Early Friday morning, March 7, one of the world’s most endangered species—a North Island brown kiwi—hatched at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo Bird House.

A male scimitar-horned oryx from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va., is playing an important role in ensuring the species does not vanish from the planet.

This Valentine’s Day, Cupid won’t be making a stop at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Unlike the spontaneous attraction that most humans equate with love and romance, mating and dating at the National Zoo is planned, strategic and science-based—quite an unromantic encounter.