Picture: Iceland’s spectacular Gullfoss waterfall

Gullfoss or “Golden Waterfall”

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Picture: a glorious tropical sunset

Sunset in Kauai, November 2010. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

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Leaping lemur (picture & video)

Verreaux’s sifaka is a lemur which can be spotted in Madagascar’s deciduous forest habitats including Andohahela, Berenty, Beza-Mahafaly, Isalo, and Kirindy.

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Picture: 3D mapping of rainforests

In 2009, researchers with the Carnegie Institution, World Wildlife Fund, Amazon Conservation Association, and the Ministry of Environment, Peru used satellite images and airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), together with field plots, to map aboveground carbon stocks and emissions at 0.1-ha resolution over 4.3 million ha of the Peruvian Amazon. To measure forest deforestation, degradation, and regrowth, the researchers collected 27 LiDAR survey areas covering a total of 514,317 ha were collected throughout the 4.3 million ha region, at a spatial resolution of less than one meter.

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Forest on New Year’s morning

Huddart County Park, Woodside, CA.

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Pictures from the Yucatan (post COP16)

After the 20+ hour work days during COP16 in Cancun, Mexico earlier this month, I enjoyed a couple of days out in the forests of El Eden Reserve and Punta Laguna.

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2000 picture galleries

We’ve updated the topical picture galleries — there are now more than 2,000, some of which are more comprehensive than others. Some 50,000 photos are included in the galleries, about 99 percent of which were taken by Rhett.

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Pictures: Forest hike in California (today)

A few pictures from a short hike today in Wunderlich County Park in Woodside, California.

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Picture: magenta and yellow insect

This magenta and yellow katydid was common in the lowland rainforest near Manokwari in West Papua. I don’t know the species.

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Picture: Red-eyed tree frog

Red-eyed tree frogs are found in lowland rainforests ranging from southern Mexico to Colombia.

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Picture: Christmas chameleon

Male panther chameleon near Maroantsetra, Madagascar.

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Picture: Arctic musk oxen in defensive posture

The musk ox was extinct in Alaska as recently as the 1880s but was re-introduced into Alaska’s Arctic in the 1970s and today, approximately 3500-4000 musk oxen exist there. According to Joel Berger, a conservationist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), says that only 10-30 of the animals remain in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge–down from more than 400 that lived in the refuge in the 1990s.

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Picture: strange and beautiful – the snowy owl

Snowy owl at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo.

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Video: Otters opening “gifts”

Keepers at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Prospect Park Zoo present food-containing “gifts” to animals as an enrichment exercise to provide mental and physical stimulation.

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Photo: baby Mini-Nubian Goat

Mini-Nubian Goat. Photo by Julie Larsen Maher © Wildlife Conservation Society Spot is a Mini-Nubian Goat born at the Tisch Children’s Zoo at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Central Park Zoo. Named for the white spot on his head, the mini-Nubian goat is just two weeks old and can be seen running around the petting yard and greeting visitors with tiny bleating sounds. Spot, with his parents, and other members of the goat family can...

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Turquoise waters of Cancun

Despite the massive build up of hotels in Cancun and along the Mexican Riviera, the waters off Cancun remain a stunning turquoise hue.

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Photo: spider monkey in Mexico

Spider monkey in Mexico. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Punta Laguna, between Nuevo Xcan and Coba, is famous for its population of spider monkeys.

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Photo: Morelet’s crocodile in Mexico

Morelet’s crocodile in El Eden, outside of Cancun, Mexico.

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Photo: Mexican hawk

I spotted this hawk atop a dead tree on the shores of the freshwater lagoon at Punta Laguna. I haven’t determined the species. Any ideas?

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Photo: Tiger cubs playing in the snow

Two Amur (Siberian) tiger cubs at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo roll around in the first snow of the season clearly enjoying the winter weather. The cubs and their mother can be seen year-round at the zoo’s Tiger Mountain exhibit.

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