Always free of charge, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo is one of Washington D.C.’s, and the Smithsonian’s, most popular tourist destinations, with more than 2 million visitors from all over the world each year. The Zoo instills a lifelong commitment to conservation through engaging experiences with animals and the people working to save them.
, 2023 Andean Bear Cub Update: First Days Out of the Den Our Andean bear cubs have
Pete Marra is a senior scientist emeritus and the former director of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. His research in avian conservation science has three broad themes, including the ecology of migratory birds, urban ecosystem ecology and disease ecology.Marra’s primary interests lie in understanding the factors that control population persistence and dynamics, so his research examines the roles of climate, habitat, food and pathogens, as well as other anthropogenic sources of mortality on the individual condition of both migratory and resident birds.
Marra and his students, post docs and colleagues have published more than 170 papers
Check out the latest news and updates about Andean bear cubs.
, 2023 Andean Bear Cub Update: First Days Out of the Den Our Andean bear cubs have
The caiman lizard is a semi-aquatic species named for its large, heavy scales that resemble those of the caiman crocodile. It has a green body and a reddish-orange head.
Jaguars, snakes and crocodiles prey on these large lizards, but they have few other
Katherine Ralls is a mammalogist and conservation biologist emerita at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation Genomics. She was one of the first scientists hired at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and was one of the founders of the Society for Conservation Biology. Ralls studies the behavioral ecology, genetics and conservation of terrestrial and marine mammals. She has conducted field studies of sea otters, San Joaquin kit foxes and island foxes.Ralls‘ research interests include:
marking and tool-use Ralls‘ early papers on scent marking and sexual dimorphism have
Melissa Ingala is a biologist cross-appointed with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation Genomics and the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Vertebrate Zoology. Her research strives to understand the contribution of gut bacteria (the microbiome) to dietary ecology and evolution in mammals. Her research integrates microbiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology to understand how animals adapt to nutritional challenges, both during the past and into the future. Ingala’s projects include:
as innovative models for testing for functional convergence in bat lineages that have
Klaus-Peter Koepfli is a broadly trained conservation biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. He and his team develop and apply state-of-the-art genomic tools to inform conservation management strategies of species at risk for extinction and to dissect the underlying causes of inbreeding depression, particularly with regard to deleterious variation.
fertile ground for investigating the interplay of population size and fitness, which have
Natalia Prado-Oviedo is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and is an affiliated faculty member in the biology department at George Mason University. Her current project is developing genomic tools for elephant health and conservation in collaboration with researchers from the Smithsonian’s Center for Conservation Genomics and the Center for Species Survival. Prado’s objectives are to facilitate research on their reproductive biology, morphological adaptations and disease susceptibility from a genetic perspective.
elephants were often the caregivers of their herd, indicating this condition could have
Wolfgang Dittus is a primatologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Conservation Ecology Center. He is stationed in Sri Lanka where he has studied the behavior and ecology of wild monkeys in the dry forests of Polonnaruwa since 1968. He is also a research professor at the National Institute of Fundamental Studies in Sri Lanka. Dittus‘ research contributes to the knowledge of primate social evolution, public education and conservation. His projects include:
monkeys living among the ancient ruins of temples and palaces at Polonnaruwa — have
As the John and Adrienne Mars director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Brandie Smith oversees the 163-acre Zoo facility in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park and the 3,200-acre Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute campus in Front Royal, Virginia. She is responsible for the operations of the public Zoo in Washington, D.C., which has approximately 1.8 million visitors a year, and manages the Zoo’s groundbreaking conservation biology research team that works in more than 30 countries.
Her efforts to merge these two disciplines have contributed to the birth of three
