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America’s stunning natural icons in pictures
Keystone species and diverse ecosystems that shape our future, as photographed by National Geographic.
National Geographic Explorers study our nation’s most vital inhabitants to better understand the intricate threads that connect us all. From the ancient, towering sequoias to the sweeping migrations of caribou, keystone species anchor our ecosystems.
Since National Geographic's founding, Explorers have worked to document and protect the United States' wildlife and landscapes. As we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, Explorers embark on the next chapter of that work to preserve America's iconic species. See wild icons that define the American landscape and the Explorers urgently pursuing their protection.
More on the Society’s recognition of America’s natural heritage icons at NationalGeographic.org
The Coastal Redwood and Giant Sequoia
California is home to two of the biggest trees in the world: coastal redwoods and giant sequoias. Coastal redwoods, the tallest living things on Earth, can reach up to 380 feet. Sequoias, meanwhile, are the largest trees by volume. Both are foundational to forest ecosystems as carbon and water stores. The National Geographic Society has played a leading role in preserving these giants, including documenting redwood trees in National Geographic magazine in the 1960s, which helped spark support for the creation of Redwood National Park. Today, the Society’s grantees — known as National Geographic Explorers — continue the work of restoring these tree systems.
Plant physiologist and Assistant Professor of Botany at Cal Poly Humboldt, Alana Chin, scales the world’s tallest trees to map hidden “canopy islands” of biodiversity and optimize forest recovery. Her work is focused on the capacity of redwood forest restoration to enhance carbon storage in younger forests.
Biologist and conservationist Mike Fay walked 1,800 miles along the Pacific coast to meticulously document every redwood from central California to southern Oregon. The 11-month journey is known as the “redwood transect,” and called to action a balance between industrial development and the restoration of the natural world.
North American Beaver
Beavers are powerful ecosystem engineers, second only to humans in their ability to shape their environment. Their dams are vital to the health of wetlands, serving to regulate water flow, improve its quality and enhance carbon storage. After the North American population was decimated by the fur trade, beavers have made a massive rebound, with an estimated 10 to 15 million beavers now inhabiting the United States.
Scientist, engineer and experimentalist Jordan R.M. Kennedy applies an engineering lens to beaver dam construction, rooted in ecological and Indigenous frameworks. She tests how human-made canals influence beaver activity. She found that beavers rely on the sounds of changing water flow to know when to begin dam building.
Doug Smith is a wildlife biologist who has extensively studied beavers in Yellowstone National Park. He has spent 30 years working within the U.S. National Park Service and has evaluated how beavers’ population return, alongside wolves, has reshaped the hydrology of the American West. His findings demonstrated that by reintroducing wolves, which reduced overgrazing by elk, willow trees grew tall again, providing ample food and building materials for beavers to return.
California Condor
The California condor rebounded from a record low of 22 in number in 1982, to a population of more than 500 today. They are vital scavengers for California’s ecosystems, and their recovery has been driven by captive breeding programs and protections that have been supported by the Society through related research grants.
Through his compelling photography, Joel Sartore has spent more than 20 years documenting endangered species like the California condor to inspire efforts to save them. He’s photographed over 17,000 species to date, which collectively form the National Geographic Photo Ark. His quest is to photograph all 25,000 species living under human care.
Gray Wolf
Once nearly extinct in the lower 48 states, gray wolves have returned to the American West, and work as vital ecosystem engineers by regulating prey populations, and thus, protecting plants, supporting biodiversity and altering landscapes. Federal protections and reintroduction programs have helped spark their recovery.
Storyteller and biologist Ronan Donovan has photographed wolves for more than a decade, beginning with populations in the Greater Yellowstone Area, and eventually generating intimate portraits of the Arctic wolves of Ellesmere Island. His work helps spark public understanding of human-wolf relationships.
Kaggie Orrick, a conservation scientist and Director of the California Wolf Project at the University of California, Berkeley, specializes in human-wildlife coexistence. She’s working to foster harmony between human communities and gray wolves as their populations recover using GPS collaring and camera trap networks. Her data collection is helping shift the conversation around wolves and humans from one of conflict to a science-based framework for sharing space.
Buffalo
Buffalo, also known as bison, are the heaviest land animals in North America. They were named America’s national mammal in 2016. The grazers feed on plains grasses, herbs, shrubs and twigs. They regurgitate their food and then chew it as cud before finally digesting it, and their selective grazing promotes a high diversity of native plants. Their movements help shape land and contribute to the overall health of the ecosystem. An estimated 60 million buffalo once roamed North America. Their populations tanked in the 1800s due to overhunting, and by the year 1900, there were less than a thousand remaining. Conservation initiatives have restored numbers to over 400,000 today.
As an ecologist, Olivia Cosby studies buffalo behavior, movement and diet to continue the work of their restoration across America’s grasslands. Her research explores the potential of buffalo restoration to support Tribal food sovereignty and cultural revitalization.
Jason Baldes, founder and Executive Director of the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, is an Indigenous ecologist spearheading bison repopulation efforts on Tribal lands. In 2016, he led the return of the first 10 buffalo to Wind River Reservation after a 131-year absence. The herds have grown to nearly 200 in number. Through education camps, he is inspiring and training youth to take the lead in buffalo restoration efforts.
Caribou
Today, the remaining U.S. caribou herds all reside in only one state: Alaska. There are 32 herds, or around 750,000 individuals. The largest herd, known as the Porcupine Herd, performs the longest land migration of any mammal on Earth, trekking over 1,500 miles each year between their winter home and calving grounds. Caribou have shaped Alaska’s landscape. They provide critical nutrients for plants and soil, and support the diets, economies and knowledge systems of Indigenous communities. Driven by rising temperatures and habitat loss, caribou populations have plummeted in recent decades, though conservation efforts are striving to stabilize their numbers.
Benjamin Larue, a wildlife ecologist, investigates how to reduce the impact of industrial development on Indigenous food sovereignty and caribou migratory patterns. He incorporated Indigenous knowledge into strategies that reduce the negative impact of road development on caribou. Using GPS collar data, he tracks caribou movement and identifies critical habitats through a “caribou-eye view,” enabling researchers to see what caribou see through non-invasive observation.
Florida Panther
As apex predators, Florida panthers maintain biodiversity by regulating prey populations like deer and raccoons, which prevents overgrazing and helps ensure a healthy ecosystem. Their populations fell to fewer than 30 individuals by the late 20th century because of habitat loss, but in the 1990s, a genetic restoration program helped ignite their recovery. The program introduced female cougars into the panthers’ habitat, helping reduce the effects of inbreeding. The Florida Wildlife Corridor Act of 2021 provided a legal framework that allowed panthers to safely migrate by connecting 18 million acres of land.
Using tracking collars to monitor the movement, health and reproduction of Florida panthers, Dave Onorato supports ongoing recovery efforts. As lead research scientist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, he uses tracking data to document the panthers’ land expansion and investigates the effectiveness of the genetic restoration efforts. His work has helped populations recover from their 1990s low to an estimated 200 individuals today.
Photographer and conservationist Carlton Ward Jr. works to bridge the gap between the biological recovery led by scientists like Onorato, and the legislation needed to sustain it. Ward uses storytelling via his organization, Wildpath, to protect wildlife corridors. His photography gained national attention that laid the groundwork for the 2021 Florida Wildlife Corridor Act, and expanded his efforts by launching the Connected Planet project in 2025 in partnership with the Society.
Ocelot
Ocelots are rare, uniquely patterned wild cats. In the U.S., they are now found only in South Texas after habitat loss and hunting reduced their number to fewer than 100. It is the most endangered felid in the country. Practical infrastructure is providing hope for their recovery — like the more than 30 highway underpasses constructed by the Texas Department of Transportation. The 2024 opening of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute also marked a turning point, serving as a hub for ocelot research.
Matthew Smith is a wildlife ecologist focused on the recovery and conservation of ocelots using modeling and simulations to determine where ocelots can survive in the face of a changing landscape. He assesses historical and current environmental stressors, and identifies corridors for ocelots’ movement and areas where they may expand.
Eastern Oyster
Oysters can help protect shorelines from storm surges and high tides. They help reduce erosion from intense rains and filter water for other aquatic life — an adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. They’ve played a key role in shaping the economy of the U.S. East Coast, with New York City once the oyster capital of the world. Overharvesting and pollution have brought oyster reef numbers, once at around 220,000 in the New York Harbor, to near extinction. The world’s largest oyster reef restoration project, completed near Chesapeake Bay tributaries in Maryland and Virginia, has helped them rebound. The Society also supports their restoration through funding oyster recovery projects across the country.
Demi Johnson is a teen scientist passionate about oyster reef conservation. She was in ninth grade when she received a National Geographic Slingshot award for growing more than 1,000 oysters in Mississippi, where natural and manmade disasters have degraded oyster populations over the years.
As an evolutionary geneticist, Matthew Parsons Hare employs high-tech oyster restoration methods. He studies genetic mapping data to accelerate the recovery of eastern oysters in the Hudson River.
Tiger Shark
As apex predators, tiger sharks play a critical role in maintaining marine equilibrium. They regulate prey populations, which in turn promotes healthy seagrass meadows, coral development and general biodiversity. Within the U.S., tiger sharks dwell in the waters of Cape Cod, Hawaii and Florida. Despite ongoing pressures from overfishing and habitat loss, conservation initiatives have helped their populations recover.
Despite their critical role, research specifically on juvenile tiger sharks within the Florida Everglades remains limited. Julia Saltzman, a conservation ecologist and doctoral student, uses biotelemetry to map nursery habitats. Her research leverages movement data to pinpoint how young predators navigate the Everglades and thus understand how to protect them and their ecosystem.
ABOUT THE WRITER For the National Geographic Society: Natalie Hutchison is a Manager of Digital Content for the Society. She believes authentic storytelling wields power to connect people over the shared human experience. In her free time she turns to her paintbrush to create visual snapshots she hopes will inspire hope and empathy.
