Featured Species

A small, orange butterfly landed on yellow flowers.

The Carson wandering skipper is a small tawny orange butterfly found in grassland habitats on alkaline substrates in Washoe County, Nevada and Lassen County, California. Much like monarch butterfly caterpillars rely on milkweed, Carson wandering skipper caterpillars feed on salt grass. The...

FWS Focus
An underwater photo of an olive-colored Clover Valley speckled dace.

Clover Valley speckled dace is a small freshwater fish found in cold rivers and springs, and thermal springs. It is currently found in only three springs and outflows in the Clover Valley in Elko County, Nevada. Little is known about the species before European settlement of the area. Clover...

FWS Focus
A small spotted brown and black toad on dry grass.

The Dixie Valley toad is the smallest toad within the A. boreas species complex. This specie's dorsum has a broken cream stripe and irregularly distributed rust-colored tubercles with black margins. Its dorsal ground color contains hues of olive with small irregular black specks. The face is...

FWS Focus

Desert dace is a small olive green and silver fish and is found in several thermal springs and outflows in Soldier Meadows in Humboldt County, Nevada. It has the highest temperature tolerance of any minnow in western North America and can live in waters as warm as 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Listed...

FWS Focus
A close-up photo of a small purple/pink flower

Fish Slough milkvetch is a perennial member of the pea family, and found only in a 6-mile stretch of salt flats near Fish Slough, a desert wetland in Inyo and Mono counties, near Bishop, California. Fish slough milk vetch has been listed as threatened since 1998. It requires alkaline and...

FWS Focus

Independence Valley Speckled dace is a small subspecies measuring approximately 40 millimeters [1.6 inches] or less in total length. This subspecies can be distinguished from the Lahontan speckled dace by their less developed lateral line system on both the body and the head. They are further...

FWS Focus
An underwater photo of a school of Owens pupfish.

Owens pupfish is a small, deep-bodied, laterally compressed fish with a total length that rarely exceeds 6 cm (2.5 in). Females are dusky, olive-green in color, with several dark vertical bars aligned in a row along the sides. Males are bright blue, particularly during the spring and summer...

FWS Focus

Owens Tui Chub is dusky-olive above and has blue and gold sides, a gold-colored head, and olive-brown to reddish brown fins. Individuals range from 15 mm (0.6 in) to 180 mm (7 in) in length. It is distinguished from other tui chubs by the presence of lateral radii on the scales with a rounded or...

FWS Focus
A small fish in hand with rose coloring on it's side along with dark blue spots

The Paiute cutthroat trout is a distinctive member of the cutthroat trout complex, distinguishable from other cutthroat trouts by body coloration and the absence, or near absence, of body spots. Snyder (1933, 1934) described these fish as a new species, (Salmo seleniris), based on: 1) absence of...

FWS Focus

Railroad Valley springfish is one of five subspecies of White River springfish. The body is two-thirds as wide as deep and the head is relatively large. The dorsum is yellow to olive to gray with a dark stripe extending along the surface from snout to tail and the ventral half is silver. They...

FWS Focus
Four Sierra Nevada big horn sheep are photographed crossing a snowy mountain slope.

The Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep is similar in appearance to other desert associated bighorn sheep. The species' coat shows a great deal of color variation, ranging from almost white to fairly dark brown. The belly, rump patch, back of legs, muzzle, and eye patch are all white. Males and females...

FWS Focus
steamboat buckwheat flowers look like light pink pompoms on leafless stems

Eriogonum ovalifolium var. williamsiae (steamboat buckwheat) is a low, densely matted, compact perennial herb 2-18 inches (in; 5-46 centimeters (cm)) across. The above-ground portions of the plant arise from a shallow but stout, woody, reddish-brown taproot (usually in older plants) or a shallow...

FWS Focus
A low growing plant with yellow flowers on a hillside covered in greyish-white rock,

Eriogonum tiehmii is a member of the Polygonaceae (buckwheat family). It is a low growing perennial herb forming a dense compact mat up to 10.8 inches (in; 30 centimeters (cm)) across and 6 in (16 cm) high. Leaves are only at the base of the plant, blueish gray in color, elliptic, and gray...

FWS Focus
A close up of a cluster of small, five petal leaf , flowers.

Ivesia webberi is a member of the Rosaceae (rose family). It is a low, spreading, perennial forb up to 9.8 inches (in) (25 centimeters (cm)) across with greenish-gray foliage and dark red, wiry stems (Figure 1). The 2.8 inch long leaves are mostly clustered around the base of the stems, with 8...

FWS Focus