found in the animal classes of birds and mammals. But even here, there are many animals that are monotypic. An example of that is the lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor), a species without any subspecies. The term monotypic can also be found higher on the taxonomic ranking. The aardvark (Orycteropus after), for example, is the only species in the order Tubulidentata.
What if a species only has one subspecies? Well, that’s impossible. If a species only has one subspecies left because others are declared invalid by scientists, a subspecies will be raised to species level. We can only talk about subspecies when there are two or more. One of the subspecies always has the same name as the species itself. In case of the tiger, this would be the mainland tiger (Panthera tigris tigris). As you already know by now, there is a significant difference between Panthera tigris (sensu lato) and Panthera tigris tigris. In the first case, you are talking on the species level, which includes every subspecies of the tiger. In the second case, you talk about one specific subspecies. The subspecies that has the same name as the species is called the nominate.
On this website, we try to stick to the correct taxonomy as much as possible. Please understand that (sub)species get split or lumped, genera get their names changed, species get moved from one family to another, and so on. All this can happen on a daily basis. It's a difficult job to maintain the most accurate version of taxonomy. We try to update our website as soon as news gets to us, but some papers never reach our eyes or ears. For this, we apologise for any incorrect information on here. If one notices an outdated taxonomic model, a message or email is more than welcome to resolve this issue.
On rare occasions, we do not accept the latest taxonomic review. This is due to numerous reasons, one of which is that certain animals are still not fully investigated. A prime example is the lumping of the Siberian, Malayan, Bengal, South China & Indochinese tiger subspecies into one. Even though we used the new model for the explanation of subspecies a few paragraphs above, we do not currently recognise this revision as valid. The populations are too visually distinct, and the data is still under review by the IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group. For now, we decide to split the populations into subspecies as has been done for 200 years.
Ophiophagus bungarus, until 2024 known as Ophiophagus hannah 'Malaysia'.
Localities
Apart from subspecies, there is also something called ‘localities’. This makes everything a little more complicated. Localities are more typical for animal groups like reptiles and amphibians. They have very similar characteristics to subspecies. It’s often not very clear if a locality is a subspecies or the other way around. They both clearly have exterior differences from other localities or subspecies. The main difference is the fact that subspecies have a larger genotypic difference. To simplify that, subspecies have more genetic differences than localities and are therefore made official. Enough research can often change the status of a species, subspecies or locality.
Take the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) as an example. This species has multiple variants from different areas and countries. These variants were known as localities for decades. It was only in October 2024 that an official paper split the king cobra into different species. Localities don’t have a specific scientific name (yet), and they may never get one if they are genetically not diverse enough. The research on the king cobra species complex is a perfect example of the constant changes of taxonomic classification. Localities can become subspecies or species, subspecies can become species, localities or subspecies can totally disappear, etc.
To be continued
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