Images

Small waterbirds resting atop a limestone outcropping in Chokoloskee Bay.

The Western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) is a relatively common and widespread lizard in Southern California. It is larger and prefers less open habitat than the related side-blotched lizard, yet USGS and National Park Service biologists are finding signs of genetic isolation in both species.

The State of California studies dead sea otters, like this one found by USGS scientists in Piedras Blancas, Calif., to learn about their causes of death and to understand the variety of environment stress factors that impact the nearshore marine environment.

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

In contrast to pale, sick specimens, healthy sea stars are vibrantly colored, active predators, like this giant sea star (Pisaster giganteus) with a captured cowrie snail.

Creosote scrub habitat (one type of preferred desert tortoise habitat) in the Mojave Desert.

Assessing suitable sites in southern California
for reintroducing endangered southern mountain yellow-legged frogs, USGS scientists rediscovered a population in the San Jacinto Wilderness, 50 years since this frog was last seen there.

This map of the Thousand Oaks, Calif. area visualizes the degree of genetic isolation being experienced by the wrentit (Chamaea fasciata), a small songbird.

A Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog (Rana sierrae) scans the landscape in Yosemite National Park.

The sunflower sea star (Pycnopodium helianthoides) can be found in a variety of colors in the wild, like this healthy specimen with a lavender hue.

A male Agassiz's desert tortoise, equipped with a transmitter, in a wind energy facility near Palm Springs, Calif.

Sea urchins crawl upon the disintegrated corpse of a sea star that succumbed to Sea Star Wasting Disease—a smattering of unrecognizable white matter. 

USGS scientists found this adult mountain yellow-legged frog on June 10 in Tahquitz Creek, a rediscovered population
of the endangered frog in the San Jacinto Wilderness, San Bernardino National Forest, California.

The health and population growth of the southern sea otter -- a federally listed threatened species -- can serve as an indicator of the health and condition of California's coastal waters.