The New Big 5 initiative is a beautiful, poignant reminder that all of nature and all of life is threatened on this planet. We are on this planet together. We must all do everything we can to care for the plants and critters that inhabit the Earth. Our future happiness depends on all of them.

What a great project the New Big 5 is. I wonder what the final choices will be? There are so many incredible animals in our world. Any project that brings attention to animals, so many of whom are threatened or endangered, is truly important.

I’m excited about the New Big 5 project. It says something positive about our world that people are now more interested in photographing wildlife than killing it. We have a long way to go in wildlife conservation. I hope this project can bring more attention to the many threats that animals face.

Wildlife around the world will benefit from the New Big 5, from the inspiration and wonder generated by photographs of amazing animals to the passion of people working to preserve at-risk species around the globe.

The New Big 5 is a brilliant idea. A Big 5 from the photographic point of view is one more brick in a wall that we’re constructing to save many of the creatures around the Earth. It’s critical that we act together to protect the world’s wildlife.

The original Big 5 were selected by trophy hunters as the species they’d most like to hang on their walls. Society has changed and trophy hunting is on the way out – thank goodness. The New Big 5 is a wonderful project that’s about celebrating life, not death.

I love the idea of a New Big 5 of wildlife photography. The original Big 5 were the most prized trophies of the big game hunters in Africa. Now we have the opportunity to respect wildlife for reasons other than as targets of our cruel games, and atone for our violence by pouring love, admiration and respect into a new understanding of a Big 5

So many of us are out there risking our lives to save elephants and rhinos from poaching, so the ‘Big 5’, which associates wildlife with something as archaic as hunting, feels like it should have been squashed a long time ago. Instead, we should be celebrating the extraordinary but vanishing species found across the globe. That’s what makes the New Big 5 so powerful: it’s a platform to bring like-minded people together and create a wave of change.

I really like the idea of a New Big 5. Photography is an art and a great way to celebrate animals. How do you tell the story of wildlife? How do you get a billion people to see mountain gorillas, other than photography? I’m a big fan of photography. I love the cause of photography. Photography is a bedrock for conservation in Africa.