NEWS RELEASES

Chimpanzees are well known for their extraordinary diversity of behaviors—including using tools for hunting or digging, cracking nuts with stones and using moss as a water-drawing sponge—with some behaviors also exhibiting cultural variation.

San Diegans Ernest and Evelyn Rady have made a record-setting commitment in support of the San Diego Zoo’s Animal Ambassador program. The Radys have pledged $20 million, of which $15 million will be a challenge grant that must be earned with matching donations from other Zoo supporters.

A huge celebration took place at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital earlier today (March 7, 2019), complete with San Diego Zoo Safari Park animals—including a tamandua, a sloth, and a kinkajou—and a 15-foot-long lion puppet, and flamingo and giraffe puppets from the San Diego Zoo!

If you didn’t already have enough reasons to visit the San Diego Zoo this week, three cute new arrivals may motivate you to drop everything and stop by. Over the past few months, Zoo animal care staff have welcomed three female mammal newborns—including a hamadryas baboon; a takin calf, listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species; and an Endangered siamang.

San Diego Zoo Global researchers have confirmed the presence of rare black leopards living in Laikipia County, Kenya. Sometimes called black panthers, the melanistic leopards were filmed in Lorok, Laikipia County, Kenya on remote cameras that were set up as part of a large-scale study aimed at understanding the population dynamics of leopards in Mpala and Loisaba Conservancies.

San Diego Zoo Global’s horticultural works are in the spotlight this month, with the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) in Washington, D.C. including landscape designs from both the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park in a new exhibit.

Young patients, their families and invited guests were treated to a visit with some amazing animal ambassadors from BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo—at a gathering at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital earlier today (Feb. 1, 2019)

A 5-day-old giraffe calf at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is receiving specialized care at the Safari Park’s Paul Harter Veterinary Medical Center. The male calf, born Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019, was observed having difficulty nursing from his mother.

The world’s endangered okapi population has increased by one this month, after okapi mom Subira gave birth to her first calf at the San Diego Zoo.

Two lactating African elephants—Umngani (pronounced OOM-gah-nee), who gave birth to a healthy female calf, Mkhaya or “Kaia”, on Sept. 26, 2018; and Ndulamitsi, known as Ndula, who gave birth to a healthy male calf, Umzuli-Zuli or “Zuli,” on Aug. 12, 2018—are participating in a nutritional study, allowing researchers to study the content of their milk.