News

China's State Forestry Administration released giant panda census data earlier today. It's good news for pandas.

As the only species of bear listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, and an icon for species conservation, it's vital for scientists to keep monitoring the wild population of giant...

January 24 and March 2 mark our African lion cubs first birthdays! Animal keepers Kristen Clark and Rebecca Stites reveal what's new with the cubs in the latest Q&A!

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How have the cubs' personalities developed?

Rebecca: The personality of each begins to show itself at just a few weeks old, and...

Giant anteater Maripi gave birth to a female pup the night of January 24. Keepers monitored both Maripi and her pup via a closed circuit camera. Within 48 hours keepers became concerned that the pup was not thriving. Per Zoo protocol, keepers and veterinarians safely assessed the pup and concluded...

The Kori bustard is bird native to the eastern and southern grasslands of Africa. This species weighs in at 40 pounds, making them the world's heaviest flying bird. Unfortunately, it is also considered near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. From 1997 to 2008, the...

The forests of central Africa—the Congo River basin and along the Gulf of Guinea—are some of the most important, and largest, wild ecosystems in the world. They are home to stunning numbers of diverse species and habitats. And while they have been subjected to deforestation and degradation, but some...

The Smithsonian's National Zoo's attendance varies greatly throughout the year varying from a few hundred visitors per day in January to more than 25,000 visitors per day in April. To safely and securely handle the crowds, the Zoo coordinates with several security entities including Smithsonian...

Today was Bao Bao's first time playing in the snow outside! And she was quite the little snow panda. She spent her morning tumbling down the hill in her yard, climbing and sliding down trees and pouncing on her mom Mei Xiang!

Bao Bao also did the panda version of snow tubing, which we caught on...

As the year's first blanket of snow coated the Washington, D.C. area today, giant panda Bao Bao spent much of the morning playing in it for the very first time. The sixteen month-old panda cub tumbled down the hill in her outdoor enclosure, climbed trees and pounced on her mother Mei Xiang. Our...

Dr. Janine Brown, a researcher with SCBI and an expert on reproductive hormones, is spending a month in Thailand, lending her expertise to clouded leopard and elephant projects there. Brown is a reproductive physiologist and one of the world’s leading experts on elephants. She has been studying...

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...