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Invent a story about an endangered species. Then draw and write about it!

An animal or plant becomes extinct when the last of its kind dies.

In the wild, ruffed lemurs live in only one place -- the eastern rain forests of Madagascar.

The gremlin-like, endangered aye-aye makes its home in the tropical forests of Madagascar, a large island off the coa...

This mighty member of the cat family is a powerful predator. It can leap up to 30 feet in the air, climb trees, and e...

The rare Taiwan beech tree grows only in a few forests of northern Taiwan. These are also the only places you'll find...

The Sumatran tiger is found in only one place on the Earth -- on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Fewer than 500 o...

Growing up, Joel Cracraft loved reading travel and adventure books. In high school, he became interested in ornitholo...

You could travel the globe, but there's only one place you'd find a ruffed lemur: Madagascar. It is an endemic specie...

Find out how biodiversity depends on you.

Biodiversity is the rich variety of life on Earth. But why is it important?

Why are many animal and plant species dying out forever?

Send a note to a friend with these colorful letterheads.

California condors are the largest birds in North America. Like all vultures, condors are carrion-eaters. This means...

This butterfly once lived in the mangrove forests along the tropical coast of Taiwan.

The whooping crane is known as the tallest bird in North America. This long legged creature has been struggling to su...

The dazzling Magellan's Iridescent Birdwing is found only on Orchid Island, about 60 kilometers off the southeast coa...

At age 10, George Barrowclough began bird watching with his dad. He pursued his interest in birds by becoming an orni...

Compared to the continent of Africa, Madagascar may seem small. But this island, the fourth largest in the world, is...

The St. Vincent parrot makes its home on the tropical island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. These parrots are cover...

The leatherback is the world's largest turtle. Unlike the bony exterior of other sea turtles, the exterior of the lea...

This beautiful tortoise lives in the deserts of Madagascar, an island off the coast of Africa. This reptile gets its...

About 120 kilometers (75 miles) off the coast of China is the island of Taiwan. Although this country is small, it is...

The Asian elephant is one of the largest land mammals in the world. Some people believe that elephants feel joy and s...

The Tibetan antelope, also known as "chiru," is one of the most beautiful mammals in the world.

When Paula Mikkelsen moved to Florida, she turned a fun hobby into an exciting career. She enjoyed walking along Flor...

Since he was a boy, Vladimir Ovtsharenko has been fascinated by nature. Growing up, he loved collecting spiders, beet...

Museum scientists answer kids' questions!

Find out what you can do to protect the oceans and ocean life.

Chris Raxworthy has been fascinated by all things scaly and slimy since he was a kid. Chris is a herpetologist at the...

What's threatening planet Earth and how can we protect it? Find out more in these videos of kids at the Museum.

Find out what you can do to save energy and slow climate change!

Not all spiders spin webs to catch their meals. When night falls in Australia, the white-tailed spider hunts its prey...

An invasive species is a living thing that moves into a new region. Species often become "invasive" as a re...

When you ride in a car, watch your favorite television show, or take a hot shower, you're most likely using fossil fu...

Energy is the ability to do work. Scientists define "work" as when a force moves something. When you lift a...

For thousands of years, humans have relied on the power of wind to sail across oceans, pump water, and grind grain.

From waves to waterfalls, water is usually on the move. And that means it has energy. When this energy is captured an...

Miles below your feet, scorching temperatures can get hot enough to melt rock. In some places, water heated deep unde...

Want to turn something old into something new?

Simple things that you can do to help protect fresh water and the living things that depend on it.

Send a note to a friend with these horsey letterheads.

For thousands of years, people have kept animals for many different reasons. They have kept sheep for wool, cows for...

Game + Hands-on

Play this game to find out how a law protects animals and plants.

There are many kinds of energy. But only one makes plants grow, drives the weather, and keeps our planet warm enough...

Scientists are developing and improving "clean" energy sources. But for the next hundred years, the world w...

Find out about Earth's climate, its consequences, and what we can do.

Just a century ago, many people died from minor bacterial infections and diseases. A simple cut or strep throat could...

Send a note to a friend with these mythical letterheads.

Send a note to a friend with these ancient letterheads.

Send a note to a friend with these earthy letterheads.

Scientists have identified over 1.75 million species on Earth -- over one million of them are insects and spiders.

All dogs, from the giant Great Dane to the tiny Chihuahua, belong to the same species: Canis familiaris. Within that...

Scientists figured out a way to take genes from one species and stick them inside the DNA of another species. When a...

Game + Hands-on

In this group game, discover how all the players in an ecosystem depend on each other to survive.

Bring six North American mammals to life with this coloring book.

In the forests of Central and South America grows the vibrant passionflower with deep red flowers and juicy yellow fr...

Send a note to a friend with these colorful letterheads.

Send a note to a friend with these colorful letterheads.

Send a note to a friend with these watery letterheads.

Send a note to a friend with these astronomical letterheads.

Send a note to a friend with these colorful letterheads.

Test your knowledge about the variety of life on Earth with this quiz.

If you watched an American black bear lumbering through the forest, you might not notice anything unusual about how i...

As a conservation geneticist, Yael tries to help endangered species by studying their DNA.

These tropical freshwater fishes come in so many colors, shapes, and sizes, it's nearly impossible to sum up the fami...

Can you find all 16 birds in this sanctuary? When you do, listen to their songs.

There is nothing in the world like water. Without it, our world would be a very different place. Water covers over tw...

Take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Your body just released carbon dioxide, a colorless gas that's essential to lif...

Explore the connections between technology, population and rising atmospheric CO₂.

Test your knowledge about the water you didn’t know you were using.

Conservation biologist Ana Luz Porzecanski answers kids' questions.
¡TAMBIÉN EN ESPAÑOL!

The Dzanga-Sangha rain forest is alive with the sounds of snakes, chimpanzees, birds, insects, and many exotic creatu...

In 1938, fishermen off the east coast of Africa pulled up a strange creature in their nets.

Explore how mammals run, fly, swim, walk, hop, and swing!

The name Jurassic conjures images of tremendous dinosaurs roaming the Earth.

Many famous dinosaurs, such as T. rex and Triceratops, first appeared in the Cretaceous Period.

Like humans, animals need to communicate with each other. Through sight, touch, sound, smell, and even electrical pul...

A tiny, two-feet tall horse-like animal scampers through a forest, nibbling on leaves.

Herpetologist Chris Raxworthy answers kids' questions.

Have you ever wondered why and how fireflies flash?

See how many different plants and animals you can find in this virtual mangrove swamp.

Discover how species have evolved to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth.

Estuaries are places where a river meets the sea. This ever-changing ecosystem is bursting with life. Saltwater from...

Join scientist George Amato on his quest to stop criminals smuggling illegal goods.

Reading + Video

Earthquakes are happening all the time. Find out what makes the earth shake.

As a child in Norway, Roald Amundsen dreamed of being a polar explorer. At 26, he was one of the first people to spen...

Oscar Wisting was part of the famous Antarctic expedition led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He was a tale...

In the early 1900s, Olav Bjaaland was a skiing champion in Norway. In 1910, he joined famous explorer Roald Amundsen...

Put on these handmade masks or puppets and tell your own mythic tale.

Explore this family tree of living things on Earth.

From Madagascar to Indonesia, travel around the world with Museum scientists.

With vibrant colors and fantastic shapes, coral reefs are a breathtaking sight. These underwater structures are actua...

Melanie Stiassny has been fascinated by fish from the time she was a little girl living in London. Today, Melanie is...

Long before dinosaurs, these strange roach-like creatures scurried along the ancient sea floor.

As a kid, John Flynn had a rock collection and made lots of trips with his family and school to the American Museum o...

Have you ever caught a firefly on a warm summer night? Chances are it was a common eastern firefly (Photinus pyralis)...

These creatures have lived in Earth's oceans for over 545 million years!

Find out about Taiwan's fascinating fluttering insects.

Wasps can live in hives of thousands, but did you know that most wasps are solitary? Get the facts.

See how genetics is used to solve crimes!

How do your fossil-sorting skills stack up? Put them to the test with this kid-friendly online puzzle.

Take a virtual stroll through a city park for a close-up look at some hidden inhabitants.

Dive into the oceans with an ichthyologist.

What kind of person becomes an ichthyologist, a scientist who studies fish?

Although the rosy periwinkle stands only one foot tall, in the world of medicine it's a giant.

That toothy grin might make you think this is a crocodile or an alligator. But the Yacaré caiman is neither. Caimans...

Earth was a very different place at the beginning of the Triassic. All of Earth's continents were combined into one s...

One look at Redondasaurus, and you might think it's a crocodile. After all, it has a similar long, armored body, with...

See if you can find the hidden microbes on each coloring page!

Bubbling hot springs. Antarctic ice. Deep ocean trenches. The Himalayan peaks. Few organisms can live in any of these...

The body of a sawfish may look like a fish, but its long, flat snout sets it apart. Rimmed with razor-sharp points, t...

Ornithologists, or scientists who study birds, want to prevent the forests of the Pacific Northwest from being choppe...

Since he was a kid, George Amato has been wild about wildlife. Today he works for the Wildlife Conservation Society a...

The mountain gorilla lives high up in the forests of east central Africa.

Growing up in Argentina, Adriana Aquino loved nature, especially the ocean. As a young girl, she wondered what it wou...

Animals swim, walk, crawl, slither, squirm, and even fly through the air. They can catch free rides by attaching them...

New Caledonia, a tiny island east of Australia, is the only place where an unusual bird called the kagu is found. Abo...

In this comic book series, follow an entomologist into the world of parasitic wasps.

Learn about the diagrams scientists use to organize all the groups of living things.

Find out what's so fascinating about these beautiful, pink birds.

Make your own bird feeder and record your observations in a bird journal.

In these videos, a biologist introduces us to the microbes that live all around us.

The electric eel is long and narrow like an eel, but it is actually not an eel at all. In fact, electric eels are pro...

The hellbender is one of the largest salamanders in North America.

What do we have in common with sharks, bluebirds, lizards, and toads? We are all vertebrates, or animals with backbon...

In college, Rob DeSalle wanted to study the narwhal, an Arctic whale with an eight-foot spiral tooth.

Bustling with a spectacular diversity of life, coral reefs are the rain forests of the oceans.

Most ocean plants and animals live near the shore, on a narrow ribbon of seafloor called the continental shelf.

Found along tropical coastlines, thick mangrove forests were once considered a nuisance, infested with mosquitoes and...

The blue whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on Earth.

Most living things need oxygen to survive. Oxygen helps organisms grow, reproduce, and turn food into energy. Humans...

Imagine you are a marine biologist, traveling far beneath the ocean surface in a submersible.

Scientists all over the world send precious cargo to Julie Feinstein: frozen samples of animal tissues.

For Steve Quinn, art and science have always gone hand-in-hand. As a kid, he liked to draw and make clay models of di...

This fossilized skull was recently discovered at Ukhaa Tolgod in the Gobi Desert. It is probably from a new kind of d...

Many mammals run and walk. Some hop, swim, and even glide from trees.

On the dry grasslands of eastern Africa, the Thomson's gazelle grazes in the tall grass. Suddenly, it hears a noise a...

The red kangaroo is an amazing mammal. With its powerful hind legs and long tail, it can leap up to 45 feet (13.5 m)...

Silk is the finest, most luxurious cloth in the world. It is soft and shimmery, yet strong and sturdy. Long ago, silk...

Taiwan's national butterfly is the Broad-tailed Swallowtail butterfly.