Encyclopedia Smithsonian

Explore the Arctic’s changing climate. Discover what these changes mean for the Arctic, its wildlife, its people—and the rest of the planet.

Soft-bodied and hard-shelled animals, tall sponges, and algae offer a rare glimpse into the earliest explosion of animal life more than 500 million years ago, including the famous Burgess Shale.

Mei Xiang and Tian Tian can be seen in his habitat wrestling in the grass, sleeping in a tree, munching on stalks of bamboo, or lounging in a misty grotto. 

This exhibition is home to western lowland gorillas and orangutans.

See living, breathing, roaring Sumatran tigers and African lions and learn more about these endangered animals.

The Heirloom Garden is a treasury of favorites from what may be considered the classic American flower garden.

Two preserved giant squids are on view. The rare Taningia danae is often referred to as the world's largest flasher because of its ability to flash brilliant blue-green light in the ocean depths. Architeuthis dux, displayed in the museum since 1983, is the world's largest invertebrate.

The Insect Zoo focuses on live insects and their relationships with plants, animals, and humans.

This exhibition is home to dozens of invertebrate species -- the most abundant creatures on earth -- from sea stars to spiny lobsters, to giant African millipedes, to tarantulas, to a giant Pacific octopus.

The Folger Rose Garden features a bed of roses in a rainbow of colors, along with selected annuals, perennials, and woody plants chosen for year-round interest.

Travel to four continents to see some 274 mammals in lifelike poses in their natural habitat and learn about what they share in common and what makes them unique.

The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden comprises  more than 200 varieties of plants in hanging baskets, borders, and raised serpentine beds flanking an unusual curvilinear walkway.

By recalling the natural landscape environment that existed prior to European contact, the museum's landscape design embodies a theme that runs central to the museum: returning to a Native place.

Visit some of the newest members of the Zoo family.

 Living plants, butterflies, and bees are used to explore pollination.

Examines the exchange of plants and seeds between the Old and New Worlds following Columbus's discovery of America in 1492.

This exhibition reveals the significant role Darwin's theories have played in explaining and unifying all the biological sciences.

Most species in the Zoo's Small Mammal House are no bigger than a breadbox.

In these cases are books, periodicals, sketchbooks, and journals featuring artists's vivid illustrations of the astonishing landscapes, exotic animals, and unfamiliar peoples of 19th-century Africa.