Neither wind, nor rain, nor dark of night can stop a songbird’s migration. Crossing the Gulf of Mexico, a popular stopover site, can take a 24 hour non-stop flight. Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center scientist Emily Cohen is studying how they survive against tremendous odds.
Venture into the Reptile Discovery Center and find more than 70 species, including crocodilians, snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs and salamanders, among others. Follow keepers Kyle Miller and Matt Neff as they train, enrich and care for some of the most charismatic (and dangerous) animals at the...
How do keepers ensure a gray seal’s teeth are healthy? American Trail animal keeper Diana Vogel is training the Zoo’s 26-year-old male gray seal, Gunther, to voluntarily participate in dental radiographs.
Why does Gunther need dental radiographs?
When we ask our gray seals to open their mouths on...
Ninety Limosa harlequin frogs bred in human care are braving the elements of the wild after Smithsonian scientists sent them out into the Panamanian rainforest as part of their first-ever release trial in May.
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s team of reproductive scientists, veterinarians and panda keepers performed two artificial inseminations on female giant panda Mei Xiang.
Four years after conservationists relocated 570 desert tortoises in California from a threatened habitat to a nearby location, the tortoises outwardly appeared to have successfully acclimated. Genetic paternity testing of 92 hatchlings by SCBI geneticists, however, has revealed that the translocated...
Bei Bei is a bit of a daredevil. Although eating and sleeping are still his favorite pastimes, the giant panda cub also loves to climb trees. Lately, he has been climbing trees in his yard and sliding back down. Giant pandas are excellent climbers, but they are also built to withstand falls.
The loss of intact forest cover in Myanmar has accelerated over the past decade, according to a study by Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) scientists and partners published May 17 in PLOS ONE.
The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) is celebrating the upcoming Endangered Species Day (May 19) with a slew of new births of endangered and vulnerable species. The births have ranged from mammals to birds, and some of the new arrivals will be reintroduced to the wild later this...
Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center scientists have been banding migrating birds at some of the first resting and refueling habitats for northward migrants that have flown hundreds of miles non-stop across the Gulf of Mexico, including The Nature Conservancy's Clive Runnells Family Mad Island Marsh...
Unlike many New World vultures, the king vulture does not have eyelashes.
King vultures grow to about 2.5 feet tall and may get to a weight of 8 pounds, making them the largest New World vulture, except for the condors.
A distinctive bird, the king vulture is easily recognized. The wings are short and quite broad and from the neck down the birds are white with a black band running along the rear edge of the wings. A small collar of feathers at the base of the neck is blackish-gray while the bare skin on the head and neck is orange, green, yellow and purplish blue. The crown is covered with small bristle-like feathers and a fleshy wattle directly above the nostrils.
King vultures eat carrion. They have a thick, strong beak which is well adapted for tearing, and long, thick claws for holding the meat. They have keen eyesight and sense of smell that they use to find their food. Though it appears to dominate over a feeding site, this vulture actually relies on other stronger-beaked carrion-eaters to initially rip open the hide of a carcass.
Did you know: the fleshy wattle that bulges from the king vulture's beak is called a 'caruncle.' Both males and females sport these facial features, though the wattle's purpose continues to perplex scientists.
This story appears in the May 2017 issue of National Zoo News. Learn more about king vultures at the Bird House outdoor exhibit!
Ever wondered what it would be like to care for an endangered animal? For the team who works with the Smithsonian's National Zoo's primates-- gibbons, siamangs, lemurs, orangutans and gorillas, among others-- the job entails thinking of creative ways to provide these intelligent animals with...
It’s not easy to be low on the food chain. But white-bearded wildebeests face a threat even greater than lions and leopards. Habitat loss and fragmentation are causing an alarming collapse in their numbers, says Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientist Jared Stabach. In March, he...
Every fall, forest elephants venture onto Shell Gabon’s Yenzi camp in search of mangos, putting both animals and humans in jeopardy. Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists are helping the camp’s staff manage and safely share the land on which both elephants and humans depend.
The period of a migratory bird’s annual cycle thought to be the most perilous—its twice-annual journeys over oceans and inhospitable landscapes—is also the least understood. A new collaborative study led by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) synthesizes what is already known and outlines...
In March, female Cuban crocodile Rose underwent a series of tests to determine if she is still capable of producing healthy eggs. It all began with an egg — a perfectly smooth, white, oval-shaped, normally-sized egg — that Rose laid two months early. Nesting season for Cuban crocodiles does not...
The ability of some conifer forests to recover after severe fire may become increasingly limited as the climate continues to warm, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) scientists found in a new study published today in Global Change Biology. Although most of these cone-bearing evergreen...
It has been a busy field season tracking the ecology of migratory birds down here at the long-term study site at the Font Hill Nature Preserve in southwest Jamaica. This year, we’ve been working on projects that include assessing how wintering bird populations change through time, the consequences...
Last week, the public was invited to help name five of the 10 cheetah cubs born in late March at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia. The cheetah cubs have been named Maathai, Fossey, Murie, Leopold and Roosevelt.
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Mary Hagedorn and the Reef Recovery Initiative have been making great strides in the effort to save the world’s coral reefs.
The public is invited to help name five of the 10 cheetah cubs born in late March at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia.
What does it take to care for an Andean bear? In March, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) staff returned to Peru—the bears’ home turf—to share their expertise.
