Photo of the Day 10 January 2008

Boreal Forest, Arctic Circle, 2002
Photograph by Peter Essick
Morning fog blankets a tree-lined bog somewhere in the Arctic boreal forest. Boreal forests have more wetlands area than anywhere else in the world, with Russia and Canada each containing an estimated one million to two million lakes and ponds.

Photo of the Day 9 January 2008

Cape Fur Seal and Bull Kelp, South Africa, 2002
Photograph by David Doubilet
The sun silhouettes the sinuous form of a Cape fur seal plunging through a forest of bull kelp fronds off the coast of Gansbaai, South Africa. Though clumsy on land, Arctocephalus pusillus, or Cape fur seals, epitomize grace underwater. They patrol the coastal waters of South Africa and southeast Australia, feeding on fish, squid, cuttlefish, and octopus.

Photo of the Day 8 January 2008

Beipiaosaurus Fossil, China, 1999
Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta
The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, part of the Academia Sinica in Beijing, houses the fossilized teeth of the dinosaur Beipiaosaurus. The prehistoric reptile lived in the Cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago.

Photo of the Day 7 January 2008

Dog and Truck, Colorado, 2001
Photograph by David Alan Harvey
A speckled dog catches a ride in Rico, Colorado, the center of a silver mining boom in the late 1800s. But the heyday is long since over, the mines are closed, and the town population is down to fewer than 200 year-round residents. And for many in this quirky mountain town, that's just fine.

Photo of the Day 6 January 2008

Volcanic Steam, Mount St. Helens, Washington, 2000
Photograph by Jim Richardson
On Mount St. Helens, a volcanic formation seems to come to life as it exhales a cloud of steam. The volcano in southwestern Washington's Cascade Range is most famous for its May 1980 eruption, one of the largest ever recorded in North America. The catastrophic eruption killed 57 people and triggered an enormous debris avalanche that carved a mile-wide (1.5-kilometer-wide) crater on the mountain.

Photo of the Day 5 January 2008

Hedgerows Near Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales
Photograph by Sam Abell
A wide hedgerow, growing thick with hawkweed, borders a field in south Wales, near Brecon Beacons National Park. Besides serving as a fence between properties and supporting dozens of species of flora and fauna in their densely planted rows, hedgerows knit together disparate fields into a picturesque quilt of undulating fields.

Photo of the Day 4 January 2008

Baby Gorilla, Gabon, 2000
Photograph by Michael Nichols
Lekedi, a baby western lowland gorilla, sits for a close-up at a gorilla orphanage in Gabon. Central Africa's lowland gorilla populations suffer from steady habitat loss, capture and killing by poachers, and the cross fire of civil wars within their range. Conservationists are working to avert the species' extinction by collecting gorilla orphans, nurturing and socializing them, and ultimately releasing them back into the wild.

Photo of the Day 3 January 2008

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, Hawaii
Photograph by Brooks Walker
Two carved wooden images, called ki'i , overlook Keone'ele Cove in Hawaii's Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. These statues and dozens of others stand sentry over the Hale o Keawe temple, a sacred place where the bones of 23 Hawaiian chiefs once rested.

Photo of the Day 2 January 2008

Jellyfish, Alaska, 1998
Photograph by Michael Melford
Jellyfish drift in the frigid waters of Alaska's Inside Passage. These waters flow through Tongass National Forest—a rich, shadowy, complex place fecund with life. Among its riches: thick carpets of mosses and ferns, streams jet-black with salmon, more bald eagles and brown bears than anywhere else in North America, and trees that can live for 500 years and reach 225 feet (69 meters) into the sky.

Photo of the Day 1 January 2008

Sandbar, St. Clair River, Canada, 2002
Photograph by Jay Dickman
The Great Lakes hold a fifth of Earth's surface fresh water, and they've shrunk dramatically. For some, like this child playing in the St. Clair River, that means miles of newly exposed shoreline and sandbars to explore. For others, like those in the shipping and fishing industry, lakefront property owners, and water-dependent animal species, it's a disaster in the making.

Photo of the Day 31 December 2007

Wild Mustangs, South Dakota, 2004
Photograph by Maggie Steber
In the wind-tossed plains of Lantry, South Dakota, two wild mustangs playfully kick and cavort. Descended from Spanish horses brought in by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, mustangs represent a tenuous link to America's frontier past. Researchers estimate the U.S. was once home to more than two million mustangs; today there are fewer than 50,000.

Photo of the Day 30 December 2007

Fiji Islands, 2004
Photograph by Tim Laman
In the waters of the Fiji Islands, an emperor shrimp and a commensal crab nearly vanish in the calico pattern of a large leopard sea cucumber. The sea cucumber provides food for the crustaceans in the form of mucus on its skin and defends itself by ejecting its toxic stomach when danger threatens.

Photo of the Day 29 December 2007

Molten Lava Flow, Hawaii, 2004
Photograph by Frans Lanting
A flow of glowing lava issues from Mount Kilauea in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Hawaii has some of the youngest land on Earth, remade daily by these rivers of molten rock.

"Kilauea molds the land, belching lava and fumes, hissing, roaring, always transforming," says photographer Frans Lanting. "The view I photographed that day doesn't exist anymore."

Photo of the Day 28 December 2007

Hammerhead Shark, Bahamas, 2007
Photograph by Brian Skerry
Primordial in appearance, great hammerheads, like this one near the Bahamas, are actually among evolution's most advanced sharks. Wide-set eyes and nostrils provide keen peripheral senses, and tiny electroreceptors on its snout help it pinpoint prey. Dozens of serrated teeth do the rest.

Photo of the Day 27 December 2007

Glacier, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, 2002
Photograph by Frans Lanting
A crumpled ice field forms at the confluence of two massive glaciers in Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. These glacial rivers snake together among the park's mountains and form ice complexes that cover hundreds—sometimes thousands—of square miles.

Photo of the Day 26 December 2007

Stick Mantid, Cameroon, 2006
Photograph by Mark Moffett
Most of the roughly 1,800 species of mantids—often called praying mantises—spend their time sitting and waiting, seemingly at prayer. These highly skilled hunters and masters of disguise have fascinated humans for thousands of years; the ancient Greeks first used the term mantis, meaning "prophet."

Photo of the Day 25 December 2007

Child on Swing, Siorapaluk, Greenland, 2006
Photograph by David McLain
A flawless blue Arctic sky frames a child swinging in Siorapaluk, Greenland, the northernmost permanent settlement in the world. During the past few decades, temperatures have risen in Greenland by more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius)—twice the global average—and the island's massive ice sheet is melting faster than at any time during the past 50 years, pushing the Arctic ecosystem into collapse.

Photo of the Day 24 December 2007

Diving in Devil's Ear, Florida, 1998
Photograph by Wes Skiles
Plant tannins from the Santa Fe River mixed with diamond-clear aquifer waters make this cave entrance in Florida's Ginnie Spring appear engulfed in flames. The entrance, called Devil's Ear, is just one portal of hundreds in northern Florida leading to a watery underworld that explorers are slowly bringing to light.

Photo of the Day 23 December 2007

Arctic Fox, Hudson Bay, Canada, 2004
Photograph by Norbert Rosing
A stealthy arctic fox steals across a snow-patched ridge in Canada's Hudson Bay. Not much larger than a big housecat, these seemingly delicate northern mammals are as hardy as they come, thriving in the privation and bitter cold of the Arctic north.

Photo of the Day 22 December 2007

Bengal Tiger, India, 1995
Photograph by Michael Nichols
A perfectly posed young Bengal tiger rests in a clearing in India's Bandhavgarh National Park. This individual is likely the offspring of Sita, a tigress famed in the park for her hunting prowess and prized for her prolific breeding.

Photo of the Day 21 December 2007

Glacier, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, 2003
Photograph by Frans Lanting
Streams of ice flow together like rivers, forming glacier complexes that cover hundreds—sometimes thousands—of square miles in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Covering more than 13 million acres (5.2 million hectares), Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest national park in the U.S. Nearly six Yellowstones could fit within its borders.

Photo of the Day 20 December 2007

Harp Seal, Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Canada, 2003
Photograph by Brian Skerry
A young seal looks warily around an icy whelping site in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence. Seals that are weaned and have shed their downy fur are called beaters for the way they beat their flippers on the water. Their sleek, unmarred pelts are prime quarry for seal hunters.

Photo of the Day 19 December 2007

Twilight on Vancouver Island, Canada, 2003
Photograph by Joel Sartore
On Vancouver Island a soaked beach reflects a contemplative evening ride. At 12,079 square miles (31,285 square kilometers), Vancouver Island is the largest island on North America's Pacific Coast. Separated from mainland Canada by several straits, the island is actually the peak of a sunken mountain range.

Photo of the Day 18 December 2007

Herodes Atticus Theater, Athens, Greece, 2000
Photograph by Borchi Massimo
In a ritual that has taken place for centuries, an expectant assemblage awaits a dramatic entrance by performers under darkening skies in the Herodes Atticus Theater in Athens, Greece. This steep-sloped amphitheater was built around A.D. 160 by Greek philosopher and rhetorician Herodes Atticus as a tribute to his wife. The theater still hosts music, dance, and theatrical events today.

Photo of the Day 17 December 2007

West Indian Manatee, Florida, 1999
Photograph by Wes Skiles
Like many creatures, the manatee's bulk—they can be as much as 13 feet (4 meters) long and 1,300 pounds (600 kilograms)—belies its aquatic grace. Also called sea cows, manatees are graceful swimmers that typically glide along coastal waters at 5 to 15 miles an hour (8 to 24 kilometers an hour). This West Indian manatee is wintering in a North Florida spring, attracted by the region's constant 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) waters.