News Archive

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...

Mei Xiang, the Zoo’s 18-year-old female giant panda, is showing behavioral and physical signs of estrus.

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...

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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.

First come cubs, then comes species recovery. Find out how a thriving population in human care benefits wild cheetahs.

WATCH: The Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute's care and study of Asian elephants has a positive impact on the species.

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.

Why is this Asian elephant wearing a collar? He’s one of four pachyderms whose movements and behaviors are being tracked via satellite! This information helps SCBI scientist John McEvoy and partners understand the causes of human-elephant conflict and find solutions to help animals and people...

Sometimes, even top predators need a leg up in order to survive. The recent boom in Kenya’s human population prompted people to sprawl and build their homes on the savannah. As a result, increased competition among wildlife for territory, food, water and mates can spell trouble for many the animals.

When researchers discovered Craugastor evanesco in the rainforests of Panama, they called it the vanishing robber frog. Now, however, the species may have a fighting chance at a future thanks to the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, which in December became the first program to breed...

Breeding Birds Between (Coffee) Bushes

La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of Colombia has two seasons: dry and wet. Even in the dry season, though, rainfall and cloud cover can be common, just like there are sunny days during the wet season. Some coffee farms simply cannot plant a lot of shade over...