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It's just another day at the beach for these king penguins, which gather along a coast with views of a landscape more reminiscent of the last ice age than a sun-drenched resort. Vast glaciers, meltwater streams, and offshore icebergs belie the coast's geologic origins in a tropical mountain chain more than 2,000 miles away. Traces of the intense whaling, epic rescue, and military occupation that took place on this remote isle during the 20th century still remain. Today it serves as a hub of scientific research, a draw for hardy tourists, and a refuge for one of the world's greatest concentrations of wildlife.

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Where can a toxic amphibian find a pad?

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A colorful poisonous frog hunkers down on a bromeliad in the midst of the world's most extensive river basin. From its headwaters in the high-altitude slopes of a geologically young, and still rising, mountain chain, this major tributary courses through two countries that have had recurring boundary disputes. Research conducted in treetop walkways 115 feet above the forest floor has found seven primate species nearby, as well as amazing avian and botanical diversity. About half the local people are descendants of a great civilization that was defeated by conquerors from abroad five centuries ago.

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Where will you find this family tree?

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Mother and child orangutans hold on in one of their species' last sanctuaries, a national park famous for primate research. They share this jungle with other rare species of megafauna found nowhere else together, such as rhinos, tigers, elephants, sun bears, and clouded leopards. During the past two years the park's location, a former Dutch colony, was convulsed by economic and political instability after the downfall of a corrupt regime. The resulting chaos has brought illegal logging and put the future of the park's creatures in serious jeopardy.

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Where is this creature featured?

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A thorny devil makes its stand on the red earth of this ancient, eroded range, which sweeps across the center of an exceedingly arid land. Colonists included the range in an area they called Dead Heart, but it is actually the best-watered district in the region: Some streams have carved deep gorges where relict vegetation flourishes as testament to a moister geologic past. Plans to expand mining operations into one of the territory's national parks have galvanized opposition from international groups and a local population whose roots extend back at least 40,000 years. Superlatives abound in this land: It is the flattest, lowest, smallest, and most isolated landmass in its geographic class.

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{answers} stopovers on the global safari

Bay of Isles, South Georgia Island

Using a wide-angle lens and a polarizing filter, Art Wolfe photographed these king penguins wading into the frigid shallows of South Georgia Island's Bay of Isles. A continuation of the distant Andean range in South America, the island was a major whaling center until 1965. Ernest Shackleton, who is buried there, successfully traversed its forbidding terrain in 1916 to seek aid for the crew of his Endurance, which had broken up some 800 miles away during its ill-fated Antarctic expedition. The island was briefly occupied in 1982 when Argentina and Great Britain fought over control of the Falkland Islands.

Rio Napo, Peru

This photograph of a poison dart frog perched on a bromeliad was taken on the Peruvian side of the species-rich rainforest surrounding Rio Napo, a major tributary of the Amazon River. Rio Napo rises in the Andes Mountains and flows through Peru and its uneasy neighbor, Ecuador. The countries share a long border made up largely of jungle and high mountains, as well as a long history of squabbles over that border. Peru's indigenous population is descended from the Incas, whose vast empire was crushed in the 16th century by Spanish conquistadores led by Francisco Pizarro.

Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra

Wolfe was able to gain a clear view of this pair of orangutans in Gunung Leuser National Park "by scrambling up a hillside across the ravine from their tree. They remained relaxed, since they were over 30 meters above the ground." Researchers in the park, located on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, have documented the manufacture and use of tools by these primates. Indonesia declared independence in 1945 after more than 300 years of Dutch rule. Illegal logging in the country has intensified in the wake of the political turmoil following the 1998 resignation of President Suharto.

Macdonnell Ranges, Northern Territory, Australia

To accentuate the appearance of the 28-inch-long thorny devil and include the surrounding panorama of Australia's Macdonnell Ranges, Wolfe placed his camera with its 14mm wide-angle lens less than an inch away from the reptile and used an aperture setting of f/22. The Macdonnell Ranges sweep east and west across the country's vast Northern Territory, which is also the home of Kakadu National Park, where plans for a uranium mine have sparked protests from the aborigines, who have inhabited the country for millennia.

For more strange creatures, pick up our September-October issue (see below), or get a copy of Art Wolfe's book The Living Wild.