Images

USGS field biologist Andrea Mott displays a recently marked Lesser Snow Goose.

Lesser Snow Geese are captured using a helicopter to herd them into large pens to await banding.

 Lesser Snow Geese are captured using a helicopter to herd them into large pens.

Two USGS research technicians walk across a sparsely vegetated sandbar towards the Missouri River while surveying for piping plovers. 

USGS Restoration Assessment and Monitoring Program for the Southwest (RAMPS) is helping to build capacity in ecosystem restoration on the Navajo Nation with a series of projects in collaboration with Navajo Nation Department of Natural Hertiage, Dine Native Plant Program, and the Native-led non-profit Tolani Lake Enterprises.

Pyramid Lake, Nevada, is one of the last remaining strongholds for lacustrine Lahontan cutthroat trout; almost all other large lake populations have undergone population declines or extirpation as a result of habitat degradation, overharvest, and water diversions, all compounded by the stocking of nonnative species.

USGS Biological Science Technician Laney White surveys for Marbled Murrelet off the Central California Coast.

Photographs from a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) found dead in Arizona, US.  (A) The crop (*) is distended primarily with milo.  (B) A green coating (arrowheads) is evident on the surface of the milo.

USGS scientist Emma Kelsey drives a survey vessel off the Central California Coast as part of a seabird survey.

This is Teodora Rautu. She is a Biological Science Technician on the field crew for USGS Western Ecological Research Center's Sierra Nevada Forest Dynamics project. The tree she is getting read to cut into has recently died.

This is Teodora Rautu. She is a Biological Science Technician on the field crew for USGS Western Ecological Research Center's Sierra Nevada Forest Dynamics project.  She is measuring the diameter of a red fir and trying to navigate the tape through the branches.

This is Teodora Rautu. She is a Biological Science Technician on the field crew for USGS Western Ecological Research Center's Sierra Nevada Forest Dynamics project.  She is measuring the diameter of a Giant Sequoia.

Teodora Rautu and Eva Lopez, Biological Science Technicians on the field crew for the USGS Western Ecological Research Center's Sierra Nevada Forest Dynamics project, work together to measure the diameter of a Giant Sequoia.

San Francisco Bay and the surrounding wetlands and ponds provide important habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds.

A team from the WERC San Diego Field Station traveled to the Sierra National Forest, CA this past week to prepare their field site for season two of an exciting study of federally threatened Yosemite toads. This is a collaborative project with the U.S.

Wildlife disease experts at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI examine a double-crested cormorant while wearing full biosafety gear.  The postmortem examination, also known as a necropsy, gives the scientists clues to what may have caused the animal to die.  Examination of wild birds is important to detect pathogens that could imp

Rivers in the western U.S. rivers are experiencing changes in nutrient loading because of rapid urban development, but the effects of changing nutrient loading on the structure and function of stream ecosystems, especially fish habitat, are not fully understood.

A California myotis (Myotis californicus) gets ready to fly away after identification and measurements are taken. USGS is conducting research in collaboration with NPS to learn about the roosting ecology of Western bats in an effort to improve management and conservation of bat populations.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging infectious disease that is fatal to free-ranging and captive animals in Cervidae (the deer family; referred to as “cervids”). Affected animals include deer, elk, moose, and reindeer.

Distribution map: distribution of chronic wasting disease in North America

A brook floater filter feeding as it is anchored into the sediment of a stream bottom. Habitat loss is a long-recognized problem for many endangered species, and the brook floater is no exception. In-stream alterations that change flow and alter sediment loads can affect downstream locations where freshwater mussels live.