Images

Greater sage-grouse male, in flight.                         

A skier stand next to avalanche debris in Glacier National Park, 5/5/2011.

Ticks spread the widest variety of diseases that are harmful to humans, including Lyme disease. This image shows a female blacklegged tick, or deer tick (species Ixodes scapularis).

Shorebirds feeding on a diked-off area of former intertidal mudflats at a reclamation project in Bohai Bay, Yellow Sea, China. The substrate the birds are feeding on is mud and sand that has been pumped into the impoundment from beyond the levee (dredge in background).

Helicopters assisting USGS scientists in Everglades National Park.

Pacific lamprey ammocoete, tail pattern.

Pacific lamprey, Hamma-Hamma River, dwarf adult.

River lamprey (L. ayresii), macrophthalmia, dentition.

Climate change in the form of reduced snowfall in mountains  is causing powerful and cascading shifts in montane plant and bird communities through the increased ability of elk to stay at high elevations over winter and consume plants. Here, you can see an example of the difference in aspen growth inside versus outside a fence that excludes elk.

This bighead carp was collected on the Illinois River to learn more about the anatomy and physiology of Asian carp. This information will guide the development of potential biological or chemical controls as part of an integrated pest management approach for natural resource managers.

Contamination from commercial products such as nonstick cookware and stain repellents could reduce the reproduction of tree swallows nesting in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

A researcher stands in front of a large wet slab avalanche debris deposit in Glacier National Park, Montana. The start zone and fracture line can be seen near the top of the ridge in the upper middle part of the image.

Snow removal operators work carefully to remove a large accumulation of avalanche debris on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, Montana. 

Researchers with the Alaska Fish and Game travel along Alexander Creek in the Susitna Basin of south-central Alaska. The team is on their way to a back country base-camp for a study examining the preferred diet of invasive northern pike (Esox lucius).

Aerial view of backwater habitat for invasive northern pike (Esox lucius) off of Alexander Creek in the Susitna Basin of south-central Alaska.

An Alaska Fish and Game technician poses with an invasive northern pike (Esox lucius) taken from Alexander Creek in the Susitna Basin of south-central Alaska.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employee holds a pallid sturgeon caught on a trotline at Lock and Dam 1 on the Osage River.  The concrete pillars and walls in the background of the photo are what remains of the Lock and Dam 1 structure.   

Radiograph of 3 Belding's Ground Squirrels showing the presence of lead pieces (white flecks in the bodies).

Example of a fish species positively impacted by the hydrologic reconnection of a diked wetland to Lake Erie. Northern Pike depend on productive wetland habitats to spawn.

This adolescent chick, hatched and raised at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, is one of ten whooping cranes being released in Louisiana in February 2011. It is a milestone for the state and for the birds, which have not lived in the state since the 1950s.

This adolescent chick, hatched and raised at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, is one of ten whooping cranes being released in Louisiana in February 2011. It is a milestone for the state and for the birds, which have not lived in the state since the 1950s.