Zoo

Move over, Moo Deng, there's a new superstar baby animal that's become an overnight viral sensation – a nine-month-old king penguin chick named Pesto whose species-defying growth spurt has made this big boy a worldwide celebrity.

In a world first, Budapest Zoo gorilla Liesel has received stem-cell therapy for her arthritis. It's hoped that this groundbreaking procedure, which aims to rejuvenate her damaged joint cartilage, will not just help her but be adapted for human use too.

Two new studies collected air samples from zoos and demonstrated the ability to identify a range of animals living there from their airborne DNA. This could eventually be used as a non-invasive way to track biodiversity.

The California condor is one of the rarest birds in the world, but nature may be giving the species a leg-up. Scientists have found two condor chicks born from unfertilized eggs, in a form of asexual reproduction that’s extremely uncommon in birds.

In the first case of its kind, a four-year-old tiger at New York City’s Bronx Zoo has tested positive for COVID-19, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has confirmed. The female Malayan tiger is believed to have been infected by a worker.

Lord Howe Island stick insects went extinct on their native island in the 1920s and were apparently rediscovered elsewhere decades later. There were questions about whether the living insects were the same species, but now genetic tests confirm that the stick insects really are back from the dead.

For flamingoes, snoozing while supporting their whole body weight on one stick-thin leg seems to be a natural first choice, and scientists don’t really know why. Now researchers at Georgia Tech believe they’ve cracked the case, and it could lead to better-balancing robots or prosthetic limbs.