Paper animals: This new pop-up book is creativity for a cause

The pop-up of the Borneo bay cat, a little-known wild feline endemic to the Asian Island it’s named after, uncoils precisely like my own domestic shorthair, all fluid grace, lissome strength and wary mien. A tiny yellow fish peeks from behind a colony of staghorn coral in one paper artwork, while in another, a pack of Ethiopian wolves fan across mountainous terrain, lit by a rising sun. All these paper artworks are part of Keerthana Ramesh’s new pop-up book, My Friends Are Missing, a collection of pop-ups of 30 endangered species. “I wanted something that would help me stay sane.” On May 21, to mark International Endangered Species Day, One Million One Month—an organisation that seeks to drive awareness about endangered species through art—launched a 30-day-long Instagram art challenge. Earlier this month, she showcased the final copy of the book on Instagram: a red-bound tome, bulging with popups of 30-endangered species from all around the world.