Kermode Bear in Tree, British Columbia.

Squirrel in Snow

Photograph by Ray Yeager, My Shot

This Month in Photo of the Day: Animal Pictures

Photographed during a snowstorm in New Jersey

Cottonmouth, North Carolina

Photograph by Jared Skye, My Shot

While working as a field researcher for a biodiversity study on pine plantations in North Carolina, I found this Agkistrodon piscivorus in a drainage ditch. It's seen here displaying the classic defensive posture that gives it the common name "cottonmouth."

This Month in Photo of the Day: Animal Pictures
This photo was taken on the Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, in July 2010. The anhinga bird had just surfaced from the stream, having skewered the fish. Taken with a Nikon D50.

This Month in Photo of the Day: Animal Pictures

A caravanner of mixed Tuareg and Arab descent leads his camels in Mali. His Tuareg uncles taught him which plants can cure—or kill—his animals and how to navigate by the color, texture, and taste of sand.

A cute crabeater seal peeked out at us from behind a piece of snow but wasn't bothered by our presence. I think he was just as curious as we were. He didn't move except to look at us and stretch. Sun was shimmering on his fur and the ice and snow he was laying on. It was the trip of a lifetime with the family, December 2011. Took this while Zodiac cruising in Cierva Cove, Antarctica, with Lindblad Expeditions on the National Geographic Explorer.

Elephants roam the Serengeti under a stormy sky in this photo by Michael “Nick” Nichols, who sent dispatches from the field as he shot a story for National Geographic magazine.

See more pictures from Michael "Nick" Nichols's Project: Serengeti Lions, part of an ongoing series documenting the work of photographers in the field.

An oceanic whitetip shark and diver in the Bahamas.

(From the National Geographic book Ocean Soul by Brian Skerry)

On the trail to Goodnow Mountain, a yellow birch appears to be ingesting a boulder left behind by a glacier. With its tenacious trees and rebounding wildlife,Adirondack Park is a miracle of regeneration. Committed advocates and legal protections written into New York’s state constitution offer hope that it will remain forever wild.

Meet Smasher—the male in the background. That's the name Steve Winter gave this youngster, cooling off in a watering hole in Bandhavgarh National Park, after he slapped the automated camera trap until it stopped clicking. Both tigers are thought to have killed people, and Smasher is now in captivity

A mother of two cubs climbs a Pacific crab apple tree to grab its tart and tiny fruit. In years when autumn salmon numbers are low, the bears must find other food, such as wild berries, lupine roots, and mussels.

Blacktip Reef Shark, Maldives

Photograph by Paul Wilkinson, Your Shot

Smaller fish keep their distance when a blacktip reef shark swims amongst them in shallow water in the Maldives.

Cleopatra Relief, Egypt

Photograph by George Steinmetz, National Geographic

That's Cleopatra on the left side of a wall at a temple at Dendera—one of the few images that bear her name. She is shown fulfilling her role as pharaoh by making offerings to the gods. The appearance here of her son by Julius Caesar is propaganda aimed at strengthening his position as her heir. He was captured and executed shortly after her demise.

Crayfish, Australia

Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic

This Month in Photo of the Day: Animal Pictures

A foot-long crayfish dodges a hiker fording a stream in Australia's Claustral Canyon. The color of these crayfish, called yabbies by canyoneers, remains a puzzle. In some streams they're orange. In others they're blue. The difference is due partly to water purity—the blue ones are found in the clearest water.