Guests at the reopened San Diego Zoo are getting a first look at two endangered Amur leopard cubs, born April 26, 2020, as they explore their outdoor habitat with mom, Satka.

In between eating her morning meal, a 7-week-old cheetah cub played and pounced in an indoor nursery area at the Ione and Paul Harter Animal Care Center, at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

This week, just in time for the San Diego Zoo’s official reopening to the public on June 20, a 2-month-old male pygmy hippopotamus and his mother, Mabel, graduated from their maternity habitat to the larger main pygmy hippo habitat in the Lost Forest area of the Zoo.

In breeding programs aimed at conserving animals from small or isolated populations, scientists must balance the competing needs of adding genetic diversity and avoiding the introduction of harmful genes. 

Rattlesnakes are important to habitat health, but there’s still much to learn about their behavior and ecological role.