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Conservation

General Director Taco Dibbits with "The Night Watch"

You’ll Be Able to Watch Rembrandt’s Most Ambitious Work Be Restored In-Person—or Online

Experts at the Rijksmuseum estimate the process of conserving “The Night Watch” is expected to take several years

Asian elephants have less than a 33 percent chance of lasting beyond the 21st century

Earth Lost 2.5 Billion Years’ Worth of Evolutionary History in Just 130,000 Years

Even if humans curbed destructive actions within next 50 years, it would take between five to seven million years for mammal biodiversity to fully recover

The project aims to map the "Big Four," or the four most common venomous snakes in India—the spectacled cobra, saw-scaled viper, Russell’s viper (shown here) and common krait.

This App Is Saving Thousands of Snakes (and Humans) in India

The Big Four Mapping Project’s conservation tool helps prevent snakebites and the killing of common venomous species

“It is especially exciting to see Sukiri bonding with and successfully raising these cubs,” says the Zoo's cheetah biologist Adrienne Crosier.

New Cheetah Mom Earns High Marks Caring for Her Three New Smithsonian Cubs

Cubs born to Sukiri on September 22 are latest in the National Zoo’s efforts to diversify gene pool of captive born cheetahs

Mugging for the camera

Cool Finds

World’s Largest Forest Antelope Photographed in Uganda for First Time

The lowland bongo and other mammal species were recorded during the first camera trap survey of Semuliki National Park

Grizzly Bear in Yellowstone National Park

Federal Judge Cancels Yellowstone Grizzly Hunt, Restores Species Protections

The judge found that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service had acted ‘arbitrarily and capriciously’ in removing federal protections for the species

Trending Today

Why Washington Mountain Goats Are Being Flown From One National Park to Another

Olympic National Park’s mountain goats are moving to saltier pastures

A female snowy owl leaves her nest as a human approaches. This is her first line of defense to not draw attention to the nest location.

Why Is the Snowy Owl Disappearing?

These birds, once a feature of the far north as reliable as ice, are becoming less and less common

Washington’s National Mall, home to 11 Smithsonian museums, flooded in 2006, causing millions of dollars in damage.

How the Smithsonian Prepares for Hurricanes and Flooding

An emergency command center is ready for activation and the National Zoo could move animals into bunkers

The vibrant Baltimore Oriole can be found migrating throughout large portions of eastern and central North America.

Scientists Can Predict When Birds Will Migrate Up to a Week in Advance

A new forecasting model using years of bird migration data and weather radar could help us protect migrating birds from harm

Duncan Grant’s studio

Bloomsbury Group’s Countryside Hub Opens to Visitors Year-Round

A new expansion has helped the Charleston Museum overcome conservation and space concerns that once forced it to shut down during winter

Spix's macaw.

New Research

In the Last Decade, Four Birds Went Extinct and Four More Are Likely Gone

Habitat loss is the main culprit in killing off the birds, including Spix’s macaw, the star of the popular 2011 film Rio

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Massive Animal Tracking Database Collects Its One-Billionth Creature Location

Objects Conservator Dawn Wallace examines the recovered pair of Ruby Slippers. Chief Conservator Richard Barden and Curator Ryan Lintelman also spent hours looking at the shoes in detail.

How the Smithsonian Helped Sleuth Out the True Identity of a Pair of Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers

When the FBI asked museum conservators at the American History Museum for assistance, they discovered the two pairs are twins

The recovered slippers.

Trending Today

After 13-Year Chase, F.B.I. Nabs Pair of Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers

The shoes were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in 2005 and were recently recovered in Minneapolis

87 Elephants Found Dead Near Botswana Sanctuary

A report attributed the killings to a “poaching frenzy”

RangerBot is an autonomous underwater vehicle designed to identify and kill crown-of-thorns starfish by lethal injection.

Sea-Star Murdering Robots Are Deployed in the Great Barrier Reef

The RangerBot is a new line of defense against coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish

Palmyra's Temple of Baalshamin, which was targeted by ISIS.

Ancient City of Palmyra, Gravely Damaged by ISIS, May Reopen Next Year

Between 2015 and 2017, militants wreaked havoc on the site’s ancient treasures

Trending Today

Sniffer Dogs Represent the Latest Weapon in the Fight Against the Illegal Ivory Trade

A new system at Kenya’s port of Mombasa allows dogs to detect elephant tusk, rhino horn and other illegal goods with one quick sniff

How Hungry Baby Urchins Are Saving Hawaii’s Reefs

They helped eat through invasive algae that was suffocating corals in Kāne’ohe Bay

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