The genus name Ochotona stems from the Mongolian word for pikas, ochodona. The species name princeps comes from the Latin word for chief, referring to the Chipewyan Indian name for the pika: “little ...

Despite their dainty appearance, desert kit foxes are hardy animals, well adapted for living in the hot, harsh desert habitat from which they never stray. This cat-sized kit fox subspecies has long, ...

The BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in 2010 spilled 205.8 million gallons of oil and 225,000 tons of methane into the Gulf of Mexico. Only about 25 percent of the oil was recovered, leaving more than ...

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 ...

The California red-legged frog and northern red-legged frog were once both classified as subspecies — Rana a. draytonii and Rana a. aurora, respectively — of the red-legged frog (Rana aurora). But a ...

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 ...

The development of "oil shale" (not to be confused with "shale oil") and "tar sands" has been shown to be environmentally destructive, and water and energy intensive. Extracting oil from U.S. public ...

Our planet now faces a global extinction crisis never witnessed by humankind. Scientists predict that more than 1 million species are on track for extinction in the coming decades. But there’s still ...

DESCRIPTION: Savannah elephants are the larger of the two African elephant species. They also have thicker, more curved tusks, more triangulated ears, and differently shaped skulls. Both elephant ...

The Miami tiger beetle — a diminutive, iridescent native of Florida — was first discovered and described in the 1930s. But after its discovery, it wasn't seen again for six decades, when it was found ...

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 ...