Airport staff in Thailand found a live tiger cub packed into a suitcase filled with stuffed animals. The staff noticed what looked like a live cat when x-raying the suitcase. When they opened the suitcase to investigate they found the two-month-old cub. The cub had been sedated.

For the whole story, visit CNN.com.

On June 15 the National Zoo welcomed its second baby kiwi since March. The chicks are both female and doing well. The zoo has set up a camera to observe the new chick via the internet. You can watch it here; the best time see the chick is in the evening as kiwi are nocturnal.

Kiwi are native to New Zealand. There are five species, all of which are endangered. The main threats to kiwi are habitat loss and invasive mammals.

Fun fact: The kiwi lays the largest egg in relation to its body size of any species of bird.

For more, visit the National Zoo website.

The Denver Zoo announced that their four new Amur tiger cubs have a clean bill of health. Born May 31st, the quadruplet cubs were the first of this endangered species to be born at the zoo since 2003.

Amur tigers (or Siberian tigers) are the largest cats in the world. They reside in a small region in the southeast region Russia and are also located in small numbers in China and North Korea. There are only around 400 Amur tigers left in the wild, and they are considered endangered by IUCN’s Red List. One cause of their dwindling population is loss of habitat due to deforestation. In addition, Amur tigers are poached, or illegally hunted, for their fur and for body parts that are used for traditional medicines.

Learn more about the new tiger cubs at the Denver Zoo website.

Learn more about Amur tigers by reading Animal Fact Guide’s article: Siberian Tiger.

The Roos-N-More Zoo in Nevada has been surprised by the birth of a ring-tailed lemur baby. The zoo staff was not aware the mother, named Morocco, was pregnant. The baby has been named Marques and it’s gender is not known yet. The staff believes Marques is a girl, but they cannot confirm that yet. For now Marques is clinging to her mother’s chest, allowing a few glimpses of her tiny black and white ringed tail.

All species of lemur are endangered, so this birth will help maintain the current population.

Read more about Marques at RGJ.com.

Read more about the ring-tailed lemur at Animal Fact Guide.

Three year old panda Mei Lan and her 4 year old cousin, Tai Shan, were flown this morning from the United States to China aboard a plane dubbed “The Panda Express.” The two pandas were living at Zoo Atlanta and the National Zoo in Washington, respectively. They were on loan from China and are being sent back to help repopulate the endangered species.

One of the interesting transitions for the pandas to make will be to learn to understand commands in Chinese. Being raised in the United States, the pandas have been trained in English. Therefore, a Chinese language teacher is being hired.

For more, visit CNN.

The Minnesota Zoo has welcomed a female gibbon to their zoo. Born about three weeks ago, the gibbon was not being cared for by her mother. She is a white-cheeked gibbon, a critically endangered species.

Our favorite part of this video is the sounds that the baby makes. She sounds like R2D2.

Photo: World Wildlife Fund

Just as polar bears are in critical danger as global warming melts the ice caps, limiting their habitat, Bengal tigers are also threatened by this phenomenon.  Making their homes among the Sundarbans, a mangroves ecosystem in Bangladesh, Bengal tigers number around 4000 in the wild.  As polar caps melt, sea levels will rise.  According to a Climactic Change journal report by the World Wildlife Fund, by 2070, the sea levels near Bangladesh will rise 11 inches, submerging 96% of the Bengal tiger habitat. This provides space for only 20 breeding pairs, which is not enough to sustain the population.

For more info, see: USAToday Science Fair.

SeaWorld aquarist Jenny Albert covers up a “cold stunned” endangered green turtle to keep the animal warm at SeaWorld’s Rescue and Rehabilitation Center.

Many green sea turtles have been adversely affected by the Arctic blast that has swept over most of the U.S.  recently. Two dozen “cold-stunned” green sea turtles have been taken in by SeaWorld’s Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Orlando, Florida, where they are treating the endangered turtles with heat lamps, blankets, and warm fluids.

To learn more about green sea turtles, read Animal Fact Guide’s article: Green Turtle.

Four endangered northern white rhinos have been moved to Kenya from a Czech zoo. There are no northern white rhinos left in the wild and only eight left in captivity.

Wildlife workers hope that the move to the game preserve will result in an increase in reproduction for the rhinos. In 24 years at the Czech zoo the rhinos did not reproduce.

The overall aim of the project is to eventually reintroduce northern white rhinos into their native habitats in Africa.

Read more at GoogleNews.

The brown pelican has faced many threats in the last hundred years.  At the brink of extinction in the early 1900s,  brown pelicans were hunted for their feathers. In the 1970s, their populations struggled again due to the chemical DDT which weakened their eggs so they cracked prematurely.  In recent years, they faced Gulf Coast oil spills and Hurricane Katrina.  But finally, federal officials say the brown pelican population has recovered enough to be removed from the endangered species list.

To learn more, see: LA Times.