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.

Biodiversity was the lesson topic during a San Diego Unified School District livestream field trip connecting more than 100 online students to conservation education experts at the San Diego Zoo.