Videos

This video captures a moment when USGS scientist Elizabeth Gallegos released 8 zoo-raised froglets into a stream, just one of several such reintroductions last summer. The long-term goal is to create 25 populations of a few hundred to a thousand frogs each. This summer, the team will revisit the sites to see how the frogs are doing.

This video shows a California tiger salamander finding its way to an underpass designed to help amphibians and reptiles cross the road safely, with the help of a "turn-around" that helps guide the salamander back in the right direction as it travels away from the underpass.

This video provides background on and shows the release of California red-legged frog tadpoles into a pond in San Diego County, CA on March 31, 2021.

Do you have what it takes to be a bat biologist? USGS bat researchers are counting Townsend’s big eared bats to monitor how their populations are doing. Watch the video to try your hand at a bat count and see how your skills compare to a USGS scientist!

In this video, you can hear the honks and quacks of geese and ducks ring through the air, as birds fly in every direction above a wetland. This video was captured at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in November 2019, not long after geese and ducks began to arrive to spend the winter in the California Central Valley.

Tidal marshes exist as a transitional environment between the land and sea, and provides habitat to fish and wildlife, protects human developments from coastal flooding, and stores carbon at high density, among other important ecosystem services.

Wildlife passages are one tool used to help amphibians and reptiles cross roads safely. Barrier fencing along the road and "turn-arounds" help guide these animals towards the passageways. In this video, a western toad hops back towards the passage after reaching a turn-around structure, following the barrier fencing.
 

A burrowing owl regurgitates an owl pellet at the LAX Dunes Preserve caught by a wildlife camera.
 

Drone footage of Whiskeytown National Recreation area in Northern California in October 2018, captured by drone pilot and USGS WERC ecologist Chase Freeman.

U.S. Geological Survey scientists collaborated with partners to develop an innovative new tool to help resource managers prepare Pacific coastal wetlands for rising sea levels. 
 

Mountain lions, desert bighorn sheep, mule deer, and a variety of other wildlife live on and pass through the Nevada National Security Site each day. It’s a highly restricted area that is free of hunting and has surprisingly pristine areas.This 22-minute program highlights an extraordinary study on how mountain lions interact with their prey.

Title: The Effects of Climate Change: A Scientific Pathway Forward

• The frequency of extreme and unpredictable weather events is increasing.
• What are the effects of an increase or decrease in carbon emissions?
• What is scientific research projecting for the future of climate change?

Scientists from the USGS Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) are conducting a "social attraction" study for seabirds in the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Historically, this region offered wetland habitats to local wildlife. With the introduction of industrial salt ponds and human development, however, much of this habitat was lost.

Ecological Stressors: It's a Lot of 'WERC'
"There's is no place like California" by A. Keith Miles, Center Director, USGS Western Ecological Research Center

Highlights of the science of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center: 

Interviews with staff at Point Reyes National Seashore tell how this National Park Service unit uses USGS science to educate visitors, and manage the park.
 

Cell phone video of USGS biologist Diego Johnson releasing a golden eagle that had just been fitted with a tracking device.  The work is informing land managers on eagle movements in the southwest, an area of expanding renewable energy development.

Tarantula hawk wasps sting and paralyze tarantulas to feed their young. USGS Ecologist Todd Esque captured this video of a tarantula hawk wasp dragging a tarantula through the desert in Mexico. 

This video shows a Pacific pocket mouse (Perognathus longimembris pacificus) sandbathing at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in 2015.

This short video features incredible and graphic images and video of golden eagle prey. These birds are eating machines. USGS biologist-rock climbers install nest cameras to study the eating habits of golden eagles and their young in the Mojave Desert.

Imagine being a fragile seedling pushing through the earth and reaching for the sun — but constantly being smothered by strange grasses growing faster and taller than you are. That is the plight of the Island Phacelia (Phacelia insularis var.

Remnants of former ranching enterprises, feral horses can still be found on Santa Rosa Island, part of the remote and hauntingly gorgeous Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Los Angeles.