Photo Credits

Our animal pages use real photos that are in the public domain (for example, photos taken by NOAA or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff) or released under Creative Commons licenses that allow reuse: CC0, CC BY and CC BY-SA. We never use non-commercial (NC) or no-derivatives (ND) photos, and we do not use photos owned by aquariums, zoos or magazines.

We crop and resize photos to fit the page and convert them to WebP; CC BY-SA photos stay under CC BY-SA after those edits. Photos of animals in aquariums or other human care say "in captivity" in their caption. The ocean and habitat illustrations on the home page are made for WildFacts with AI image tools; they are illustrations, not photos.

  • American lobster (Homarus americanus) on a rocky sea floor, showing its large crusher and cutter claws and banded legs. Photo: Roger Rittmaster, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist, resized.
  • Atlantic blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) underwater among seagrass, showing its wide shell and bluish legs. Photo: gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Wild-type dark green axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) resting on the bottom, with feathery external gills on the sides of its head. Photo: LoKiLeCh, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Adult blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) at the surface, showing its long, slender mottled blue-gray body. Photo: NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NOAA), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Ocellaris clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris), orange with white bands, swimming among the tentacles of its host sea anemone. Photo: Petr Knotek, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist, resized.
  • Common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) surfacing to breathe, with its short beak, curved dorsal fin and gray body. Photo: Cloudette-90, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) on a rocky sea floor in shallow water, with its arms curled beneath its body. Photo: Beckmannjan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Group of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) standing on Antarctic ice, with yellow-orange ear patches and pale yellow chests. Photo: John Barkla, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist, resized.
  • Giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) on the sea floor off California, its reddish-brown wrinkled skin and suckers visible. Photo: NOAA / R. N. Lea, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) swimming in open blue water off Isla Guadalupe, Mexico, with a school of small fish. Photo: Terry Goss, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) swimming up toward the surface over a reef, its four flippers and patterned shell clearly visible. Photo: Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) breaching out of the ocean, showing its long white-edged pectoral fin and grooved throat. Photo: Lawrence Hylton, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist, resized.
  • Adult leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) on a sandy beach in Costa Rica, showing its long front flippers and ridged leathery back. Photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) drifting in green coastal water, its clear saucer-shaped bell showing four horseshoe-shaped rings. Photo: Andra Waagmeester, CC0, via iNaturalist, resized.
  • Orca (Orcinus orca) at the ocean surface in the Pacific, showing its tall black dorsal fin and black-and-white body. Photo: Shannon Rankin, NOAA/NMFS/SWFSC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) floating on its back in calm water in Morro Bay, California, grooming its thick brown fur. Photo: Mike Baird from Morro Bay, USA (bairdphotos.com), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) and her calf swimming together underwater in clear blue water. Photo: Galen Rathbun, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, resized.
  • Whale shark (Rhincodon typus) swimming in blue water with its wide mouth open, showing the white spots and stripes on its gray back. Photo: Daniel Benák, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist, resized.