This week, 100Kin10—a national network with a goal of training and retaining 100,000 excellent K–12 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers by 2021—announced a key milestone during the organization’s annual partner summit at the San Diego Zoo:

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.

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.

A new study is shedding light on the importance of one critical resource for Andean bears living in the dry mountain forests of Peru: water.