Mammals vary in size from the 100-foot-long blue whale to the two-gram bumblebee bat, one of the world's most endangered species. Most mammals measure less than one foot (including the head and body). That makes small mammals far more common, if less well known, than large mammals like elephants, tigers, and people.
Small mammals cut across categories. Most species are rodents (such as the naked mole-rat), insectivores, and bats, but there are also carnivores, such as Asian small-clawed otters, and primates, such as golden lion tamarins and lemurs.
Births at the Small Mammal House
For the first time in nearly 40 years, a greater Madagascar tenrec was born at the Small Mammal House in April. Nearly full grown by early July, it can be seen in an exhibit with its parents, near the building's largest enclosures.
On June 13, a prehensile-tailed porcupine was born at the Small Mammal House. In a little more than two weeks, it doubled its weight to about 1.8 pounds. It is on exhibit with its mother and older sister. Its father is in another exhibit. 
Get a good look at a baby prehensile-tailed porcupine.
Endangered Black-footed Ferrets Give Birth
The National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center (CRC), in Front Royal, Virginia, has been breeding endangered black-footed ferrets for 20 years to bring them back from the brink of extinction. This year, 21 females were bred at CRC, four by artificial insemination and 17 by natural pairings.
So far, five ferrets have given birth to litters, including Georgia, the ferret featured on our 
web cam. She gave birth to a kit, resulting from artificial insemination, on June 20. Look for the newborn on the cam. It does not yet have the dark markings of its mother.
CRC staff were not sure which ferrets were pregnant. Ferrets are induced ovulators, which means they do not ovulate until they breed. When we artificially inseminate them, we give them a hormone injection the day before to induce ovulation. Ovulation usually results in a pregnancy or a pseudo (false) pregnancy. As with giant pandas, their hormone levels change as if they were pregnant, whether or not they are. Also, their appetite will increase, they will gain weight, and show other changes in behavior.
A black-footed ferret from CRC recently went on exhibit in the Small Mammal House.
Learn more about black-footed ferret conservation.
North America Photo Gallery |
Help with cam
Can’t see any animals?
The animal in this exhibit may have moved out of view. FONZ volunteers operate some cams, but most of our cams show a fixed view.
Watching black-footed ferrets:
You are viewing the nest box of a black-footed ferret at the Zoo's Conservation and Research Center, where ferrets are bred to be saved from extinction. This ferret gave birth to a kit on June 20. In 2007, 24 kits were born here and survived past infancy. Ferrets, which once ranged across the Great Plains and are now one of the world's rarest mammals, are more active at night—don't be surprised if the ferret on camera is asleep.
Recovery of the endangered black-footed ferret | 
Black-footed ferret facts
Golden Lion Tamarin Cam
Naked Mole-rat
Wallaby Joey Is Zoo's Newest Marsupial
A tammar wallaby joey can now been seen with the National Zoo's five adult wallabies, in a yard with an emu, near the maned wolves and across Olmsted Walk from the Zoo in Your Backyard Exhibit. Wallabies are marsupials—like kangaroos—and after birth, offspring climb into their mothers’ pouch, where they nurse and continue developing over several months.
Keepers first noticed the joey’s head emerging from the pouch in March and saw the joey more and more in May. They estimate it was born in October. Not wanting to disturb the delicate bond between the mother and baby, keepers have yet to separate them for an exam to determine its sex and weight.
Mammal Mystery
This small mammal has the face of an agouti, the legs of a tiny deer, and weighs less than a fat house cat. What is it?
Golden Lion Tamarin Conservation Program
For
more than 30 years, this program has been saving these small monkeys
through conservation breeding and reintroduction to
their natural habitat in Brazil. Thanks to the success
of the program, the status of GLTs was downgraded from
"critically endangered" to "endangered" by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in 2003. 
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