Smithsonian.com

Taught to avoid sloth? Meet 9-year-old Khali (right), a female sloth bear that came from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle to become a non-breeding companion for the National Zoo’s 26-year-old male sloth bear Merlin. Sloth bears are slow-movers, thus their association with laziness or slothfulness, one of the seven-deadly sins. But the sloth bear is no lazy creature, the animals sport a slightly longer snout than other species of bear, and they industriously use it along with their lips to create a vacuum-like seal to suck up insects from holes, cracks and crevices.Khali arrived from Seattle late last year, but has only recently joined Merlin following gradual introductions between the pair. Sloth bears, found in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, are listed as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union, although there is no solid estimate of how many remain in the wild. In India, where many sloth bears are found, their numbers are declining mainly due to habitat loss, poaching and the use of the animals for an illegal practice known as “bear dancing.”In addition to Khali and Merlin, the National Zoo is also home to two other sloth bears, 13-year-old Hana, and her two-year-old cub, Balawat.(Photograph courtesy of Mehgan Murphy, The National Zoo)

We’ve been keeping an eye on the PandaCam at the Zoo because we heard it was time for a little hanky panky between the pandas. But if anything went on, we missed it.

Should nature not take its proper course, however, the Zoo’s scientists don’t want to waste an opportunity. Female pandas only go into estrus one time a year for just 48 hours.

So yesterday, reproduction scientists Copper Aitken-Palmer, JoGayle Howard, and Pierre Comizzoli (foreground) and zoo veterinarian Carlos Sanchez were part of a large team of experts that performed an artificial insemination this afternoon on Mei Xiang, the Zoo’s female giant panda.

By all reports, if the insemination is successful, Mei Xiang will give birth in the next 90 to 185 days.

(Photograph courtesy of Jessie Cohen / Smithsonian’s National Zoo/March 19, 2008)

Maybe there isn’t much spontaneity and romance involved in dating and mating at Smithsonian’s National Zoo, where Cupid consults a studbook and matches animals based on numerous factors—genetics being the most important—instead of leaving it to starry-eyed lovers and controls for optimum breeding environments. But, the game is oddly familiar.

There will be “clingers”

Talk about needy. A male Panamanian golden frog clings to its mate for 120 days—count ‘em 1-2-0 days—in order to breed with her. The species is now extinct in the wild, but the National Zoo is one of six zoos in North America to have a breeding program.

Girls will be catty

Female cheetahs check out males – not vice versa – as they parade down what’s called “lover’s lane” at the National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center for cheetahs in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. But the females are territorial and like to keep their distance from competitors. Scientists have found that if two females are housed together, one or both will shut down ovulation, preventing any breeding.

Play hard to get

If withholding eggs isn’t playing hard to get, what else is it? But other animals certainly know how to set high standards for the right time and place. The kori bustard, a large African bird, requires the right male-to-female ratio in its midst and a secluded spot in flat, savanna-like terrain to lay its eggs. The National Zoo has been swapping real eggs with a “telemetric” one to learn more. (See the October issue’s “Hatching a New One.”)

Sometimes dessert sounds better than doing the deed

Hercules beetles usually get busy at night, but researchers have found that they often lose interest when in captivity. So what trumps mating? Eating. And the debate between which is better, making whoopee or eating whoopie pie goes on…

Distance can make the heart grow fonder

So maybe there’s no way of proving that their hearts grow fonder, but the Zoo’s female panda and one of their elephants are hoping to prove that long distance relationships can work. Both have been artificially inseminated with sperm from males at different facilities.

(Photograph courtesy of the National Zoo)

Birds do it, too. Especially this time of year. Valentine’s Day marks the time of the year when American flamingos begin their elaborate courtship displays. The National Zoo’s photographer, Mehgan Murphy, caught this courting pair in a heart-felt display.

Zoo officials tells us that the whole flock participates—birds puff up their feathers, hold their heads high and slowly strut together. The flock becomes synchronized by these behaviors so that the birds breed and lay eggs at the same time, assuring future chicks will hatch when food supply is optimal.

(Photograph courtesy of Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian’s National Zoo)

The countdown is on. Ten weeks until we know for sure if the National Zoo’s 32-year-old Asian Elephant, Shanthi, is going to have another baby. Remember back in 2001 when Shanthi gave birth to Kandula? For a few rare moments, Washington, D.C. was going gaga over elephants—the real ones.

Now, Zoo officials have announced that Shanthi was artificially inseminated with the sperm of a bull elephant from the Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum in Oklahoma.

Apparently, it’s quite a challenge to get an elephant pregnant. All conditions have to be just so—the female needs to be healthy and happy, the bull elephant’s semen has to be put in just the right place and, it’s all a matter timing. Is this too much information?

As scientists monitor the level of hormone in Shanthi’s blood, we’ll keep you posted. Keep your figure’s crossed.

(Photograph Courtesy of the National Zoo)

Caller ID just got more interesting. Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ), the nonprofit partner of Smithsonian’s National Zoo, just released ringtones of 25 animal sounds, from the familiar tiger’s roar to the obscure gargle of the giant anteater. Zoo keepers recorded the sounds.

Program Mom’s calls to be the screech of the wise barred owl and make dad the growl of the patriarchal African lion. Got a goofy friend? How ’bout a hyena?

So far the most popular are the common loon and the Sumatran tiger. Proceeds go to the Zoo’s conservation and education programs. Visit the Zoo’s Web site to listen, download and stay up to speed with all the chatter going on over at the Zoo.

(Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo)

Tai Shan, the two-year-old giant panda cub at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, surveyed Washington D.C.’s first major snowfall from high in a tree.

Tai Shan should feel right at home in the cold snow—giant pandas are native to central China where snow is common in the winter.

(Photo Courtesy of Jessie Cohen/Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park)