DESCRIPTION: The Delta smelt is a small fish, less than 3 inches in length for most adults. It’s nearly translucent, with a steely-blue sheen on the sides. HABITAT: Delta smelt can tolerate a wide ...

DESCRIPTION: The dugong is a marine mammal related to the manatee. It averages nine feet in length and weighs 550 to 1,000 pounds. The Okinawa dugong is slate gray to gray bronze in color and its tail ...

DESCRIPTION: The Andean flamingo is both the most rare and tallest of all six species of flamingo. It has a traditional pink coloration throughout its body, with a pale yellow face and black tail ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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: The tallest land mammal, with a neck as long as 6 feet, the giraffe is also well known for the unique brown and white pattern on its coat (“pelage”) and its lengthy eyelashes and legs.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

DESCRIPTION: Threespine sticklebacks average about two inches in length, with three spines in front of the dorsal fin and no bony plates on their sides. At spawning time males develop a red throat and ...