Images

Scarlet Macaws (Ara macao) eat hundreds of fruits a day.

Contact with intact forest ecosystems can lead to cutaneous leishmaniasis, also known as "chiclero's ulcer" (inset). Inset image Copyright 1997, 2004 by Current Medicine LLC. All rights reserved. Image reproduced here with kind permission from Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Photo of a scientist with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center sampling a rice field in the Yolo Bypass, CA.

Tidepool scenes of vibrantly colored sea stars could become a rarity as the Sea Star Wasting Disease spreads.

Herpetologists Gary Fellers and Charles Drost in the field.

A simplified diagram of the Sea Star Wasting Disease experiment devised at Cornell University, used to prove that a virus-sized, biologically active entity was triggering wasting symptoms in sea stars.

Wild tree swallows perched on an artificial nest box at Cosumnes River Preserve, in California’s Central Valley. 

Figure 7. Examples of a 3D movement-based kernel density estimator (MKDE) for a dugong in a marine environment.

Figure 5. MKDEs may help better identify threats to species. 

Jeff Tracey of USGS (left) and James Sheppard of San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research visit the San Diego Supercomputer Center, which provides advanced user support and expertise for the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) program supported by the National Science Foundation. (Image credit: Bob Sinkovits/SDSC)

A male (light colored) and a female (dark colored) Yosemite toads mating.

Tidepool scenes of vibrantly colored sea stars could become a rarity as the Sea Star Wasting Disease spreads.

Spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) are omnivores, often feeding on fruits and insects.

USGS technician weighing a Yosemite toad in the field.

San Francisco Bay — which has already lost the majority of its marsh habitat since the 19th Century — could lose even more marshes by the year 2100 due to sea level rise, according to a new USGS report.

A San Francisco gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia) stares down the camera lens.

Photo of the blooms of the Barstow woolly flower (Eriophyllum mohavense).

Clark's grebe sitting on a nest at Thermalito Afterbay, California.

The flower of the thistle sage, Salvia carduacea.

A mountain bluebird eats a giant mistletoe berry in an ash tree in Sedona, Arizona (Oak Creek).  These bluebirds, and many other types of birds, rely on mistletoe berries for sustenance. As a result, they also help distribute the mistletoe seeds.

A mountain bluebird eats a giant mistletoe berry in an ash tree in Sedona, Arizona (Oak Creek).  These bluebirds, and many other types of birds, rely on mistletoe berries for sustenance. As a result, they also help distribute the mistletoe seeds.