Smithsonian National Zoo Smithsonian National Zoo News 2017

Gorilla Calaya is pregnant.

Western Lowland Gorilla at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo is Pregnant

 

At the zoos breeding center at Fort Royal a brown kiwi-chick needs a name :

Help Name This Endangered Brown Kiwi Chick

 

Repearing a Ground hornbill-bill at the breeding / conservation center at Fort Royal :

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10155638815162902

 

Karl is actually kept at the zoo. I also posted this video already. Post #208.

 

RFP Smithsonian National Zoological Park Central Parking Facility P3 Project - Federal Business Opportunities: Opportunities

 

Last year it was an electric eel, this year it's naked mole-rats. The zoo is looking to raise $100,000 by the end of the year for a new naked mole-rat exhibit.

Help Build a Naked Mole-Rat Exhibit

 

I heard from a zookeeper that Tusa, the male red panda will be leaving the zoo this week to move to a Colorado zoo on a SSP recommendation. As of now, Asa, the female red panda will stay at the zoo. A mother and cub from the SCBI will eventually move to the zoo and probably rotate on exhibit with Asa. If I were to guess which mother and cub it was I would say Nutmeg, who had cub(s) (one died) earlier this year.

 

The short-eared elephant shrew is no longer on exhibit (and presumably no longer alive). The exhibit was slightly renovated for greater hedgehog tenrec (mostly a change of substrate) but this is odd as I was once told by a keeper that they only had one elderly male. Perhaps the situation had changed, but I didn’t see any at all so I wouldn’t know. I uploaded a photo of the exhibit to the gallery.

I saw the Electric Fishes exhibit for the first time today. The section of Amazonia overall is cool, but each individual exhibit really lacks creativity. The animals exhibited are electric eel, black ghost knifefish, and bluntnose knifefish.

As always, a few changes were made in the Reptile Discovery Center. Most notably, Meller’s chameleon is now on exhibit, replacing veiled. Also, the Jewels of Appalachia exhibit has had its fair share of problems and incompatibility between salamander species, and all that is left in it are six long-tailed salamanders.

 

Two Guam Rail Chicks Hatch at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

 

New Cheetahs Debut at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo

 

Got to see them this week on a visit to DC. Quite feisty with each other.