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 ...

DESCRIPTION: The giant Palouse earthworm can reach three feet or more in length, has light-pink skin, and emits a unique, sweet fragrance. HABITAT: This species inhabits permanent or semipermanent ...

The largest of the true foxes, red foxes are also the most widespread, found across the entire northern hemisphere. But secretive Sierra Nevada red foxes — genetically and geographically distinct from ...

The Sonoyta mud turtle has evolved as an aquatic species in one of the driest parts of the Sonoran Desert. With webbed feet and an innate ability to swim, this turtle depends heavily on what little ...

Atrazine is one of the most commonly used herbicides in the United States: Approximately 80 million pounds of it are used across the country each year. It's a common contaminant of ground, surface and ...

Exclusively in Iliamna Lake, Alaska’s largest body of freshwater, lives a small population of rare freshwater seals — one of only two freshwater harbor seal populations in the world. Alaska natives, ...

The Gila chub once benefited from the engineering feats of beavers living in the upper Gila River basin, whose dams created deep, slow-moving pools the chub loved. So in the late 1800s, when beavers ...

DESCRIPTION: Sleek giants with blue and gray coloring, bluefin tuna are one of the largest fish in the ocean and can grow to weigh more than 1,000 pounds. Their bodies are muscular, and they have ...

For generations, Nevada’s big-eyed, black-freckled Dixie Valley toad thrived in a small desert oasis, hidden from humans. But by the time scientists described it in 2017, the toad was already ...

DESCRIPTION: Sturgeon have cartilaginous skeletons and a tube-like mouth. In the Kootenai River, they can grow to be larger than 200 pounds. They are gray in color. HABITAT: Kootenai River white ...

Can you think of a more destructive way to extract resources than blowing up a mountain? How about if the waste from doing it is dumped straight into mountain streams? Mountaintop removal is a radical ...

An analysis of oil and gas pipeline safety in the United States reveals a troubling history of spills, contamination, injuries and deaths. This time-lapse video shows pipeline incidents from 1986 to ...