Also, for the first time, a whooping crane hatched at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal.

Tusa was previously at the Scovill Zoo in Illinois, and Asa comes from the Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia.

The results are in, and these little fiery balls of fur are now to be known as Pili — which means “clap of thunder” in Chinese — and Damini — the Nepalese word for “lightning.”

via The National Zoo’s Twitter feed brings a tiny mouthful of adorable today in the form of a one-week-old red panda cub. The cub joins the two adults already living at the Zoo’s nature trail (we suppose this is how these things usually proceed). Quoth the Zoo’s release on the topic, “It was love at first sight for Shama and Tate, the Zoo’s red pandas, and now, nearly a year and a half after…