Gentle and playful marine mammals, Florida manatees have come to represent the amazing biodiversity of Florida. With their large size, slow-moving nature, and fondness of seagrass, it's easy to see ...

Desert tortoises have lived in the deserts of California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah since the Pleistocene. In the early years of the 20th century, they still thrived within the Southwest's arid ...

The Hawaiian petrel is an endangered seabird that resides in the central subtropical Pacific Ocean and is known to breed only within the major Hawaiian Islands. This mysterious, rarely seen petrel is ...

The strikingly spotted ocelot is highly territorial and requires about seven miles of dense, thorny vegetation for hunting. Unfortunately, agriculture, urban development and roads have fragmented and ...

Critical habitat is key to the survival of endangered species. In fact, a study by the Center found, plants and animals with federally protected critical habitat are more than twice as likely to be ...

The great white polar bear is the youngest and largest of the world's bear species — a mighty hunter and fierce defender of its young that's among the world's most vulnerable animals. Two-thirds of ...

Longfin smelt were once one of the most abundant open-water fishes in the San Francisco Bay Estuary — commercially important fish, key to the Bay food web. Today the species' numbers have plummeted to ...

DESCRIPTION: Female bald eagles can weigh up to 14 pounds and have wingspans of eight feet. Males weigh up to 10 pounds, with wingspans of six feet. Both sexes have brown bodies and acquire their ...

As this keystone species' name suggests, the gopher tortoise is an expert at living underground — like a gopher. Gopher tortoises have shovel-like front legs and strong, thick back legs to help them ...

Experts agree: Mark Twain's favorite amphibian, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” is none other than the California red-legged frog. Once so common it was a staple cuisine, California ...

A stealthy, cat-sized forest carnivore in the weasel family, the Humboldt marten (once/also called the coastal marten) is so rare that it was thought extinct until rediscovered in 1996. Now, due to ...