Images

USGS biologist Paul Cryan releases a bat carrying a miniature radio transmitter. Researchers are increasingly turning to high-tech methods to try to learn more about the mysterious lives of bats.

Late in the evening, two wolves make use of the trail that leads to the head of the fiord. Studying wolves in the High Arctic allows scientists to follow the wolves during their travels, assuming the scientists can keep up. All-terrain vehicles are needed, and the 24-hour daylight at this time of year is critical.

USGS biologist Dave Mech has spent more than 20 summers studying Arctic wolves on Ellesmere Island, where they are unafraid of humans and can be observed at close range.

Massachusetts inner continental shelf bottom photograph showing seafloor life.

Many species of birds rely on wetlands such as this baldcypress swamp, one of the ecosystems currently being studied by scientists at the USGS NWRC.

Bear digging for food in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.

A bison cow and her calf.

A plains bison in winter at Yellowstone National Park. A bison's hump is useful as a snowplow in winter when the animal swings its head from side to side to brush aside the snow to reach food underneath. The hump is composed of muscles supported by long vertebrae.

Little blue heron siblings.

Elk congregate on the Camp Creek Feed Ground in northwestern Wyoming.

Bighead carp are a large and troublesome invasive species from Asia found in the great rivers of the central United States.

Bighead carp are a large and troublesome invasive species from Asia found in the great rivers of the central United States.

In general, Whimbrels (like the one in this photo) are brown and grey in appearance in contrast to the brown and cinnamon tones of curlews. In addition, these two species can always be distinguished by their vocalizations.

USGS Cooperative Research Unit graduate student Ambre Chaudoin monitors pupfish spawning behavior in Devils Hole, the only habitat for endangered Devils Hole pupfish.

A group of Devils Hole pupfish forage along the edge of the shallow spawning shelf in Devils Hole.

Dart Poison Frogs are commonly found in Central and South America and are from the Dendrobatidae family.

Drought and climate change are causing extensive forest dieback in the U.S. West as well as worldwide. These photos show dead ponderosa pines in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico killed by a combination of drought stress and attacks by bark beetles on weakened trees.

An ultrasound is used to determine the reproductive condition of female pallid sturgeon.

Blood samples from pallid sturgeon are taken to assess hormone levels and reproductive condition. 

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.

Demonstration wetland at Henderson, Nevada, where vegetated hummocks were built into the wastewater treatment wetland to improve its effectiveness and sustainability, as well as provide quality wildlife habitat.