News Archive

By Lauren Augustine The first exhibit in RDC displays a very unique and rare species of crocodilian, the Philippine crocodile. This species is critically endangered wild populations were estimated to be less than 15,000 way back in 1995. Mindy, the Philippine crocodile is one of the first reptiles...

Yesterday shortly after 7 p.m., a male agouti escaped from his outdoor enclosure behind the Small Mammal House at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. Agoutis are large beautiful rodents about the size of a large house cat. Zoo staff kept the animal in view and successfully herded him back into a...

By Lauren Augustine Remember those really important eggs we got back in May from Dorothy our 57-year-old Cuban crocodile? Well, we are now about half way through incubation. Five of the ten eggs are continuing to develop. We track development through a process called candling, this involves taking a...

The Board of Directors of Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) is pleased to announce that Lynn Mento has been named Executive Director. Lynn brings extensive leadership experience in marketing and membership-skills that FONZ believes position her very well to lead the organization to and through the...

The phrase "tracking" usually conjures up images of biologists hacking through the bush, using footprints or radio collars to find animals. But a team of Smithsonian scientist tracks animals another way: using an army of volunteer citizen scientists and camera-traps in a revolutionary program called...

Seven red panda cubs were born at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute! Our animal care team is always hopeful that new moms will raise their own cubs, but that's not always possible. And when it isn't, keepers are ready to hand-raise cubs. Hear from keeper Jessica Kordell in the latest Q...

This panda update was written by keeper Nicole MacCorkle. We still don't know if Mei Xiang is pregnant or pseudopregnant. (Remember her hormones and behavior will mimic a pregnancy even if she is pseudopregnant!) If you have been regularly watching the panda cams, you may have noticed that Mei Xiang...

Bird House curator Sara Hallager has hand-raised kori bustard chicks for nearly 20 years. Now, she's doing it again with two recent hatchlings! Find out about hand-raising chicks from incubation to independence in this Q & A. When did the chick hatch, and how is it doing? Our Kori bustard chicks...

By Lauren Augustine Behind the Reptile Discovery Center (RDC) by the Komodo dragon and Chinese Alligators you can also see one of the most unique species of crocodilians, the false gharial or Malayan gharial or tomistoma. This species is characterized by its slender jaws, hence its scientific name...

Migratory shorebird study at North Padre Island, Texas; a major stop-over and winter destination for many, many birds.

By Lauren Augustine Summer has officially arrived in DC! And while visitors to the Zoo often flock to shade or the air conditioned buildings (like the Reptile Discovery Center), some animals are reveling in the heat—like our crocodiles. Crocodiles are ectothermic, meaning their body temperature is...

Today I was working with one of my favorite animals, Wally the American alligator. Wally lives in front of the Reptile Discovery Center in an outdoor pond. Historically, Wally was fed over the edge of the metal catwalk on the right hand side of the exhibit. Keepers inadvertently trained Wally to...

For only the second time, a litter of clouded leopard cubs has been born as the result of an artificial insemination. Pierre Comizzoli, reproductive physiologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), performed the artificial insemination in Thailand last March alongside Paweena...

Ten loggerhead shrikes hatched last month at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Va. These genetically valuable chicks will be the first SCBI-hatched shrikes to be released into the wild, helping to bolster native populations. Hatched May 3, May 7 and May 8 to three...

For the first time, researchers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Migratory Bird Center have tracked small migratory ovenbirds ( Seiurus aurocapilla) to their tropical wintering grounds with unparalleled accuracy.

By Lauren Augustine I bet you didn't know that we train our crocodiles—that's right crocodiles can learn! We use operant conditioning techniques much like the mammal and bird keepers at the Zoo. There are a few reasons keepers at the Reptile Discovery Center use operant conditioning to train the...

In a new study, SCBI's Paul Weldon and University of Tennessee at Knoxville professor Gordon Burghardt propose that conspicuous organisms arise when predator and prey populations interact. Conspicuous prey organisms are favored when predators, by chance, recognize and avoid their novel appearance...

What does it take to keep up with a sextuplet of juvenile African lions? In the latest Keeper Q & A, Rebecca Stites and Kristen Clark dish on the cats' quirky personalities, training triumphs, and big changes to come. As the cubs grow, how do they behave toward their parents and each other? The...

Tomorrow is World Turtle day. The Smithsonian's National Zoo is celebrating a conservation milestone; for the first time, a rare spider tortoise has hatched in the Reptile Discovery Center. Animal care staff are closely monitoring the hatchling, which emerged May 10 in an off-exhibit area. Staff...

This keeper update was written by Kenton Kerns. If you've visited the Small Mammal House in the last two weeks, you may have noticed that our female tamandua Cayenne now has a male companion! Eight-year-old Manny arrived at the Zoo in March and, after a routine period in quarantine, he was...

By Lauren Augustine Today we collected the Holy Grail of crocodile eggs! Dorothy, our oldest Cuban crocodile, laid 24 eggs! Unlike our other two Cuban crocodile females, Dorothy digs a hole nest, making it difficult to find the eggs. If you remember from my first blog, our other two females build...

WHAT:Free public symposium celebrates the late Dr. Theodore Reed, his vision and lasting legacy for the modern zoo. There will also be a daytime academic symposium on May 21 that is open to the public from 1p.m. to 5p.m. Details on both these events are on the National Zoo's website ( http:/...

As part of the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute's ongoing collaboration with our Chinese panda colleagues, panda keeper Becky Malinsky and I were able to spend 10 days visiting three giant panda bases earlier this spring. The first two we visited, Bifengxia and...