This 2-foot-long, black-masked member of the weasel family once occurred in central grasslands and basins from southern Canada to Texas but is now one of the most endangered mammals in North America.

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 ...

The United States has an amazing and diverse array of native bees. Across the country live about 4,000 native bee species — most of which are solitary and nest in the ground — coming in nearly every ...

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 ...

Synthetic phosphate fertilizer poses a serious threat to our environment. Phosphate rock mining, along with the inorganic fertilizers and animal feed supplements and pesticides for which phosphate is ...

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: 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...