Images

Curlews migrate long distances each year. Captured birds are quickly removed from mist nets and transported to the care of a veterinarian, who performs the implant surgeries to outfit the bird with a tracking device. In June 2007, USGS scientists tagged 13 curlews with satellite transmitters at their southern breeding area in Alaska.

After being caught by mist nets, birds are anesthetized while a small transmitter is inserted into the abdominal cavity. The surgical procedure takes less than 30 minutes. Birds recover quickly and are ready for release within an hour of surgery. This photo shows a male curlew with a black leg flag inscribed "H8".

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.

Bristle-thighed Curlews (Numenius tahitiensis) are large shorebirds that breed in Alaska and spend the nonbreeding season on atolls and small islands throughout Oceania. This life history pattern requires curlews to migrate long distances each year.

A distinctive feature of the Bristle-thighed Curlew is its cinnamon-colored rump and tail. This feature helps distinguish curlews from similar species like the Whimbrel (N. phaeopus), particularly in places where the two species overlap in Alaska and Oceania. These curlews migrate long distances each year.

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 researchers discovered a new species of turtle. The Pearl River map turtle makes its home in the Pearl River of Louisiana and Mississippi.

A USGS employee locates a telemetry tagged pallid sturgeon between attempts to recapture the fish with a trammel net in the Missouri River. 

USGS employees Beau Griffith (left) and Becky Welly (right) hold a telemetered pallid sturgeon they recaptured in a trammel net.  The wooden object with 2 white buoys to the right of Welly is call a "Buck" or a "Mule" and is used to pull the end of the net along in the current.

Data storage tags (DST) implanted in telemetered pallid sturgeon record the water temperture and fish depth at pre-programed time intervals. 

Trammel net deployment on the Missouri River.  The wooden object with 2 white buoys in the river is called a "Buck" or a "Mule" and is used to pull the end of the net along in the current.

Study chamber containing a pregnant pocketbook mussel (Lampsilis cardium) exposed to an elevated water temperature of 32 degrees Celsius. This mussel is showing signs of stress--lying on top of the substrate and unable to burrow.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission collaborates with USGS on the Comprehensive Sturgeon Research Project tracking telemetered pallid sturgeon in the Missouri River.

Newly hatched pallid sturgeon propagated at the Columbia Environmental Research Center.

Pallid sturgeon embryo propagated at the Columbia Environmental Research Center.

Pallid sturgeon eggs freshly spawned and fertilized in a laboratory at the Columbia Environmental Research Center.

Juvenile lake sturgeon propagated at the Columbia Environmental Research Center.

Turtle in Shenandoah National Park.

Deer in Shenandoah National Park.

Tree after spring blizzard.