Images

The European green crab (Carcinus maenas), has invaded fisheries in Northern California and in British Columbia, where it may compete with the much more valuable Dungeness crab.

USGS and Virginia Tech scientists captured female northern bats and fitted them with tiny radiotransmitters and numbered armbands. The bats were then released and tracked to determine what roosts they were using. 

Eastern Swallowtail butterfly in a flower garden.

Eggs collected from pallid sturgeon spawned in hatcheries are placed onto an artificial rock substrate.  Pallid sturgeon eggs are extremely sticky after fertilization and adhere to the artificial substrate, even in a current. 

Lesser black-backed gulls (Larus fuscus) seen during field work in Iceland in 2012.

Roza Dam, on the Yakima River, in Washington State.

Wetlands Reserve Program site in Sabine Parish, Louisiana.  Landowner restored his often-flooded cattle pasture to its natural wetland state by creating shallow water areas, establishing food plots and pollinator plots, and installing wood duck nesting boxes.

Map of historic and current sage-grouse range in 2000, provided as a download from the old USGS Sagemap website.

Researcher lowers an ichthyoplankton sampling net into the Missouri River. 

View of the Green River near New Hradec, North Dakota.

Biologist Dave Combs, holds female pallid sturgeon PLS11-007 recaptured on March 15, 2012.  This female is in reproductive condition and will spawn in the spring of 2012.

Barred owls (Strix varia) have expanded their geographic range from eastern to western North America. Their newly expanded range now completely overlaps that of the federally threatened northern spotted owl (S. occidentalis caurina).

This female Burmese python broke the records for her length -- 17 feet, 7 inches – and the number of eggs she contained: 87. She was first captured in Everglades National Park by USGS researchers in the spring of 2012, when they followed a "Judas snake" -- a male python with a transmitter -- and found her nearby in the bushes.

Fungi growing from soil collected in a cave. Arrow points to Geomyces destuctans, the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats.

Amount of soil (about 200 mg) from which Geomyces destructans was cultured. This shows the small amount of soil needed to harbor live fungus and the threat that humans might pose in moving it around from cave to cave on their gear, boots, and clothing.

A boar of about 260 pounds near Pecan Island, Louisiana, with LOTEK tracking collar attached and ready for release.

A sleet storm approaches the sagebrush habitat at the south end Stinkingwater Mountians near Warm Springs Reservoir in eastern Oregon

From 2012-2013, telemetry data were collected from nine eagles outfitted with a backpack holding a global positioning system-global system for mobile communications, or GPS-GSM, telemetry system. The telemetry system recorded and stored a GPS location every 15-minutes and sent the locations, via the GSM – or mobile phone – network, to a server once per day.

Researchers use a net to pull an endangered wild manatee onto the beach in order to conduct a physical examination. Information on manatee biology in Crystal River enables biologists to better understand the complex issues confronting this fragile species.

Graduate student holds a pallid sturgeon. The goal of this study is to assess latitudinal variation in growth rates of pallid sturgeon and shovelnose sturgeon and determine how those rates are affected by diet and temperature.

Research of the Montana Cooperative Fishery Research Unit will continue to focus on applied fisheries-management problems and issues. Our studies are initiated in response to the needs of the Cooperators and other management agencies and are designed to provide information useful in directly improving management of aquatic resources.