News Archive

This year was filled with incredible and heartwarming stories about the animals and the people who care for them. Enjoy a look back at some of the amazing things that happened this year.

When the Zoo's newest Allen's swamp monkey was rejected by his mother after birth, a team of staffers stepped up to care for the infant while he was young.

If you have visited the Zoo during the summer, then you know it can get hot, muggy and buggy here in Washington, D.C.! Find out how keepers use enrichment to help animals stay cool in the heat.

Behold a brunch between a sloth and a golden lion tamarin, catch a close-up of newborn black-footed ferret kits and get a glimpse of giant pandas gorging themselves on bamboo shoots. All of these events (and more) made for a memorable May at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology...

How do you get an orangutan to sit still for an electrocardiogram? All it takes is a little patience and a lot of ingenuity! The Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s positive reinforcement training program enables primates to voluntarily participate in their own medical care without the need for anesthesia.

Two peanuts sit on a tray. One is beneath the curve of a tool; the other is beside a different tool, out of reach. Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Allen’s swamp monkey Nub Armstrong is eyeing both. Will he pick the tool that brings the peanut toward him? To examine whether guenons understand how tools...

Eight-week-old Allen's swamp monkey Zawadi is on the move. Over the past few weeks, biologist Becky Malinsky has watched the baby—whose name means "gift" in Swahili—become more independent. Zawadi has splashed in the water, sampled mom's food, and she's even hitched a ride on one of the Schmidt's...

The Zoo has a new troop of seven monkeys! It's a mixed-species group of guenons. Learn all about our new monkeys, and about guenons, in this Q&A with primate curator Meredith Bastian and keepers Alexandra Reddy and Elliott Rosenthal. What are guenons? "Guenon" is the name of a group of monkeys that...