News Archive

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The Kirtland's warbler is an endangered migratory songbird that breeds almost exclusively in Michigan and winters primarily in the Bahamas. The species nests on the ground and will only breed in young Jack Pine forests. Decades of fire suppression prevented the formation of new breeding habitat for...

As the world prepares to celebrate Global Tiger Day this Saturday, July 29, Great Cats keepers have some big news to share about the 2-week-old Sumatran tiger cub in their care: it appears to be a boy!

See the beginning of a kiwi egg hatching in this behind-the-scenes Facebook Live at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute!

Keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo are mourning the loss of Minnesota, a Przewalski’s horse who was humanely euthanized yesterday morning.

Kids’ Farm keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo are mourning the loss of Tulip, a 13-year-old Holstein cow who was humanely euthanized July 24.

Animal keepers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute are hand-raising a dama gazelle calf. The male calf was born July 4.

Two litters of red panda cubs were born at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute last month within days of each other.

Activity at the giant panda habitat has slowed since the flurry of breeding season in May. Keepers, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists and veterinarians were monitoring Mei Xiang very closely to determine when she would ovulate. Her chance to conceive a cub arrived May 25. Now...

On July 11, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center scientist Autumn-Lynn Harrison set out to deploy GPS tags on the Chesapeake Bay’s brown pelicans to track their migrations and better understand the iconic birds.

About 100 kilometers south of Lima on the coast of Peru, an expansive community of marine invertebrates, fish and seabirds has taken up residency in a seemingly unlikely place: in the hard-bottom space created by a barrier, called a breakwater, protecting South America’s first Liquefied Natural Gas...

A new cryopreservation study has sweeping implications for wildlife conservation and human health. In a paper published July 13 in ACS Nano, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and University of Minnesota provide the first-ever reproducible evidence for the successful cryopreservation of...

In a shell of a paternity test story, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) scientists found that male desert tortoises that had been relocated from a threatened habitat to a new nearby home are reproducing at a much, much lower rate than resident males. Genetic paternity testing of 92...

The island scrub-jay, a songbird endemic to Santa Cruz Island off the coast of southern California, has made headlines in recent years for bucking evolutionary and biological trends—and is at it again this year.

In June, SCBI scientists and partners fitted the ossicones of 11 reticulated giraffes with GPS collars that send hourly data to researchers via satellite.

Great Cats keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo are celebrating the birth of a Sumatran tiger, a critically endangered species. The cub’s mother, 8-year-old Damai, gave birth at 4:17 p.m. on July 11.

An adult female red panda and an adult female dama gazelle died at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute during the past week. Both deaths were the result of natural causes.

In January, Tom Akre, former director of Virginia Working Landscapes (VWL), was appointed to the new position of Working Landscapes and Seascapes Scholar.

On June 8, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute hosted 27 Circle of Life Society donors for an exclusive donor recognition event at the Zoo’s Research Hill—home to the Center for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and Department of Wildlife Health...

Bornean orangutan infant Redd is 9 months old! Although he still sticks close to mom, Batang, and she keeps a watchful eye on him, he is very active and seems to enjoy exploring his surroundings.

Shell-ebration is in order for the Reptile Discovery Center, where two critically endangered Bourret’s box turtles hatched for the first time in the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s history. This conservation success was more than a decade in the making for animal keeper Lauren Augustine, who manages...

How does a conservation organization stop a threat to wildlife that cannot be seen by the naked eye? They examine it under a microscope.

Fitted with a GPS device the weight of a paperclip, a gray catbird in the Washington, D.C., area flies south, unaware that the device records its every move. That data is key for conservation biologists, like Brandt Ryder of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, who aim to understand the threats...

Training sloth bears, making an otter puzzle feeder and researching red pandas by studying their poop. It’s all in a day’s work for animal keeper Tallie Wiles! Follow her story for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into a day in the life of an Asia Trail keeper. Asia Trail is home to the Smithsonian's...

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) humanely euthanized a X-year-old female scimitar-horned oryx, named Jenna, on June 18.