Pick an Animal

Cougar Featured Father's Day Adoption. The Cougar is the most widely distributed of cats. It ranges from parts of southern Canada down to the tip of South America. Not surprisingly, a cat so widely spread has many different names. Cougars are also called "Panthers," "Mountain Lions," "American lions," "Catamounts"-- along with about 100 other common names. Cougars in the eastern part of the United States have all but disappeared, the victims of human eradication campaigns, but the species is still strong in western parts of the country. Click here to adopt this animal.

Peregrine Falcon Featured Father's Day Adoption: The swiftest animals on Earth, Peregrine Falcons can reach 200 miles an hour in a stoop (dive) and can cruise at 50 miles per hour in sustained flight. This species was recently taken off the endangered species list but only after nearly vanishing from North America. It recovered after U.S. laws banned DDT (a dangerous insecticide). DDT killed falcons—and other birds of prey, songbirds and mammals—when it built up in the tissues of their prey to poison them and their predators. In falcons, DDT disrupted eggshell production, making eggs too weak to protect developing chicks. Click here to adopt this animal.

Gorilla Featured Father's Day Adoption The greatest of the great apes, Gorillas are both powerful and gentle. The males protect their families from predators and lead them through forests. Gorillas remain on the endangered species list. Click here to adopt this animal.

Red Wolf The red wolf (Canis rufus) is generally shy and mostly nocturnal. This species of wolf has strong muscles and legs that are proportionally longer than the grey wolf's. As the numbers of captive bred red wolves have increased, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has returned some to the wild. Click here to adopt this animal.

Adopt a Frog Meet Hope -- Our Cope's Gray Treefrog. She is up for adoption as part of the Zoo's celebration of the Year of the Frog. Hope's picture and fact sheet come with a pretty green T-shirt and our thanks to you for helping the Zoo do its part to help North Carolina's frogs. You can visit Hope in the Zoo's Streamside Exhibit. (To view the T-shirt that comes with this adoption, just click on the Hope T-shirt button to the right of this picture.) Click here to adopt this animal.

Lion Lions weigh from 330-550 pounds. Male lions have shaggy manes that make them look larger than they actually are. Competition from humans for grassland has led to a drastic reduction in the lion's range. Click here to adopt this animal.

Grizzly Bear Grizzly bears, like all brown bears, have large humps of muscle and fat over their shoulders. Small ears and long, thick fur helps grizzly bears conserve heat in the cold. The grizzly bear, a subspecies of the brown bear, occurs only in the Rocky Mountains and is endangered. Click here to adopt this animal.

Chimpanzee Chimpanzees are apes, not monkeys, and, consequently, lack the tails that all monkeys have. Chimps' arms are longer than their legs and have very flexible joints. Chimpanzees are endangered in the wild. Click here to adopt this animal.

African Elephant African elephants are the largest of land mammals. Males stand nine to 13 feet tall and weigh 9,000 to 13,000 pounds. Females are slightly smaller standing seven to nine feet tall and weigh 4,500 to 7,000 pounds. African elephants are endangered in the wild. Click here to adopt this animal.

Giraffe Giraffes are very tall and, with their keen eyesight, can see great distances. As Africa’s human population grows, people and giraffes are competing for the same living spaces. Protecting giraffes means preserving the lands, the plants and the animals that giraffes depend on for survival. Click here to adopt this animal.

Polar Bear Polar bears live in an area where many animals could not survive the harsh weather. Made for living in the cold, polar bears have large bodies that hold heat. Although a polar bear looks white, the hairs are hollow (like a straw) and colorless. Polar bears actually have black skin. Click here to adopt this animal.

River Otter The river otter is well suited for life in the water. Its body is streamlined, it has webbed feet and large lungs. Over fishing, along with oil spills and other forms of pollution have decreased the fish population on which the river otter feeds. Click here to adopt this animal.

Chilean Flamingo Chilean flamingos are highly gregarious birds, living in colonies that may contain hundreds-of-thousands of individuals. The Chilean flamingo is distinguished from other flamingos by its gray legs, with their bands of pink at the joints, and its pink feet. Click here to adopt this animal.

Green Tree Frog This pretty, slender treefrog is about 1.25 to 2.5 inches long. Its legs are long. Its skin is smooth and, usually, bright green. Commonly used herbicides and pesticides are suspected of causing severe developmental disabilities in some frog species. Click here to adopt this animal.

Ball Python Ball pythons can be found in Central and Western Africa, especially in the rain forests from Ghana to Cameroon. Because of their placid temperament and ease of rearing, ball pythons are frequently sold in the pet trade, and the species has suffered serious declines in some areas. Click here to adopt this animal.

Alligator Snapping Turtle The alligator snapping turtle is the largest species of freshwater turtles in North America. Males can reach weights of 200 pounds or more. Protected as a threatened species throughout most of its range, the alligator snapping turtle has an uncertain future. Click here to adopt this animal.

Puffin Puffins belong to the family Alcidae, which includes auks, auklets, murres, murrelets and guillemots. Alcids spend most of their lives on the open sea. While the puffin population remains high, their tendency to congregate in large numbers at their nesting sites makes them especially vulnerable to threats from pollution, oil spills and over fishing. Click here to adopt this animal.

Southern White Rhino The southern white rhino has a large hump on its shoulders. The hump of muscles and ligaments support the weight of the rhino’s massive head. The southern white rhino has two horns. The front horn averages about 24 inches in length. The horns consist of masses of hair-like fibers clumped together. The horn grows throughout the life of the rhino. The southern white rhino is listed as endangered. It is hunted for its magnificent horns. Also, homes, farms, roads and other construction have destroyed much of the rhinos habitat. Click here to adopt this animal.