Images

Graduate student Christiane Roy placing suspended invertebrate traps in the experimental ponds by kayak.

Underwater light sensor deployed under the mangrove canopy where corals are growing.

A biologist examines an American bullfrog along the Yellowstone River near Billings, MT.

Gray jay perched on tree in the Presidential Range, White Mountains, NH

The transition zone between the Missouri River and Ft. Peck Reservoir.

An American alligator and a Burmese python locked in a struggle to prevail in Everglades National Park. This python appears to be losing, but snakes in similar situations have apparently escaped unharmed, and in other situations pythons have eaten alligators.

USGS scientists Bill Orem (left) and Terry Lerch (right) recording data and collecting samples at a Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) household in Serbia. BEN patients typically come from small villages and are often farmers.

Two Yupik Eskimo students from Chevak, Alaska holding a tundra swan cygnet. These student volunteers were helping with an annual USGS waterfowl banding program along the Kashunuk River near the Bering Sea coast in western Alaska.

Green anaconda in Brazil. The snake pictured is a representative of a species discussed in the USGS snake risk assessment. This snake was photographed in its native range.

Yellow anaconda in Argentina. The snake pictured is a representative of a species discussed in the USGS snake risk assessment. This snake was photographed in its native range.

Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor) at a county park in southeastern Miami. Photo courtesy of Mike Rochford, University of Florida. Used with permission.

A female Burmese python (Python molurus) on her nest with eggs. Photo by Jemeema Carrigan, University of Florida. Courtesy of Skip Snow, National Park Service. Used with permission.

A hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) found dead beneath a wind turbine, an apparent victim of a blade strike or near-contact barotrauma (lung failure from severe and abrupt pressure change; here, caused by the spinning blades). Prior to the problem of bat fatalities at wind turbines, biologists rarely encountered hoary bats.

USGS biologist Paul Cryan. Biologists hope to learn more about the scale and causes of bat fatalities at wind turbines by searching for carcasses of bats beneath turbines and carefully documenting the conditions under which they are found.

Scientists examine the teeth of Brutus, a wolf being studied by USGS scientists, for patterns of wear that indicate age. The front incisors are worn without their lateral cusps present. The canines show some wear and are becoming rounded and stained but still maintain most of their length. One canine tip has been broken.

Brutus, a radio-tagged wolf being studied by USGS scientists, is a member of a pack of at least 12 adults and an unknown number of pups.

A mother wolf carries an errant pup back to their den.

Massachusetts inner continental shelf bottom photograph showing seafloor life.

Fireweed after fire in Alaska

Foothills of the Front Range, Denver, CO

Calm Lake Michigan morning while sampling dead and dying fish for viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV). This virus has recently emerged in the Great Lakes and caused severe epidemics in many fish species.