With a seal of passion for pinnipeds, American Trail keeper Diana Vogel dives into how she cares for harbor seals!
Many guests are surprised to learn that seals have fur.
Listen up! Rosalie’s now 7-week-old cubs are feisty, playful and healthy. Keepers even captured a video of one cub up-close to the fence, chirping. Read on to learn to speak cheetah and get the latest scoop on these cubs!
They have a lot more energy and confidence now – with us and each other.
An unseasonably strong storm in fall 2022 stirred up some romance between two Panamanian golden frogs. Now, Reptile Discovery Center keepers are caring for more than 400 of the couple’s golden-hued hatchlings!
Panamanian golden frogs have very smooth skin, similar to dart frogs.
There are two new (adorable) kids on the block at American Trail! The team welcomed California sea lion pup Charger and North American beaver Poplar to their new homes at Smithsonian’s National Zoo this past summer.
Sea lions are very social animals and tend to not have a defined hierarchy.
Put your senses to the test at the Claws and Paws Pathway! Follow your nose to the binturongs, who smell like buttered popcorn, and keep your eyes peeled for petite Pallas’s cats hiding in plain sight. Get the scoop on the Zoo’s newest residents from curator Craig Saffoe.
The pair have been together for years, but they have never reproduced.
On Oct. 7, the Small Mammal House team celebrated the arrival of golden-headed lion tamarin twins! They are the first of their endangered species born at the Zoo in 16 years. Get to know the mischievous and curious babies from keepers Mimi Nowlin and Maria Montgomery.
Have you picked names for the twins? Not yet!
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 coexist.
Luckily, we have a terrific partnership with the forestry department, and they connected
Slow down with Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s three southern two-toed sloths. Keeper Kara Ingraham works with Athena and Vlad in the Small Mammal House, and keeper Denny Charlton tends to Howie in Amazonia. Find out what it takes to care for these unique animals!
Kara: I have always loved animals and grew up dreaming of saving the rainforest.
In September, Conservation Ecology Center Postdoctoral Research Fellow John McEvoy traveled to Mongolia to track wolves and to study the movement behavior of reintroduced Przewalski’s horses—the last of the truly wild horse species. The following is an excerpt from his travel log.
Image: After going extinct in the wild in the 1960s, they have been successfully
Learn about the program that helped move giant pandas off the endangered species list.
pair of giant pandas arrived in Washington, D.C. in 1972, Smithsonian scientists have
