Keyword: national
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ANI082-00159
A western cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorous) snake lies dead on the Clear Creek Levy Road, near Ware, Illinois. Road kills are one of the leading causes of death for snakes in the U.S.
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ANI082-00162
A rough green snake (Opheodrys aestivus) along Snake Road in Shawnee National forest in southwest Illinios.
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ANI082-00163
An eastern hognose snake (Heterodon platirhinos) plays dead on the Snake Road, a three-mile stretch of road in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois. To prevent herp deaths, this section of road is closed in the spring and fall when snakes are migrating.
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ANI082-00164
An eastern hognose snake plays dead on the Snake Road, a three-mile stretch of road in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois. To prevent herp deaths, this section of road is closed in the spring and fall when snakes are migrating.
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ANI082-00165
Snake wranglers from the 45th annual Mangum Rattlesnake Derby in Mangum, Oklahoma. This rattlesnake festival takes in between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds of western diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox) each year.
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ANI082-00167
The snake pit at the 45th annual Mangum Rattlesnake Derby in Mangum, Oklahoma. This rattlesnake festival takes in between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds of western diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox) each year. Some 30,000 people come here on the last weekend of April to see such things as a photo booth in which people can pose with a live rattler that’s been defanged and had its mouth stitched shut, a safari bus tour in which folks can pick up a live rattlesnake, a cafe serving rattlesnake meat, and a butcher shop.
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ANI082-00116
Millions of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) roost on the Sierra Chincua (Chincua mountain) near Angangueo, Mexico. This is one of five wintering roosts for monarchs, where the cool mountain climate slows their metabolism enough for them to overwinter before migrating back northward in the spring. Logging threatens this spectacle: already one of the five sites is no longer used by the butterflies due to the forest being cleared.
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ANI082-00119
Millions of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) roost on the Sierra Chincua (Chincua mountain) near Angangueo, Mexico. This is one of five wintering roosts for monarchs, where the cool mountain climate slows their metabolism enough for them to overwinter before migrating back northward in the spring. Logging threatens this spectacle: already one of the five sites is no longer used by the butterflies due to the forest being cleared.
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ANI082-00122
Joel Sartore on assignment at Sierra Chincua in Mexico, home to the world’s largest gathering of monarch butterflies.
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ANI082-00093
Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) swimming in the Bighorn Creek, in the Wigwam River drainage in British Columbia. This is one of the last, best places for spawning of the vulnerable (ICUN) and federally-threatened bull trout, and is part of the Kootenay River system, which sees an annual migration of bull trout from Lake Koocanusa, some fifty miles away. The fish prefer very cold water of 40 degrees or so in order to spawn, and the springs in this area provide that.
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ANI082-00101
A fisheries technician for dam owner Avista, uses a radio antenna to track tagged bull trout in a stream that feeds into Noxon Reservoir. Biologists track a handful of tagged fish daily to try and learn about their migratory movements, which a series of dams on the nearby Clark Fork River have severely impeded.
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ANI082-00088
One turbine’s deadly harvest: biologists calculate that on average, 32 bats and five birds are killed in one season by each turbine on this wind farm in southwest Pennsylvania. Big birds aren’t immune, as this red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) shows.
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ANI082-00072
An interior least tern (Sterna antillarum), a federally endangered species, on its nest at the Western Sand and Gravel mine along the Platte River near Fremont, NE. Many mine companies are pausing work during the nesting season in areas this bird and other rare species use.
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ANI082-00074
A young man watching mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) in Glacier National Park, Montana.
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ANI082-00075
A train crosses over a bridge in the Walton area of Glacier National Park, Montana.
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ANI082-00076
A mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) walks along a mountain in Glacier National Park, Montana.
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ANI082-00077
A mother mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) and her baby walk along a rocky path in Glacier National Park, Montana.
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ANI082-00079
A mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) in Glacier National Park, Montana.
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ANI082-00082
A mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) in Glacier National Park, Montana.
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ANI082-00083
A mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) in Glacier National Park, Montana.
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ANI082-00085
Joel Sartore and his son, Cole, stop to take a photograph together in the Walton area of Glacier National Park, Montana.
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ANI082-00051
A female bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) is caught by biologists using a mist net, near Wood River, Nebraska. Avian ecologists trap and put tiny geolocators, which track sun intensity as well as sunrise and sunset, on male bobolinks. When the birds are recaptured (months from now) and the data is downloaded and used to calculate the birds’ migratory route. The species winters in South America, but little is known of its specific route.
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ANI082-00055
A biologist holds a male bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), captured for a study near Wood River, Nebraska. They will put tiny geolocators, which track sun intensity as well as sunrise and sunset, the birds’ backs. When the birds are recaptured (months from now) and the data is downloaded and used to calculate the birds’ migratory route. The species winters in South America, but little is known of its specific route.
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ANI082-00060
A USFWS wildlife biologist, runs a radio telemtery set for bobcat signals along the wall on the Lower Rio Grande NWR near Santa Maria. The wall bisects many of the tiny habitat tracts that remain along the border.
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ANI082-00063
Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) swirl out of the Eckert James River Bat Cave at sunset to feed on insects. This maternity colony builds to more than 6 million bats in late July, making it one of the largest in the world. It is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy.
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ANI082-00045
Cowbirds (Molothrus sp.) that were caught in traps set for them at Fort Hood Army Base near Kileen, TX. Of these cowbirds, the females will be killed and the males will be kept to lure other birds. The eradication of cowbirds has been going on for awhile here in an effort to study the effect of their parasitism on endangered birds like the black-capped vireo and golden-cheeked warbler.
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ANI082-00035
A vulnerable black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla) at a nest in an Ashe juniper, Fort Hood, TX. Though at an active military base, this is a haven for this endangered species.
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ANI082-00014
Thousands of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) roost on the Platte River, forming living sandbars, during their annual migratory stopover at the Rowe Audubon Sanctuary near Gibbon, NE. With water in the river fully appropriated for urban areas and agriculture, many wonder how long it will be until the river runs dry. Some 600,000 to 800,000 cranes use just a few miles of the river in central Nebraska–areas that have been been mechanically cleared of the woody vegetation that the birds can’t tolerate.
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ANI082-00010
Thousands of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) roost on the Platte River during their annual migratory stopover at the Rowe Audubon Sanctuary near Gibbon, NE. With water in the river fully appropriated for urban areas and agriculture, many wonder how long it will be until the river runs dry. Some 600,000 to 800,000 cranes use just a few miles of the river in central Nebraska–areas that have been been mechanically cleared of the woody vegetation that the birds can’t tolerate.
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ANI082-00001
Thousands of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) roost on the Platte River during their annual migratory stopover at the Rowe Audubon Sanctuary near Gibbon, NE. With water in the river fully appropriated for urban areas and agriculture, many wonder how long it will be until the river runs dry. Some 600,000 to 800,000 cranes use just a few miles of the river in central Nebraska–areas that have been been mechanically cleared of the woody vegetation that the birds can’t tolerate.
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ENV021-00061
A brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) waits in a holding pen at the rehab center in Fort Jackson, Louisiana. This is where most of the oiled birds were brought in from the deep water horizon oil spill.
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ENV021-00004
A dead black drum (Pogonias cromis) as it floats through oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, near Grand Isle, Louisiana.
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ENV021-00039
Aerial of the marshlands that have literally been cut to pieces by pipeline canals and shipping channels that have been put in by the oil industry over the years. Such huge canals have allowed saltwater to intrude, killing off the marsh and eliminating its resistance to catastrophic events in the Gulf such as storms, and now, oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon.
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Joel Sartore, on assignment for National Geographic magazine, while photographing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Barataria Bay, Louisiana.
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National Geographic writer, Bruce Barcott, standing on the shoreline of East Grande Terre, Louisiana.
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A man holds a brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) covered with oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, on Queen Bess Island, Louisiana.
