Butchart Gardens, a group of floral display gardens in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Canada, near Victoria on Vancouver Island. It is an internationally-known tourist attraction which receives more than a million visitors each year.
Location: Butchart Gardens, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Image ID: 21141
Red fox. Red foxes are the most widely distributed wild carnivores in the world. Red foxes utilize a wide range of habitats including forest, tundra, prairie, and farmland. They prefer habitats with a diversity of vegetation types and are increasingly encountered in suburban areas.
Species: Red fox, Vulpes vulpes
Image ID: 12086
Blue whale underwater closeup photo. This picture of a blue whale, the largest animal ever to inhabit earth, shows it swimming through the open ocean, a rare underwater view. Since this blue whale was approximately 80-90' long and just a few feet from the camera, an extremely wide lens was used to photograph the entire enormous whale.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: California
Image ID: 27299
La Tour Eiffel at dusk over the River Seine in Paris France. The Eiffel Tower is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, who designed the tower in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair. The Eiffel tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Location: Tour Eiffel, Paris, France
Image ID: 35677
San Diego Coronado Bridge, known locally as the Coronado Bridge, links San Diego with Coronado, California. The bridge was completed in 1969 and was a toll bridge until 2002. It is 2.1 miles long and reaches a height of 200 feet above San Diego Bay. Coronado Island is to the left, and downtown San Diego is to the right in this view looking north.
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 22288
Pacific harbor seal swims in the protected waters of Childrens Pool in La Jolla, California. This group of harbor seals, which has formed a breeding colony at a small but popular beach near San Diego, is at the center of considerable controversy. While harbor seals are protected from harassment by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and other legislation, local interests would like to see the seals leave so that people can resume using the beach.
Species: Pacific harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 03018
Two blue whales, a mother and her calf, swim through the open ocean in this aerial photograph. The calf is blowing (spouting, exhaling) with a powerful column of spray. The blue whale is the largest animal ever to live on Earth.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 02304
Clipperton Rock, a 95' high volcanic remnant, is the highest point on Clipperton Island, a spectacular coral atoll in the eastern Pacific. By permit HC / 1485 / CAB (France).
Location: Clipperton Island, France
Image ID: 32940
Cardon cactus, near La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. Known as the elephant cactus or Mexican giant cactus, cardon is largest cactus in the world and is endemic to the deserts of the Baja California peninsula. Some specimens of cardon have been measured over 21m (70) high. These slow-growing plants live up to 300 years and can weigh 25 tons. Cardon is often mistaken for the superficially similar saguaro of Arizona and Sonora, but the saguaro does not occupy Baja California.
Species: Cardon cactus, Pachycereus pringlei
Location: La Paz, Baja California, Mexico
Image ID: 05498
Ocean sunfish recruiting fish near drift kelp to clean parasites, open ocean, Baja California.
Species: Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
Image ID: 03267
Blade Runner, the injured North Pacific humpback whale, is seen with her calf swimming alongside. This humpback whale showing extensive scarring, almost certainly from a boat propeller, on dorsal ridge. This female North Pacific humpback whale was first seen with the depicted lacerations near the island of Maui in the Hawaiian Islands in the mid-90s, and is the original humpback to bear the name 'Blade Runner'. This female has apparently recovered, as evidenced by her calf in the background. A South Pacific humpback whale endured a similar injury in Sydney Australia in 2001, and bears a remarkably similar scar pattern to the above-pictured whale.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 05907
Blue whale, exhaling in a huge blow as it swims at the surface between deep dives. The blue whale's blow is a combination of water spray from around its blowhole and condensation from its warm breath.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 21249
The Mandelbrot Fractal. Fractals are complex geometric shapes that exhibit repeating patterns typified by self-similarity, or the tendency for the details of a shape to appear similar to the shape itself. Often these shapes resemble patterns occurring naturally in the physical world, such as spiraling leaves, seemingly random coastlines, erosion and liquid waves. Fractals are generated through surprisingly simple underlying mathematical expressions, producing subtle and surprising patterns. The basic iterative expression for the Mandelbrot set is z = z-squared + c, operating in the complex (real, imaginary) number set.
Species: Mandelbrot fractal, Mandelbrot set
Image ID: 10370
Sailing stone on the Racetrack Playa. The sliding rocks, or sailing stones, move across the mud flats of the Racetrack Playa, leaving trails behind in the mud. The explanation for their movement is not known with certainty, but many believe wind pushes the rocks over wet and perhaps icy mud in winter.
Location: Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California
Image ID: 27689
The Kelp Forest offshore of La Jolla, California. A kelp forest. Giant kelp grows rapidly, up to 2' per day, from the rocky reef on the ocean bottom to which it is anchored, toward the ocean surface where it spreads to form a thick canopy. Myriad species of fishes, mammals and invertebrates form a rich community in the kelp forest. Lush forests of kelp are found throughout California's Southern Channel Islands.
Species: Giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 30998
Oakum boys, juvenile king penguins at Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island. Named 'oakum boys' by sailors for the resemblance of their brown fluffy plumage to the color of oakum used to caulk timbers on sailing ships, these year-old penguins will soon shed their fluffy brown plumage and adopt the colors of an adult.
Species: King penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus
Location: Salisbury Plain, South Georgia Island
Image ID: 24406
A huge blue whale swims through the open ocean in this aerial photograph. The blue whale is the largest animal ever to live on Earth.
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Image ID: 02169