Page Type: Elementary

The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is getting ready to welcome some new arrivals. On May 29, the zoo announced that two pandas will be arriving from China by the end of 2024.

China agreed to lend 2-year-old male and female pandas Bao Li (pronounced BOW-lee) and Qing Bao (pronounced ching-BOW) to the National Zoo for 10 years. In exchange, the zoo will pay a $1 million fee each year to help pay for China’s efforts to conserve (save) giant pandas, which are endangered. The agreement also states that any cubs Bao Li and Qing Bao have must be sent to China by age 4. 

This will be the first time pandas have lived at the National Zoo since November 2023, when the zoo sent its previous panda pair back to China, along with their cub. Before that, the zoo had pandas for 23 years in a row. Bao Li’s mother, Bao Bao, was born there in 2013 and sent to China at age 3.

By studying and breeding pandas, the National Zoo helps contribute to conservation efforts. But China’s willingness to lend out the bears, which are native only to China, is also an example of two countries working together.

“Through this partnership, we have grown the panda population…and learned what’s needed to protect wild pandas,” said Brandie Smith, director of the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

Pandas are very popular with visitors to the National Zoo. For many people, the zoo isn’t the same without its adorable black-and-white bears. Eighth grader Sofia Valle visited the National Zoo recently and was disappointed to learn there were no pandas. She hopes to return after Bao Li and Qing Bao arrive.

“[Pandas are] my favorite animal,” Sofia told the Associated Press. “They’re so fluffy! And they’re lazy like me.”

The video below begins with Bao Li. Qing Bao appears after about 43 seconds.

In 2018, a huge fire burned through Brazil’s National Museum, destroying most of its collection of 20 million items. But in May 2024, as the museum prepared to reopen, it received a generous donation of 1,104 fossils.

The items that were lost in the fire were pieces of the past that can never be recovered. There were artifacts from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; a dinosaur fossil named Dinoprata; and objects that were used by Brazil’s Indigenous (native) population hundreds of years ago.

Since then, several museums around the world have donated items to the National Museum. Last year, the Nationalmuseet in Copenhagen, Denmark, announced it would repatriate (send back) a Tupinambá feather cloak that it has had since the 1600s. The cloak, made and worn by Indigenous Brazilian people called the Tupinambá, was taken from Brazil to Europe hundreds of years ago.

It will take a long time for Brazil’s museum to rebuild a collection anywhere near the size of what it once had. But the recently donated fossils will make a big difference. They include a plant called Brachyphyllum, a pterosaur (a cousin of a dinosaur) called Tupandactylus imperator, and Tetrapodophis, which dates back about 120 million years and may be the oldest known snake fossil. There are also several turtle and insect fossils. All the fossils were originally found in Brazil. The gift comes from Burkhard Pohl, who owns one of the biggest fossil collections in the world. 

“We felt it was the right thing to do to help rebuild a comprehensive collection of Brazilian fossils,” Pohl told The Art Newspaper. “We hope that this initiative will inspire other collectors to follow suit and [donate].”

Do adults ever ask you what you want to be when you grow up? It turns out adults have been asking kids this question for thousands of years! In a new book called Be a Scribe, a father in ancient Egypt advises his son about his future career, revealing that parents and kids really haven’t changed all that much. The book’s coauthor, 16-year-old Michael Hoffen, adapted the book from a story that was written more than 3,500 years ago.

Throughout Be a Scribe, a father named Khety tells his teenage son, Pepi, about some of the difficult careers that he should avoid because they take a toll on the body. (Remember, the ancient Egyptians had no modern technology to help with hard labor.) Khety says his own job, working in a mine, is not something Pepi should do. Instead, Khety advises his son to become a scribe. In ancient Egypt, a scribe was a person whose job it was to write things down. It was a highly valued career because few ancient Egyptians knew how to read and write.

The results are in! A miniature poodle named Sage has won the top prize at the 2024 Westminster Dog Show.

The fluffy 3-year-old outshined more than 2,500 other dogs to win the Best in Show title. She’s the fourth miniature poodle to win the top prize in the dog show’s 148-year history. Five standard (larger size) poodles have won.

“No words. I’m so happy,” Kaz Hosaka, Sage’s breeder and handler, told CNN after Sage won. “[When] we walked in this ring tonight, she’s kind of not sure, but then she got used to it and then she gave a great performance for me. I’m proud of this dog.”

It’s nearly time to find out who will win the 2024 Comedy Pet Photography Awards. The annual contest asks people all over the world to send in their funniest pet pics for a chance at a prize and a little bit of Internet fame.

Founded in 2020 by animal-loving photographers Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, the contest aims to celebrate the way pets can change our lives in a positive way. Joynson-Hicks and Sullam also want to send a message about the importance of animal welfare.

Judges select a winner for each of several categories, including Dog: Our Best Friends, Cat: Our Fabulous Feline Friends, The Mighty Horse, and All Other Creatures Great and Small (animals that aren’t dogs, cats, or horses). There’s also a category called Pets Who Look Like Their Owners and a Junior category for people who are aged 16 or under. The winner of each category receives a certificate.

The overall contest winner—the funniest of funny photos—gets 500 pounds (about 635 dollars) and a camera bag. Last year’s winner, called A Life Changing Event, featured two kittens with very different personalities. Check it out!

Something wonderful happened when Storybook Maze started reading to her niece on her front steps in Baltimore, Maryland. As Maze got deeper into the story, more and more kids from the neighborhood gathered at her feet, wanting to hear what would happen next. Maze was thrilled. “Go home and read a book!” she told her audience when story time was over. When Maze found out that many kids don’t have books at home, she wanted to do something about it.

Maze became a librarian, but that didn’t solve the problem. Many neighborhoods don’t have libraries, so there’s no easy way to get books. That’s when Maze decided to take the books to the neighborhoods.

A cat named Galena is back with her family after taking an unexpected journey in an Amazon shipping box.

Galena, a 6-year-old housecat who lives with her family in Utah, disappeared on April 10. Her owner, Carrie Clark, looked everywhere for her. When she and her husband couldn’t find Galena in the house, they posted “lost cat” notices in their neighborhood and online. Clark says Galena is a special member of the family who’s always there when Clark needs her.

“She just has this extra great part about her personality that’s very loving. And she can tell when you don’t feel well,” Clark told the Associated Press. “And she’s just really, really special to me.”

There’s good news for travelers who get bored on long car trips. A company is building a high-speed rail line between Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Los Angeles, California, area, making the trip between the two places a lot shorter.

The company, called Brightline West, began construction on the railway on April 22.

“This is a historic project and a proud moment where we break ground on America’s first high-speed rail system,” said Brightline founder Wes Edens.

The United States already has a couple of fast trains. One of them runs between New York City and Washington, D.C., and the other connects Miami and Orlando, in Florida. But neither of those trains is as fast as high-speed trains in many other parts of the world.

Brightline’s new train will be able to travel up to 200 miles per hour (320 kilometers per hour). This will allow it to complete the 218-mile (351-kilometer) trip in just over two hours. That’s pretty fast. The same trip takes about four hours by car.