A fascination with unusual kangaroos has led an Australian couple on a 10-year journey in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea.
Zoologist Jim Thomas and his wife Jean have spent the past decade trying to save two critically endangered species of tree kangaroos.
The Weimang and Tenkile tree kangaroos had been hunted almost to extinction by locals who ate the animals.
Their numbers dwindled to fewer than 500 before the Thomases arrived in PNG's Torricelli Mountain Ranges.
"There's a high level of endemism in the Torricelli Mountains, so if it goes from here it's gone forever," Mr Thomas said.
The conservationists have since convinced 10,000 people in 50 villages in the region to stop hunting tree kangaroos and sign a moratorium protecting them in an area covering 180,000 hectares.
Instead of eating tree kangaroos, the Thomases have taught villagers to farm rabbits, chicken and fish for food.
"Within a few years some of those villagers came back to us and said, 'hey we've got Tenkile on our land after 20 years'," Mr Thomas said.
As well as helping locals with new farming methods, the Thomases' Tenkile Conservation Alliance has run a number of development projects.
Water-borne diseases had been common in the villages until the alliance provided water tanks, which local Caleb Bulu says have changed people's lives.
"In regard to health issues, we have no sickness anymore," he said.
Now, hundreds of locals have turned out for a celebration - known as a singsing - to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Thomases' arrival.
The singsing also marks the opening of their new research laboratory, which aims to attract scientists, encourage research in the area and provide a source of income for the conservation effort.
The alliance is also lobbying the PNG government to declare a conservation area over the Torricelli Mountains to further protect the unique animals.
(which probably makes me the only zoochatter who got a really good picture of a wild tree kangaroo AND a wild clouded leopard, LOL).