JASON JAACKS

Wood Turtles: Conserving A Rhode Island Treasure examines the efforts to study one of Rhode Island’s most endearing species: the elusive Wood Turtle.

Produced in partnership with Roger Williams Park Zoo and Rhode Island Division of Wildlife.

Jim Gorman, science reporter for The New York Times, finds out why bumblebees make all that racket.

Chameleons don't change color to match their environment; it’s just the opposite. How do they do it? By manipulating tiny crystals in their skin. Now, UC Berkeley researchers are on a quest to create synthetic chameleon skin inspired by these reptiles’ uncanny ability.

Produced for KQED & PBS Digital Studios

Some corals look like undersea gardens, gently blowing in the breeze. Others look like alien brains. But in their skeletons are clues that promise to give scientists a detailed picture of the weather from 500 years ago. Reading these bones? Easy. As long as you have the world's most powerful X-ray laser.

Produced for KQED and PBS Digital Studios

Go deep into the Yucatán rain forest to learn the lengths that photographer Anand Varma goes to capture hunting behaviors of false vampire bats.

More mountain lions are turning up in urban areas around the San Francisco Bay, and researchers are trying to catch and track the animals. With camera traps and tracking collars, they are getting a better understanding of what is now the top predator in the East Bay.

This year, more than 3,000 sea lion pups have been abandoned by their mothers along California's northern coast. Warmer ocean waters are affecting the food supply, and the mothers are moving farther north, perhaps unable to take their pups with them.

People can save some of these sea lion pups. The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California, is doing what it can to nurse them back to health and then set them free into the wild north of the area where they were abandoned.

There are no more natural chinook salmon in California. To boost the dwindling population, hundreds of thousands of fish are spawned and released by federal and state agencies every year. This year, 600,000 salmon were released earlier than normal because of a historic drought in California.

A group of researchers is tracking the gradual return of northern fur seals to the Bay Area of California. The seals were once prized for their thick, warm fur, and they were hunted nearly to extinction in the 1800s. Over a century later, they're slowly repopulating the Farallon Islands.

Conservationists can now point to the largest dam removal project in the U.S. as a success story. The ecosystem of Washington's Elwha River has been thriving since the removal of its hydroelectric dam system. Recent surveys show dramatic recovery, especially in the near shore at the river's mouth, where the flow of sediment has created favorable habitat for the salmon population. A new generation of salmon species, some of which are endangered, are now present in the river. Some hope that the restoration of the Elwha River will become a shining example for the removal of dams across the U.S.

Jellyfish don’t have a heart, or blood, or even a brain. They’ve survived five mass extinctions. And you can find them in every ocean, from pole to pole. What’s their secret? Keeping it simple, but with a few dangerous tricks.

Produced for KQED and PBS Digital Studios