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A neonate gray whale calf, born just hours before, still exhbiting embryonic folds in the skin along its side. This baby gray whale was born in the cold waters of Big Sur, far to the north of the Mexican lagoons of Baja California where most gray whale births take place.
Image ID: 01135
Species: Gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus
Location: Monterey, California, USA | Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. This bull elk has recently shed the velvet that covers its antlers. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone; once the antler has achieved its full size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler, which is itself shed after each mating season. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.
Image ID: 25890
Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti
Location: Redwood National Park, California, USA | Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. This bull elk has recently shed the velvet that covers its antlers. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone; once the antler has achieved its full size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler, which is itself shed after each mating season. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.
Image ID: 25878
Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti
Location: Redwood National Park, California, USA |
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Starfish detail, sea star skin details, Vancouver Island, Canada.
Image ID: 35313
Location: British Columbia, Canada | Starfish detail, sea star skin details, Vancouver Island, Canada.
Image ID: 35314
Location: British Columbia, Canada | Starfish detail, sea star skin details, Vancouver Island, Canada.
Image ID: 35373
Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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Three California brown pelicans mock jousting, displaying vividly-colored throat skin and mating plumage.
Image ID: 36725
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus, Pelecanus occidentalis
Location: La Jolla, California, USA | Rissos dolphin. Note distinguishing and highly variable skin and dorsal fin patterns, characteristic of this species. White scarring, likely caused by other Risso dolphins teeth, accumulates during the dolphins life so that adult Rissos dolphins are usually almost entirely white.
Image ID: 12792
Species: Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Rissos dolphin. Note distinguishing and highly variable skin and dorsal fin patterns, characteristic of this species. White scarring, likely caused by other Risso dolphins teeth, accumulates during the dolphins life so that adult Rissos dolphins are usually almost entirely white.
Image ID: 12799
Species: Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus
Location: San Diego, California, USA |
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Rissos dolphin surfacing with eye showing. Note distinguishing and highly variable skin and dorsal fin patterns, characteristic of this species. White scarring, likely caused by other Risso dolphins teeth, accumulates during the dolphins life so that adult Rissos dolphins are almost entirely white. San Diego.
Image ID: 02314
Species: Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Rissos dolphin, breaching. Note distinguishing and highly variable skin and dorsal fin patterns, characteristic of this species. White scarring, likely caused by other Risso dolphins teeth, accumulates during the dolphins life so that adult Rissos dolphins are almost entirely white. San Diego.
Image ID: 00983
Species: Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Gray whale, neonate calf with embryonic folds visible.
Image ID: 01129
Species: Gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus
Location: Monterey, California, USA |
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Blue whale, mottled skin, vertebrae, inflated throat, swimming at surface in the open ocean between foraging dives, aerial view.
Image ID: 02195
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus | Ocean sunfish, basking at surface, viewed from underwater, open ocean.
Image ID: 03311
Species: Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Ocean sunfish, sunning/basking at surface, open ocean.
Image ID: 03498
Species: Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
Location: San Diego, California, USA |
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Ocean sunfish, sunning/basking at surface, open ocean.
Image ID: 03499
Species: Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Ocean sunfish basking flat on the ocean surface, open ocean.
Image ID: 06268
Species: Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
Location: San Diego, California, USA | A Rissos dolphin leaps from the ocean in a full breach. Note distinguishing and highly variable skin and dorsal fin patterns, characteristic of this species. White scarring, likely caused by other Risso dolphins teeth, accumulates during the dolphins life so that adult Rissos dolphins are almost entirely white. Offshore near San Diego.
Image ID: 07597
Species: Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus
Location: San Diego, California, USA |
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An enormous blue whale rounds out (hunches up its back) before diving. Note the distinctive mottled skin pattern and small, falcate dorsal fin. Open ocean offshore of San Diego.
Image ID: 07573
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: San Diego, California, USA | An enormous blue whale rounds out (hunches up its back) before diving. Note the distinctive mottled skin pattern and small, falcate dorsal fin. Open ocean offshore of San Diego.
Image ID: 07577
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Teddy-Bear cholla cactus. This species is covered with dense spines and pieces easily detach and painfully attach to the skin of distracted passers-by.
Image ID: 26773
Species: Teddy-bear Cholla, Opuntia bigelovii
Location: Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA |
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Blue whale rounding out at surface, before diving for food, showing characteristic blue/gray mottled skin pattern.
Image ID: 27346
Species: Blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus
Location: Dana Point, California, USA | Starfish detail, sea star skin details, Vancouver Island, Canada.
Image ID: 35443
Location: British Columbia, Canada | Starfish detail, sea star skin details, Vancouver Island, Canada.
Image ID: 35444
Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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Two California brown pelicans mock jousting, displaying vividly-colored throat skin and mating plumage.
Image ID: 36720
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus, Pelecanus occidentalis
Location: La Jolla, California, USA | Two California brown pelicans mock jousting, displaying vividly-colored throat skin and mating plumage.
Image ID: 36703
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus, Pelecanus occidentalis
Location: La Jolla, California, USA | Large male elk (bull) in snow covered meadow near Madison River. Only male elk have antlers, which start growing in the spring and are shed each winter. The largest antlers may be 4 feet long and weigh up to 40 pounds. Antlers are made of bone which can grow up to one inch per day. While growing, the antlers are covered with and protected by a soft layer of highly vascularised skin known as velvet. The velvet is shed in the summer when the antlers have fully developed. Bull elk may have six or more tines on each antler, however the number of tines has little to do with the age or maturity of a particular animal.
Image ID: 19692
Species: Elk, Cervus canadensis
Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA |
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Gray whale dorsal aspect showing blowhole and characteristic skin mottling and ectoparasitic barnacles and whale lice (amphipod crustaceans).
Image ID: 30456
Species: Gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus
Location: San Diego, California, USA | Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. This bull elk has recently shed the velvet that covers its antlers. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone; once the antler has achieved its full size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler, which is itself shed after each mating season. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.
Image ID: 25880
Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti
Location: Redwood National Park, California, USA | Roosevelt elk, adult bull male with large antlers. This bull elk has recently shed the velvet that covers its antlers. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone; once the antler has achieved its full size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler, which is itself shed after each mating season. Roosevelt elk grow to 10' and 1300 lb, eating grasses, sedges and various berries, inhabiting the coastal rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.
Image ID: 25881
Species: Roosevelt elk, Cervus canadensis roosevelti
Location: Redwood National Park, California, USA |
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