Thomas D. Mangelsen has photographed lions, tigers, bears, and other species in their natural habitats on all seven continents.

And at age 77, the wildlife photographer and conservationist never tires of it, always remaining active.

Mangelsen owns and operates Images of Nature Gallery at 7916 Girard Ave. in La Jolla, where some of his best work is on display.

This past winter, Mangelsen went on an expedition to Africa to film tribespeople. “I went to Ethiopia for three weeks to photograph remote indigenous tribes with their beautiful beadwork and body painting, who are still living mostly in loincloths as they have for hundreds of thousands of years possibly,” he said, adding it’s inspiring him to do more human portraiture.

“It was one of the most exciting and special trips I’ve ever done,” he pointed out.

After Ethiopia, Mangelsen went to India to photograph tigers in the wild. And after that, he returned to his native Nebraska, as he does nearly every year, to film the annual crane migration there.

A testament to his character, even though Mangelsen has shot countless frames of cranes over the years, he’s convinced his efforts can still be improved upon.

“I’m always trying to get a better shot of flocks of cranes than I’ve shot previously in formation flying across the full moon,” he said. “There’s always a better picture – no matter how many you take.”

Mangelsen though is most famous for his wildlife photography in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Bears are one of his favorite subjects. He’s filmed both polar bears in the Arctic and Grizzly bears in Yellowstone, near where he resides in Jackson, Wy.

Mangelsen is fond of one female Grizzly, in particular, dubbed 399, her research number. Grizzly 399, and her many cubs over the years, have been the subject of two of his wildlife photography books.

“Grizzly 399 is the most famous mother bear ever in the world,” Mangelsen enthused adding, “We’re also working on a documentary about her life. She’s age 27 and has had 18 offspring, three sets of triplets, and, now three years ago, she had quadruplets, very rare for a Grizzly, especially one so old. I’ve spent probably three months a year, for the last 17 years, almost 24/7 photographing her.”

It’s all part of the conservationist’s latest mission: lobbying to protect Yellowstone Grizzlies by keeping them on the Endangered Species List prohibiting their hunting and preventing their mismanagement. It’s a topic Mangelsen is passionate about and doesn’t mind speaking his mind on.

“The governor of Idaho last week put out a bill that would take Grizzlies off the endangered list in Idaho and Montana,” he said. “It’s just unconscionable that someone would be so callous – and so stupid – not to think that bears are incredibly valuable in and of themselves. Whenever they’ve taken animals off the endangered species list, they’ve been hunted.”

Patience is one of Mangelsen’s most important and enduring qualities, which allows him to get just the right wildlife photo at just the right moment, no matter how long it takes.

“I know this particular bear so well, the trails where she looks for berries, where I know she might be found,” he said adding every time he photographs her, “I try to find something that says something different, tell a different story, not just a bear eating.”

Of his legacy, Mangelsen said: “I’ve always felt that I need to give back from what I’ve loved doing, and what I’ve made my living off of all these years. I’ve got a bit more of a voice now than I had years ago. I am making a difference by speaking out.”

What can we do now to ensure wildlife and their natural habitats are protected in the future? “I’m intolerant for sure when it comes to people harming the planet,” Mangelsen answered. “People lying, not doing the right things, not speaking out and being followers.

“We’ve got to take care of climate change. We’ve lost so many species in the last 25 years due to habitat loss and climate change. We need to get ‘real’ serious about conservation and wildlife management. We need to think of wildlife as we think of other human beings, as being friends and comrades, not something to hunt down and shoot with an assault rifle.”

IMAGES OF NATURE GALLERY

Where: 7916 Girard Ave.

Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily.

Info: mangelsen.com.