“Rattlesnake roundups” are contests calling for hunters to bring in as many snakes as they can catch in a year, at which point the snakes are slaughtered and sold for skin and meat. Roundups are ...

Unlike most frogs and toads, Amargosa toads never make a sound unless they're chirping their “release call” when grasped below their forelimbs. These occupants of southern Nevada's Oasis Valley, a ...

The black-tailed prairie dog is an intelligent, sociable rodent that's a keystone species in the prairie ecosystem it calls home. This precocious little mammal is perfectly suited to its environment, ...

Hellbenders may not be pretty, but these strictly aquatic salamanders are as interesting as their awesome name implies — and they can grow up to two feet long, which makes them the largest North ...

DESCRIPTION: A type of puma, the Florida panther is generally rust-colored on its back, tawny on its sides, and pale gray underneath. Adult males weigh an average of 116 pounds and females 75 pounds.

For every county in the United States, the map below shows information on all the animals and plants protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act as threatened or endangered. To see the number of ...

The variability among living organisms on the earth, including the variability within and between species and within and between ecosystems. Biological diversity, often shortened to biodiversity, is ...

Native to the Gila River basin, the loach minnow and spikedace are adapted to the beautiful yet vulnerable ecology of southwestern desert rivers. These rare, pint-sized fish are just two of many river ...

With adults only about an inch tall, the dwarf seahorse is the smallest of the four seahorse species found in U.S. waters. This dainty, curly-tailed fish occurs only in shallow seagrass areas in the ...

The eastern diamondback rattlesnake — the largest rattlesnake in the world — has amazing adaptations for capturing prey (but poses little threat to humans). Each snake is equipped with a pair of long, ...

Walls built along the U.S.-Mexico border over the past several decades are a blight on the landscapes and cultures of the borderlands. Hundreds of miles of wall have been built across protected public ...

The tiny delta smelt is one of the best indicators of environmental conditions in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, an ecologically important estuary that is a major hub for California's water system — and ...