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 ...

For the past century a federal program called Wildlife Services, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has been slaughtering wildlife deemed “undesirable” by agribusiness. They’re usually ...

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 U.S. transportation sector is responsible for about a third of our country’s climate-damaging emissions. In California transportation is the leading source of greenhouse gas pollution, accounting ...

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 ...

Amphibians and reptiles are amazing creatures with clever adaptations that have allowed them to brave the millennia. Consider the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard's scaly hind toes, which resemble ...

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 grizzly bear is so named because its hair is grizzled, or silver tipped, yet the name is commonly believed to be derived from “grisly,” meaning “horrible.” DESCRIPTION: A subspecies of brown bear, ...

The word jaguar comes from the South American Tupi and Guarani languages. A likely origin is the word yaguareté, meaning “true, fierce beast.” DESCRIPTION: The largest cat native to North America and ...

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 ...

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 ...

At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because ...