Smithsonian National Zoological Park

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park, commonly known in the United States as the National Zoo, is a zoo located in Washington, DC. Founded in 1889, it consists of two distinct installations: a 163 acre (0.7 km²) zoo within the Rock Creek Park in Washington DC, and a 3,200 acre (13 km²) Conservation and Research Center located in Front Royal, Virginia, at the edge of the Shenandoah National Park. The zoo in Washington DC is open to the public and dedicated in large part to education; the conservation center in Virginia is closed to the public and used primarily to breed and study endangered species. Altogether, the two facilities contain some 2,700 animals of 435 different species.

Related Topics:
United States - Zoo - Washington, DC - 1889 - Rock Creek Park - Front Royal - Virginia - Shenandoah National Park

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The 116-year-old zoo attracts 2 million visitors a year, according to the Washington Post in 2005.

Related Topics:
Washington Post - 2005

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The National Zoo also maintains numerous field stations around the world, providing expertise and logistical support to local research and conservation efforts in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America.

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In 1972, the government of the People's Republic of China donated two giant pandas -- Ling-Ling (female) and Hsing-Hsing (male) -- to the zoo two months after President Richard Nixon's historic trip to China. Both of these pandas died in the 1990s (Ling-Ling in 1992 and Hsing-Hsing in 1999) without producing any cubs that survived for more than a few days. A new pair of pandas -- Mei Xiang (female) and Tian Tian (male) -- arrived in late 2000. On July 9, 2005, a male panda cub was born at the Zoo; it was the first surviving panda cub birth in the Zoo's history. (If the cub survives into adulthood, he would become the third giant panda to do so in U.S. history. The others were born at the San Diego Zoo in 1999 and 2003.)

Related Topics:
1972 - People's Republic of China - Giant panda - Richard Nixon - China - 1990s - 2000 - July 9 - 2005 - San Diego Zoo

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In the past few years, mismanagement has led to the accidental deaths of around two dozen animals in the National Zoo's care, threatening the Zoo's accreditation and causing the resignation of its director, Lucy Spelman, at the end of 2004. One incident involved the January 2003 death of two endangered red pandas after they ate rat poison pellets that were buried in their yard; the poison was deployed by an illegally hired unlicensed exterminator, and the incident led the city of Washington to seek to fine the Zoo over its claim of federally granted immunity. In late 2002 and early 2003, besides the red pandas, the Zoo experienced the deaths of a pygmy hippo, a bobcat, a cheetah, a lion, a gray seal, and a giraffe. Between between December 2003 and December 2004, five animal deaths occurred: a female lion, an emu, a ring-tailed lemur, an orangutan, and a Komodo dragon.

Related Topics:
Lucy Spelman - 2004 - January - 2003 - Endangered - Red panda - Exterminator - Immunity - 2002 - Hippo - Bobcat - Cheetah - Lion - Seal - Giraffe - December - Emu - Ring-tailed lemur - Orangutan - Komodo dragon

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The National Zoo maintains its own security police, the National Zoological Park Police, which consists of 50 full-time and part-time officers. They have concurrent jurisdiction over the zoo with the U.S. Park Police and the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police.

Related Topics:
Security police - Jurisdiction - U.S. Park Police - Metropolitan Police

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