Images

The Eastern, migratory population of monarch butterflies has declined by about 80 percent over the last decade.

Bats benefit from maintaining a close-knit roosting group because they increase reproductive success and it is important for rearing pups.

Yukon River freezing up at Pilot Station, AK

Whitefish drying on a fish rack in Pilot Station, AK, in the Yukon River Basin. 

The pallid sturgeon is an endangered riverine sturgeon with historical distribution restricted to parts of the Yellowstone, Missouri, Mississippi, and Atchafalaya Rivers. Although rare, pallid sturgeon in the lower Mississippi River appear to be naturally recruiting, and information about habitat use is important to conserve this species.

An adult pallid sturgeon, an endangered species.

Barred owls like this one were most strongly associated with patches of large hardwood and conifer trees in relatively flat areas along streams.  

Heading out to do field work for a permafrost loss study in the Yukon River Basin. 

USGS scientist sampling water at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge for analysis of avian influenza to determine if wild bird habitat is a reservoir of the virus.  

Student dusts the Model A Ford coupe used by USGS scientists from the 1930s to 1965. 

Drilling to take water chemistry samples for permafrost study in the Yukon River Basin

USGS biologist Gretchen Roffler weighs a newborn caribou calf in Denali National Park, Alaska.

Old-growth ponderosa pine in the Monument Canyon Research Natural Area, New Mexico.

A grizzly bear has cached an elk carcass in Grand Teton National Park. Scientists used DNA from hair samples collected from barbed wire to estimate whether the availability of carcasses associated with an elk hunting season resulted in temporary immigration of grizzly bears. 

Non-native Cuban treefrogs have established a breeding population in New Orleans, Louisiana, the first such population on the U.S. mainland outside Florida. The treefrogs were discovered at the Audubon Zoo shortly after a shipment of palm trees from Florida were planted in the zoo's elephant enclosure in 2016.

USGS conducts a health assessment on a mantee in Crystal River, Florida.

The Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) initiated a study on how its water operations influence fishes in the Missouri River basin above Fort Peck Reservoir. Of utmost concern is the effect of these operations on the spawning success and recruitment of endangered pallid sturgeon.

Dead trees viewed from the Colony Mill Trail in Sequoia National Park, photographed in 2015 during severe drought in California.

Anna Ormiston and Jesi Hessong, student contractors with the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative, or ARMI, display several discarded mylar balloon collected by field teams working in and around the Capital Region National Parks in the summer of 2015. They collected a total of 71 balloons.

Field sampling in the Hells Canyon Reservoir Complex, with Dr. M. Marvin-DiPasquale at the bow of the sediment collection boat. Photographer: D. Krabbenhoft.

A researcher on Sperry Glacier navigates to the next mass balance survey location.