National Zoo

In a move that has angered conservationists and alarmed scientists, Lawrence Small, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, has announced plans to close several of its facilities, including the Conservation and Research Center, a 3,200-acre field station near Front Royal, Va. Part of the National Zoo, which in turn is part of the Smithsonian, the center is internationally known for its work training conservation scientists and restoring endangered species,...

CLASSICAL MUSIC IN THE GREAT HALL -- 5 p.m. today. Towson Unitarian Universalist Church, 1710 Dulaney Valley Road. $20 ($5 students). 410-813-4255 or migh.org Jonathan Carney, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's notable concertmaster, has plenty to do these days, what with the high-profile opening of the BSO season in a couple of weeks. But he has found time to give a recital today, the first entry in the 2007-2008 concert series of Music in the Great Hall, which has been a welcome fixture on the local cultural scene for more than 30 years.

In Washington China approves lending of pandas to National Zoo Chinese officials in the United States announced yesterday that the government in Beijing has given final approval to lend two giant pandas to the National Zoo. As outlined in a letter of intent signed April 7, the deal calls for the Smithsonian Institution, which operates the zoo, to donate $1 million a year for 10 years to China to rent the pandas. China will retain ownership of the new pandas, as well as any offspring.

Azy, a 250-pound orangutan, lumbers into a glass-enclosed lab room and settles onto a shelf in front of two monitors. The first screen blinks and displays three abstract symbols, while a photo of an apple takes shape on the second. When there's a knock on the glass plane, Azy turns to see a researcher waving an apple slice.Azy turns back to the computers and lifts a banana-sized finger midair. And pauses.And jabs a finger at one of the symbols -- a box with a diagonal line, which in fact represents "apple."

WHAT is a rail? It's a multicolored, flightless bird that stands 12 inches tall. It's the last rail species in the Mariana Islands, a Pacific Ocean island group halfway between Japan and New Guinea. The Guam rail is part of a family of about 260 bird species, most of which are flightless. They evolved from flighted ancestors that invaded various islands, where there were few predators to threaten them on the ground. So they gradually stopped flying. WHY is it special? The females of most bird species don't reach maturity until they're a year old. But female Guam rails begin breeding at five to six months.

WASHINGTON - For more than 150 years, the Smithsonian Institution has been one of the world's great packrats, collecting items from the mundane to the magnificent. Now the Smithsonian is cleaning out the nation's attic.Like a dowager showering treasurers on far-flung relatives, the museum complex is ready to open its storage vaults to worthy recipients. Cities across the country are lining up for a chance to borrow some of the 139 million objects usually kept from public view.In Arlington, Texas, community leaders hope to open an Origins of the Southwest museum featuring items from the Smithsonian's extensive collection Indian artifacts.

After a long winter stuck inside, no one's looking more eagerly toward spring than Baltimore families. It's time to get the kids outside and reconnected with nature, wildlife and the exotic critters someone can run into only at a zoo, aquarium or nature center. Over the chilly months, some of the area's favorite animal attractions got older, wiser and -- who knows? -- maybe even a bit cuter, even as a new baby or two arrived on the scene. The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore had a particularly rough winter and is especially hopeful that animal lovers return this spring in droves.

Showing winning colors; Artist: Monica Wooden's painting of swimming fish wins a national poster contest, which comes as no surprise to her teacher.Monica Wooden loves to make art. Since the third grade, she has been a member of the art club at Cherry Hill Elementary School in Baltimore. And for the past five years, the sixth-grader has looked forward to Gayle Maxwell's art class above all others at school. Maxwell says her enthusiasm shows in her work.So Monica's art teacher wasn't the least bit surprised when the 11-year-old won a national poster design contest earlier this month with her painting of fish swimming among brightly colored corals.

The World Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that a small number of U.S. troops are on the ground in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Hans Blix, the U.N. chief weapons inspector, reported that Iraq has not fully accepted the need to disarm, even to avoid war. Ariel Sharon's Likud Party dominated parliamentary elections in Israel, assuring his continuation as president. Poachers who killed two rare female mountain gorillas and snatched the baby they were protecting were sentenced to four years in prison by a court in Rwanda.