Mammals

The Birds and the Bees and the Fruits in the Trees

This suggests that sapote conservation is critical for conservation of dry forest bears.

Sunny Spot in Conservation for Rare Bears

San Diego Zoo Global recognizes the role palm oil has played in the developing conservation crisis in Malaysia and Indonesia, and has taken its responsibility towards contributing towards a conservation solution to the palm oil crisis a step further.

Primate Conservation for Monkeys and Kids

Using camera traps, we now know that these monkeys are active during both day and night.

African Cheetahs’ Love Song

This revelation lead to us recording the frequency of their calls, which behaviors they exhibited when certain calls were uttered and ultimately the formulation of a cheetah dictionary.

Saga of the Saiga

This demand, combined with a recent die-off of 12,000 saiga in neighboring Kazakhstan, emphasizes the need for more urgent conservation directed immediately to this species.

Conservation with a “Porpoise”

The main threat to the vaquita is inadvertent entanglement in gillnets set by fishermen harvesting fish and shrimp.

Paths of Pachyderms

Elephants Without Borders has been deploying satellite-monitoring collars on elephants throughout northern Botswana for over 12 years, having tracked over 90 individual elephant’s…

Counting Sheep: Andean Bear Conservation in Peru

Gathering systematic, objective data on a species that is readily visible is good practice for scientists. Later, researchers can move on to using binoculars and remote cameras (camera traps) for collecting data for the conservation of these bears and their habitat.

Stepping Up to Save Black-footed Cats

The goal of the SSP is to create a sustainable population—one that maintains 90-percent genetic diversity in the captive population for 100 years. 

Saving a Giant

Like her, many female southern white rhinoceros in zoos have reproductive problems.

Groundswell of Support for Gorillas

We believe that only between 15 and 25 individual Ebo gorillas remain, isolated from the other gorillas by over a hundred miles of degraded habitat.

Conservation Genetics of the Pacific Pocket Mouse

The diminutive Pacific pocket mouse, once thought to be extinct, then found to survive on Orange County’s Dana Point headlands, is another species that the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research is working to bring back from the brink of extinction.

Decoding Koala Communication

Though they are a relatively primitive species, koalas seem to have perfected their mating strategies.

Conservation on Ice

Now, it is impossible to discuss polar bears without discussing the imminent threat posed to their existance on the Earth by climate change.

Helping Wild Cats Live All Nine Lives

The black-footed cat, Felis nigripes, is the smallest cat in Africa and the second smallest cat in the world. Although its features and markings are similar to domestic cats, this is no ordinary house cat.

The Nose Knows: The Perceptual World of the Giant Panda

Every move a panda makes is calculated to conserve energy. Even his placement of scent marks is efficient.

Barriers to a Better Life

With the link between animal welfare and reproductive success, having a complete understanding of social situations that might negatively affect the welfare of animals is critically important. 

Tracking the Cheeky Pocket Mouse

It’s a big night. We are, for the first time ever, putting transmitters on the critically endangered Pacific pocket mouse.

Studying Koalas and Other Hip News

This small population is an ideal model for small, isolated, mainland populations that are struggling from human impacts and it can provide important comparative data for the San Diego Zoo koala colony.

The Polar Bear’s Perspective

A conservation crisis is unfolding in the vast and remote expanses of the Arctic Ocean.  Global CO2 emissions from human activities have contributed to a warming climate, and the ice covered expanses of the polar regions are feeling the heat more than any other region on Earth. 

Conserving Great Apes in Central Africa

Over the years we have spent more and more time in the forest with the chimpanzees and hints about the fascinating lives of these animals have started to emerge.

Panda News from Foping

In collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Science, the Foping Nature Reserve, and other partners, we continue to move forward with our panda conservation efforts in the field.

All Abuzz about St. Bees Koala Research

The St. Bees Koala Research Project has been investigating koalas on a remote island off the coast of Queensland in Australia for many years, detailing the lives of these unique animals using cutting-edge technology.

Conservation Research for Bears

At the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research we are actively engaged in bear research around the world…

Enriching the Lives of Big Cats

Providing environmental enrichment for animals helps keep them physically and psychologically healthy and can provide the animals some choice and control within their environment.

Secrets Inside a Bear’s Den

How does one learn about what goes on inside a mother bear’s den? Very carefully!

The Rare and Wonderful Somali Wild Ass

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is one of only a few institutions within North America exhibiting the Somali wild ass.

Uncovering Andean Bear Mysteries

Few scientists have ever attempted to study the Andean (or spectacled) bear, especially in Peru. While the mystery surrounding this species adds to its mystique, it impedes its conservation.

Panda “Pillow Talk”

Without communication, mates would be unable to locate one another or negotiate the delicate courtship process leading to mating.

Conserving the Largest Elephant Population in Africa

Elephants depend on different habitats for feeding and breeding, so they must be free to roam these large, diverse landscapes.

Monkey See, Monkey Study

Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys are commonly referred to as golden monkeys.

Bears: Understanding Maternal Care and Cub Development

A bear of a problem: understanding maternal care and cub development in the world’s bear species.

Conservation Research Collaborations on the Polar Bear

The San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, in collaboration with and support from Polar Bears International, continues to delve into the sensory world of the polar bear in hopes that a better understanding of how bears perceive the ever-changing, icy world around them will help us guide management of human activities in sensitive polar bear habitat.

Spotting Audio Cues in Cheetah Reproduction

Our understanding of African cheetah biology and reproduction has expanded greatly over the last few years. By recording and analyzing not just what they are doing from day to day but also listening to what they are saying to one another, we have been able to develop a working vocabulary for this species, which has proved invaluable to our ongoing breeding program.

Listening for Clues in Sensory Ecology

Developing new techniques to examine animal vocalizations, we can obtain a better understanding of how animals perceive their surroundings and one another.

Lend an Ear to our Elephant Research Programs

A wide variety of elephant research programs are underway at the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park with the goal of improving captive management techniques.

Koala Management, Education, and Conservation

Our Koala Education & Conservation Program reaches a global public through exhibition, education, and research and generates significant funds to support field conservation and research, including contraception investigations, vegetation mapping, planned community development, and studies designed to better describe koala behavior and ecology.

Birth Control Instead of Culling of African Bull Elephants

Elephant population control is a critical conservation issue facing many areas in Africa due to ecosystem damage and decreased biodiversity. Minimally invasive vasectomies on bull elephants is a method of permanent contraception that can be used as a management tool for the control of small populations of elephants and as an alternative to the controversial practice of culling.

The Thrill of Drill Research in Cameroon

Drills are among the most endangered primate species in Africa and probably the largest monkey species in the world. They are naturally geographically restricted, and human impacts further imperil this elusive primate. We are utilizing genetic tools for studying their ecology to make better conservation assessments.

Shedding Light on the Mysterious Lives of Gorillas

Scientists at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research performed the first genetic studies on populations of wild mountain gorillas and discovered that even regionally, these animals are genetically distinct. Subsequently, investigators have found significant genetic differentiation within western lowland gorilla populations among what has been considered a single subspecies.