Gender equity, DEI, climate action: How the Smithsonian’s woke push ‘infiltrated’ America's most beloved Zoo
FIRST ON FOX: As the Trump administration continues to crack down on far-left messaging and agenda items within the Smithsonian Institution, a Fox News Digital review found that the Smithsonian National Zoo has been adopting "woke" messaging and programming of its own over the past several years.
Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, which hosts roughly 2 million visitors each year at its Washington, D.C. national zoo and operates a global conservation research program spanning more than 40 countries, has placed an emphasis on issues like DEI and climate change, according to its own website.
"Gender equity, civil liberties and justice are necessary ingredients for peace and prosperity, but they also have a direct impact on resource use and climate change," a 2021 article on the organization’s website reads.
The article, written by seabird ecologist Autumn-Lynn Harrison and coral biologist Mary Hagedorn, makes the case that "one direct way we can bolster climate action is by addressing inequities in health and education across the globe."
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Searching "climate change" on the Zoo’s website yields almost 400 results, including articles warning about its impacts on vernal pools, salamanders, wildfires, coral nurseries, and a variety of other aspects of wildlife.
In addition to attempting to root out political messaging in the Smithsonian, which Fox News Digital has extensively reported on, the Trump administration has also placed a focus on rooting out DEI practices within the federal government, practices that appear to be a high priority for the Smithsonian Zoo.
"Diversity and inclusion are integral to all aspects of the Smithsonian Institution's operations and key components of the Smithsonian Strategic Plan," the 2023 Smithsonian Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Report, which includes several pages specific to the Zoo’s DEI efforts, explains.
The report outlines several DEI programs undertaken by the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute during that fiscal year, including diversity-focused internships, LGBTQ family programming at the Zoo featuring rainbow-themed animal enrichment, and efforts to promote inclusive language in the Zoo and aquarium profession.
"Americans visit zoos to learn about conservation efforts and admire animals, not to be shamed or feel guilt-ridden," Independent Women’s Forum Center for Energy and Conservation director Gabriella Hoffman told Fox News Digital. "Conservation has, sadly, been infiltrated by elements of DEI, ESG, and climate alarmism. This invites confusion and division into a space that should be science-first."
A 2021 Smithsonian Magazine article promoted how the National Zoo helped launch the Association of Minority Zoo and Aquarium Professionals, aimed at increasing racial and ethnic minority representation in Zoo and aquarium careers through networking, outreach, mentorship and professional development.
"As the curator of large carnivores at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and a black man in the zoo field, I have long been keenly aware of the dearth of black and brown faces in my chosen field," Smithsonian curator Craig Saffoe wrote in the article headlined: "Why a Group of Zoo and Aquarium Professionals Wants to Ensure the Future of Their Field Is More Inclusive."
"After years of thinking about what I could do to try to address this situation, I finally decided to, as my mother told me growing up, ‘stop talking about it, and be about it.’"
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LGBTQ family programming has been a consistent theme at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo which has used its annual International Family Equality Day to conduct outreach to the LGBTQ community. The free event, which the Zoo says it has hosted annually since 2018, has featured animal encounters, keeper talks, music, games and community activities. Zoo staff have also created rainbow-themed animal enrichment and treats, including colorful ice cakes, for animals throughout the park.
The event expanded its community partnerships in 2024, when the Zoo hosted representatives from the DC Center for the LGBTQ Community, SMYAL, Rainbow Families, Brave Trails and the Smithsonian Pride Alliance. The program included a performance by the LGBTQ-and-allied GenOUT Youth Chorus, a community picnic with local LGBTQ organizations and music that highlighted queer identity and inclusion. The outside groups referred to the gathering as "Gay Day at the Zoo," while the Zoo’s programming was formally billed as International Family Equality Day.
"In places like the National Zoo, especially a taxpayer-funded organization like the National Zoo, zoos have a primary mission of conservation and species management, habitat management, that kind of thing, and when ideologies, or at least science that is in question, start to take over and really rule the management of an organization like the zoo, then you start to have problems," Jason Hayes, a Senior Research Fellow with the Heritage Foundation's Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment, told Fox News Digital.
In January 2025, the Smithsonian organization announced that it was eliminating its Office of Diversity in line with the Trump administration’s efforts but noted it is "retaining our efforts at visitor accessibility as it serves a critical function."
However, several work profiles listed on the Zoo’s website as of this week still contain language suggesting DEI is part of their daily activities, including the Zoo’s profile of Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination DC and a member of the Zoo’s advisory board, which says advancing the tourism and hospitality industry is a priority for him and that his work includes "diversity, equity and inclusion," conversations about racism and expanding opportunities for people of color."
The profile also notes that he previously chaired Tourism Diversity Matters, a hospitality-workforce organization focused on DEI.
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Ricardo Stanoss, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s director for conservation capacity, was listed in the FY2023 diversity report as the principal investigator for an in-progress community advisory group that held listening sessions with D.C. leaders and explored development of a diversity-focused internship program and a master’s degree focused on environmental justice and climate change.
Additionally, The Zoo’s Great Plains Science Program website currently lists "Inclusion" among its core values, pledging to create pathways for people from underrepresented groups to participate in its work and cultivate a new generation of conservationists. Several of the researchers associated with that project have biographies that underscore its emphasis on inclusion and Native community engagement.
The Zoo also continues to partner with groups that have made DEI a central focus, including the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), of which the Zoo is a long-standing accredited member. The Zoo participates in AZA conservation and animal-management programs and must meet its accreditation standards, including a requirement that member institutions maintain written plans for accessible, welcoming organizational cultures.
AZA’s website says DEI is "embedded in everything we do" and the group wrote in 2020 that "systemic racism is embedded in our structures, culture and organizations, and we are committed to positive and sustained change that dismantles these barriers."
Brandie Smith, the current director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, joined the Smithsonian in 2008 after spending 10 years as AZA’s vice president of animal conservation.
Beyond its AZA accreditation, the Smithsonian is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a global conservation organization whose current gender policy calls for gender-responsive conservation and inclusive participation across race, sexual orientation and gender identity. The policy governs IUCN staff and is advisory for member institutions.
The Zoo also works with the Zoological Society of London on the scimitar-horned oryx recovery effort. ZSL’s FAIRER Conservation program says it uses a "decolonial lens" and aims to embed "justice, equity and inclusion" in its conservation work.
Fox News Digital asked the Smithsonian’s National Zoo for comment and inquired about any current implementation of DEI in the organization but did not receive a response. Instead, a spokesperson provided a statement saying, "The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute is the Nation’s Zoo—a place where people can experience wildlife, learn about the natural world and see conservation in action."
The spokesperson added, "The Zoo connects millions of people with wildlife while advancing a global mission to save species."
Hoffman explained that "activists have long targeted zoos simply because they exist."
"Kowtowing to these extremists — thinking the crocodile will eat you last by adopting these views — will invite extinction, not longevity," Hoffman said. "The Smithsonian Zoo shouldn't alienate visitors with political lectures and empty platitudes. The zoo should stick to showcasing pandas, not pandering to radicals. More imperiled species would be conserved and recovered today by de-emphasizing woke policies that are anathema to conservation efforts."