In a true play of might makes right, a mature ghost crab threatens a juvenile on the sands of Loango National Park. The park, too, is waging its own battles against poachers, oil companies, and piles of litter. In one day, trash collectors gathered 535 plastic bottles, 560 intact flip-flops, 4 refrigerators, and 2,240 other bits of debris from 1,640 feet (500 meters) of beach.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Gabon's Loango National Park: In the Land of the Surfing Hippos," August 2004, National Geographic magazine)