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About Amazonia
The Amazon River stretches more than 4,000 miles. The tropical rainforest of its watershed is home to millions of species of plants and animals, making it the planet's most diverse ecosystem.
The Zoo is home to an Amazonia Exhibit and animals from Amazonia, as well as many animals from other parts of South America.
Four Maned Wolf Pups Born at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia (SCBI-FR)
Four maned wolf pups were born at SCBI-RF on January 5. This is is the first litter born at SCBI-FR in two years and will play an important role in helping researchers maintain a viable, self-sustaining population under human care. 
Read more about the birth.
Giant Anteaters Return From Temporary New Home
The anteaters had a new adventure earlier in 2011. They moved! If you've visited our anteaters, you may have noticed that their pool was showing its age. The time came for a new pool, so the anteaters moved to another yard so construction could begin. They are back in their home near Lemur Island.
Read all about their move in the latest keeper update.
Andean Bears at the Zoo
The Andean bear cubs, Chaska and Bernardo, are celebrating their second birthday this weekend. Come and see them get special birthday treats around noon on both Saturday and Sunday. Their yards are just past the Amazonia building.
Read a summer update about the bears and see a video.
See photos.
Curious about the cubs? Get some fun facts.
We do not currently have a web cam for the indoor or outdoor areas where the cubs are living.
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Can’t see any animals?
Watching Amazon river fishes:
Here is a glimpse into the rich and vibrant underwater life of the Amazon. When the large, serpent-like arapaima swims past the camera, you will get a close-up look at one of the largest freshwater fish in the world reaching up to ten feet in length and weighing 300 pounds. Red-tailed catfish, black pacus, and other fish share this 27,000-gallon aquarium below a living tropical forest.
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Amazonia Exhibit
The Zoo's Amazonia Exhibit leads visitors into the realm of the Amazon River Basin, where
giant arapaima, pacu, red-tailed catfish, and piranhas swim
in shallow water, and poison arrow frogs, titi monkeys, tanagers, and a two-toed sloth inhabit the world above.
Living kapok, avocado, and cocoa trees spread their roots
in this enclosed tropical habitat. 
Take an audio tour of the exhibit.
Adjacent to the exhibit, the Amazonia Science Gallery offers a glimpse into the scientific research Zoo staff conduct in the lab and in the field.
Tropical Wildlife at the Zoo
Elsewhere in the Zoo are golden lion tamarins, native to Brazilian tropical forest, which have been saved from extinction by Zoo conservationists. Golden Lion Tamarin Program
Leaf-cutter ants, Cuban crocodiles, and two species of bats hail from tropical and subtropical forests in the Americas. And, many of our familiar North American breeding birds spend the winter in these forests. Migratory Bird Center
Beyond Amazonia
Tropical forest also covers parts of Central and West Africa, home to western lowland gorillas and pygmy hippos, and the site of a major biodiversity study in Gabon, and Madagascar, home to lemurs.
In Asia,
elephants, tigers, clouded leopards, orangutans, gibbons,
Eld's deer, gharial, and many other Zoo species live
in tropical forests. Asia
Trail
Sometimes people are surprised to learn that rainforest does not blanket all of South America. Large expanses of this continent are grasslands, home to capybara, maned wolves, maras, and seriemas, among other species found at the Zoo.
