Smithsonian "Traps" Animals for Biodiversity Project

This isn't exactly happening in the D.C. area, but we were so interested to see these incredible wild animal images pop up on the National Zoo's Flickr stream today, we wanted to share them. The Smithsonian's Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity Program has been around since 1986, traveling around the world working with governments and organizations to, among other things, "provide scientific information and build in-country capacity to foster the sustainable use of natural resources."

But what we really care about is their team in the Peruvian Amazon, who have set up a number of camera traps to capture all kinds of fascinating animals that don't normally like to come out and say cheese. And since we don't have any more baby zoo animal photos to share with you at the moment, we encourage you to click over to their Flickr site for rarely seen images of jaguars, ocelots, armadillos and more, including some especially cool night shots.