Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Animals

Everything that lives on the Galapagos Islands now flew in on the wind, rode a freak current, or floated on a raft of vegetation.

Top Ten Places Where Life Shouldn’t Exist… But Does

Smithsonian lists the most improbable, inhospitable and absurd habitats on Earth

None

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Toucans, Orchids, Monkeys and more

None

Happy Trails, Zoo’s Hippo Heads West

Giant kangaroo

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Hungry snakes, giant kangaroos, bat noses, and more

None

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Dog faces, the history of laughter, snakes, and bird warning calls

None

Tiny Lungless Salamander Discovered in Georgia

None

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Whale of a comeback, dancing cockatoos, sticky bees, and waltzing pond scum

Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough travels to Nairobi, Kenya to understand the research programs and opportunities at the Mpala Research Centre.

Day 1: Seeing Kenya from the Sky

Despite many travel delays, Smithsonian Secretary Clough arrives in Kenya ready to study the African wildlife at the Mpala Ranch

None

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Flight of the hummingbird, termite cloning and the rise of the octopus

None

Rainforest Creatures Caught on Camera

Richard Conniff has been writing for Smithsonian magazine since 1982. His latest work is titled, "Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals."

Richard Conniff’s Wildlife Writing

International journalist Richard Conniff has reported on animals that fly, swim, crawl and leap in his 40 years of writing

None

Are Appalachian Salamanders Carrying a Deadly Fungus?

None

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Dinosaur gangs, psychedelic fish and long-distance elephant calls

None

Major Loss of Wildlife in Kenya’s Masai Mara

Smithsonian magazine staff writer Abigail Tucker recently ventured to Greenland to report on narwhal research.

Abigail Tucker on “In Search of the Mysterious Narwhal”

The Zoo’s three pandas, here Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, require a constant supply of bamboo, a plant that is not very nutritious, especially for animals, like pandas, that are natural carnivores.

Feeding the Animals at the National Zoo

After hiring the first animal nutritionist 30 years ago, the National Zoo prepares specific, well-balanced meals for each animal

None

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Wolves, hibernating animals, spitting cobras and more

Climbers Brian French and Will Koomjian ascend the Brummit fir in Coos County Oregon. It is the National Champion Douglas fir and stands 335 feet tall.

Climbing the Tallest Trees

A select group of adventurers climb the world’s tallest trees to learn more about the wildlife that lives on the highest branches

For the first time in 16 years, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center celebrated the birth of clouded leopard cubs.

National Zoo Celebrates Birth of Rare Clouded Leopards

Notoriously difficult to breed, two new clouded leopards are born at the National Zoo’s research facility

A gray wolf in Yellowstone National Park.

Wolves to Lose Protection in Idaho and Montana

Since the first wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995, the population has grown to 1,500 or more

Page 224 of 230