The North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered whales. Once common along the eastern U.S. seaboard, the whale was hunted to near-extinction by the 1750s. While no longer pursued ...

The chambered, or pearly, nautilus (Nautilus pompilius) is a charismatic cephalopod species known for its exceptional spiraling, chambered shell. It belongs to a family that has barely changed since ...

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 ...

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 ...

Monarch butterflies are important culturally and ecologically across North America. Generations have watched in wonder as yellow-and-black striped caterpillars fold into green-and-gold chrysalises and ...

DESCRIPTION: Roughly five feet in length, Mexican gray wolves generally weigh between 50 and 80 pounds. Their coats are buff, gray, and rust colored, often with distinguishing facial patterns. They ...

DESCRIPTION: Freshwater mussels are bivalve mollusks that have a two- valved hard shell, a soft body with respiratory, digestive and reproductive organs, and a muscular foot for locomotion, burrowing ...

It’s an invisible threat, but noise pollution is a major — and often deadly — menace to ocean wildlife. Just as there’s hardly a mountaintop free from the roar of airplanes overhead, there’s virtually ...

Description: The tallest land mammal, with a neck as long as 6 feet, the giraffe is also well known for the unique brown and white pattern on its coat (“pelage”) and its lengthy eyelashes and legs.

Every day we make choices in our lives that affect the environment, the climate and other species. From what we eat to how many children we decide to have, there’s a lot we can do to “choose wild” and ...

Plastic accumulating in our oceans and on our beaches has become a global crisis. Billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences that make up about 40 percent of the world's ocean ...

We're in the midst of the Earth’s sixth mass extinction crisis. Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson estimated that 30,000 species per year (or three species per hour) are being driven to extinction.