Wildlife

Larger than a harbor seal, with the long horse-like head of an adult male; roughly 450,000 range through US and…

The smallest sea turtle in the world, and endangered throughout its range.

Large sea turtle with a heart-shaped, reddish-brown carapace and powerful jaws.

Juvenile green turtles summer in the Peconic Estuary and Long Island's south shore bays, feeding on eelgrass and algae before…

The largest turtle on Earth — up to 2,000 pounds — follows jellyfish blooms into New York's ocean waters every…

A large, highly migratory shark of temperate and tropical waters — torpedo-shaped, deep blue above, and the fastest shark in…

Named for the long, scythe-like upper tail lobe it uses to stun schooling fish.

Slender, brilliant indigo pelagic shark common in offshore New York waters during summer.

The waters off Montauk are a documented white shark nursery — the New York Bight is where Atlantic juveniles spend…

Toothy, aggressive schooling fish that chop through bait on the surface.

Left-eyed flatfish that moves inshore in warm months.

The iconic East End gamefish.

The fall Montauk Blitz: bullet-fast little tunny that boil the surface off Montauk Point each autumn.

Arctic owl that appears south of the Canadian border in numbers during irruption winters, favoring open country: coastal marshes, beaches…

Brought back to New York by DEC's Bald Eagle Restoration Project (1976-1989), which released 198 nestlings to re-establish breeding pairs…

Fish-hawk that nests on platforms, poles and duck blinds near water.

Warblers, thrushes and vireos push through the Hamptons each spring and fall.

Endangered in New York and federally threatened.

Sea ducks winter on the bays and the ocean.

Great egrets and other wading birds work the edges of marshes, shallow coastal lagoons and estuaries all summer, wandering far…

Extirpated from Long Island for over a century, river otters have documented themselves back — Seatuck's surveys track their eastward…

Primarily nocturnal, though foxes turn up in daylight too — especially vixens feeding pups in spring.

Gone from New York by the mid-1840s and restored by trap-and-transfer releases from 1959 on.

Found throughout New York and abundant here — most often along forest edges and open ground by roadways, farm fields…

The world's only turtle that lives in brackish water — salt marshes, tidal creeks and shallow harbors.

A living fossil older than the dinosaurs.