Smithsonian National Zoo Smithsonian National Zoo News 2015

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The zoo has two new snakes in the Reptile Discovery Center.

a male and female bushmaster.

 

Panda cub, Bei Bei, had his first introduction to the press.

U.S. National Zoo's 4-month-old panda make its debut | World | News | Toronto Su

 

MALE SCIMITAR-HORNED ORYX DIES AT SMITHSONIAN CONSERVATION BIOLOGY INSTITUTE

https://nationalzoo.si.edu/publications/pressmaterials/pressreleases/press-release.cfm?id=2746

 

Article about the Prehensile-tailed porcupine baby :
Meet the National Zoo's Newest (and Prickliest) Baby - ZooBorns

 

Babies

Meet some of the newest babies born this year at the National Zoo and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...tional-zoo-and-smithsonian-biology-institute/

More Babies


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...tional-zoo-and-smithsonian-biology-institute/

Just kidding same babies

 

I found this recently and it's a petition for the zoo to not change their hours without hearing feedback from the public.

MoveOn Petitions - Director Kelly: Don't Change National Zoo Open Hours

 

I went to the zoo today and these are some of the things I saw/noticed.

* The old Collard Peccary and the old Maned Wolf exhibit are still empty.

* There is an exhibit in the small mammal house that is covered in paper so I'm assuming they are preparing it for some animal.

* There is a ton of exhibits in the reptile discovery center that are either empty for cleaning or being prepared for an animal.

* The Red Pandas are not on exhibit yet but there are coming soon signs behind the small mammal house.

* It looks like the zoo is doing some work on or around the Orangutan exhibit at the great ape house. Does anyone know what they're doing? I might upload a picture of it.

* The zoo has two oryxs now at the zoo. I believe they've only had 1 for a majority of the year.

 

I would say about 95% of the photos I'm gonna upload are in the gallery.

Also, my camera battery died real quick and I didn't know why. Turns out I was recording and I didn't know. The footage I took I uploaded to youtube so if you want to see it here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWUNuw-_Taw&feature=youtu.be

A majority of the photos you see in the video are the deleted ones so don't question my terrible photography.

 

Could someone tell me why exactly red pandas were pulled from display? I know one escaped a while ago and if I recall correctly i remember reading something about people traffic and noise being an issue with them. I though they had a nice exhibit? Where will they be going on exhibit once they return and if not in their original space then what will happen with their former exhibit?

Sorry, that's a lot of questions.

 

This is where they will be going.

http://www.zoochat.com/612/small-mammal-house-red-pandas-coming-433186/

http://www.zoochat.com/612/small-mammal-house-red-pandas-coming-433185/

They do have a good exhibit. I know my opinion is kinda bias but I think it's the best Red Panda exhibit in the USA.

The reason they're going to the small mammal house is because Bei Bei makes his public debut in mid January and the zoo is getting all new animals and not bringing some in from front royal.

Because of where the exhibit is located they expect big crowds for the first couple of months when Bei Bei debuts so they don't want to stress the animals out with so many people around {possibly hundreds I mean today there was a couple hundred people looking at the pandas and imagine the crowd when Bei Bei debuts}.

The last ones they had were pulled because they wanted them to breed out in Front Royal and not at the zoo {I guess because it's quieter out there}.

Oh and the female died after she gave birth.

 

Don’t cut back the National Zoo’s hours

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...1ce6c6-a5b5-11e5-8318-bd8caed8c588_story.html

 

Why not just delay the new animal's arrival then? Or at least them going on-exhibit. That doesn't make sense to build an entirely new enclosure that's worse than the current one in an area of the zoo most people don't know even has anything (as, if memory serves, their new enclosure will be behind the Small Mammal House, correct?) simply because it might be a bit crowded for a few weeks when the new animals arrive.

Will they be returning to the old enclosure after the Bei-Bei buzz quiets down? If not, what becomes of the old enclosure and if so, what happens to the new enclosure?

~Thylo

 

They will return to Asia Trail after all the buzz around Bei Bei quiets down.

I would hope they would have finished but they were doing some work on their inside area. But they reached their goal last year so I would hope that has nothing to do with it.

Also the two exhibits behind the small mammal house are not new... they've been their for ages.

 

I know they are not new, but it seems like they've done considerable renovations to them for the Red Pandas.

~Thylo

 

I actually think that the exhibits are meant for temporary use.

If my memory serves me right then back when American Trail was being renovated the NA otters were kept there and they had a little pool.

From the last time I saw them it looks like they only added some branches and logs for the Pandas to climb on.

They might have an inside exhibit as well because there was an exhibit in the small mammal house that was covered in paper and looked like it was big enough to hold a couple of Red Pandas temporarily.

Also this is question is for anybody but does anyone know what type of dog this is????? It looks like a living teddy bear....

a real dog - Album on Imgur

 

@dcpandafan - I'm 95% sure that is a Pomeranian pup with a very good haircut!

I was just at the zoo yesterday (of course after a great weekend I chose the cold windy day to go out). Though I've had a great time previously, it was a bit sad yesterday and many animals were off exhibit. The Asia Trail was almost empty, though I was told that the pandas come out in the morning and tend to be reasonable active - will have to make the trip later. A very friendly keeper was feeding one the beavers (he is 16 years old! blew my mind!), which was really fun to watch. There was one wolf out but the otters were inside.

Spent a long time at the elephant house. Ambika and Shanthi (I think it was Shanthi but I'm not sure) were inside, which was nice to watch but the area was a lot smaller than I had thought it would be. There was also another elephant out but locked in a small pen, which made a lot of visitors go "aww how sad"... for how impressive the building itself is they need to make the place look a bit more cheerful. The elephants seemed to be quite engaged browsing for food.

The bird house was really nice too, very beautiful but it was overrun with mice, especially the tinamou exhibit! Couldn't see the kiwi, but the two male micronesian kingfishers on exhibit were really fun to watch (and very loud!). I couldn't find more info, but I guess the zoo has females off exhibit? I know they've bred them!

I didn't have the time to go see the big cats and apes, so have to go again soon! I'll try again on a warmer day but the zoo will probably be packed.

 

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