News

For the first time, SCBI geneticists have sequenced the genome of a vertebrate: A Hawaiian honeycreeper

For the first time, conservation geneticists in the Center for Conservation Genomics at SCBI have sequenced the genome of a vertebrate: a Hawaii amakihi, a colorful bird with a hooked beak they...

Sumatran tiger cubs Bandar and Sukacita are growing up fast and undergoing some big changes at the Great Cats exhibit! At 16 months old, these cubs won't be fully-grown adults for another year or two, but they're already showing maturity and independence. Keepers Marie Magnuson and Dell Guglielmo...

Researchers have learned that despite strong global support for tiger conservation, the survival of the species continues to be threatened. Habitat loss, poaching and isolation are all factors leading to population decline, but a team of scientists, including Robert Fleischer and Jesus Maldonado...

This update was written by Virginia Carter, a Smithsonian coral biologist with the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology

During the second week of November, at the start of summer in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef was thriving with new life. As part of the Reef Recovery Initiative, Smithsonian...

The Smithsonian's National Zoo is celebrating the birth of two Andean bear cubs born to 8-year-old Billie Jean Nov. 10 and 11. The Zoo announced Nov. 6 on its website, Facebook and Twitter that animal care staff observed two cubs on Billie Jean's ultrasound. Twenty-one-year-old male Cisco is the...

Dr. Donald Neiffer has been named chief veterinarian of the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., effective Oct. 20. Neiffer most recently worked as head veterinarian at The Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio. Previous to that, he was the veterinary operations manager for Walt Disney World's Animal...

The six lion cubs at the Great Cats Exhibit are growing fast and their husbandry training sessions are in full swing! Parents Luke, Naba and Shera have their paws full with the rambunctious cubs—but it's our animal care team's challenge to care for the entire pride. Curator Craig Saffoe and keepers...

The Smithsonian's National Zoo recently welcomed the newest member of its zoological family: the North American Porcupine. Two adult porcupines named Quillby and Maude are now on exhibit adjacent to the prairie dog exhibit. Both porcupines came from a breeding facility in Pennsylvania and are...

The rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis), which has not been seen in the eastern United States in five years, has been found by a Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute research team at Sky Meadows State Park in Delaplane, Virginia.

Morgan Maly is a graduate student at North Carolina State University working on her master’s thesis in conjunction with Dr. Adrienne Crosier at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute studying sexual maturity in ex situ cheetahs.

This past October I had an opportunity to travel to Dujiangyan...

This update was written by Keeper Nicole MacCorkle.

Bao Bao has been introduced to the training cage! This is an important developmental step because this is where the animal care team conduct husbandry behaviors such as measuring blood pressure, drawing blood, taking radiographs, and even routine...

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., is opening its doors—usually closed to the public—for special opportunities in October. The month kicks off with the Autumn Conservation Festival Saturday, Oct. 4, and Sunday, Oct. 5. Visitors to SCBI can see endangered species and...

The membership of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) has elected Dennis Kelly, Director of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, to the position of Vice Chair of the Board of Directors.

The AZA community recognizes Dennis's strong leadership abilities, said AZA President and CEO Jim...

Watch the latest from "Wild Inside the National Zoo."

One hundred years after the extinction of the passenger pigeon, the nation's top bird science and conservation groups have come together to publish The State of the Birds 2014—the most comprehensive review of long-term trend data for U.S. birds ever conducted.

In honor of its 125th anniversary, the Smithsonian's National Zoo is once again home to American bison, the animal that began the Zoo's living collection in 1889 and sparked the conservation movement. The American Bison exhibit, sponsored by Continental Building Products, opens to the public...

WHAT: Media preview and name reveal of the National Zoo's two female American bison. The American Bison Exhibit opens to the public Aug. 30.

WHEN: Wednesday, Aug. 27

9:30 a.m.

WHERE: Smithsonian's National Zoo

3001 Connecticut Ave. N.W.

Park in the Bus Parking Lot, in the left lane...

The National Zoo and the Embassy of the People's Republic of China celebrated giant panda cub Bao Bao's first birthday this morning with a Zhuazhou (dra-JO) ceremony. During a traditional Zhuazhou ceremony, symbolic objects are placed in front of a baby. The item that the baby reaches for first...

The National Zoo and the Embassy of the People's Republic of China celebrated giant panda cub Bao Bao's first birthday this morning with a Zhuazhou (dra-JO) ceremony. During a traditional Zhuazhou ceremony, symbolic objects are placed in front of a baby. The item that the baby reaches for first...

The past year at the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat has been a very special one. We've been able to watch Mei Xiang raise a cub from the first moments of her birth, when she was pink and had yet to open her eyes. Now Bao Bao is just over 40 pounds and ventures high into the trees in...