Animals
Mill Mountain Zoo features many types of animals.
Mammals
Mammals include humans and all other animals that are warm-blooded vertebrates (vertebrates have backbones) with hair. They feed their young with milk and have a more well-developed brain than other types of animals.
Black bears are North America's most familiar and common bears. They typically live in forests and are excellent tree climbers, but are also found in mountains and swamps. Despite their name, black bears can be blue-gray or blue-black, brown, cinnamon, or even (very rarely) white.
Less than 1k in North America, less than 5k world.
Farmers interested in larger breeds, so they aren’t bred.
The American Guinea Hog is a rare breed with a black coat, sturdy body, curly tail and upright ears.
The Guinea hog has an especially flexible snout, which is helpful when foraging for food.
Asian small-clawed otters have over a dozen different vocalizations, each with its own specific meaning.
Native to South and Southeast Asia
Eurasian Lynx are medium size cats that come in variety of colors and patterns. Coat color can vary with the season and locality. They have long legs and large, snowshoe-like paws. Both their short tail and ear tufts are tipped with black fur. Weights can range from 10 to 20kg for females and 18 to 40 kg for males.
Lynx are typically crepuscular, active at dawn and dusk, or nocturnal. They will use dense thickets, trees, and rocky outcroppings to rest during the day.
Lynx are solitary except for during the breeding season. During the breeding season lynx make a wide variety of vocalizations. Vocalizations include, mews, yowls, hisses, and purrs.
The longest quills grow on the shoulders and can get up to 20 inches long.
Their flat forehead and low ears allow them to peek over bushes and rocks without exposing themselves to their prey.
Also known as the manul
Instead of closing to a slit like other small cats, Pallas cat pupils close to form a small circle.
Pallas cats' long, dense fur protects them from frostbite and the cold temperatures they can encounter in the rocky deserts and the barren mountainous regions of Iran, southern Asia and western China.
They have black fur around their eyes, they have a dense gray coat, and their tails are ringed with black and gray stripes. The males are larger than the females and they can weigh up to 25 pounds.
Though Though fairly common red foxes are shy, secretive, nocturnal and cunning which makes them difficult to observe.
Red foxes use a variety of vocalizations to communicate among themselves.
50% decline in population over past 20 years
2,500 left in wild
Habitat loss/fragmentation, illegal trade, exploitation of forest resources, disease, climate change
Declared extinct in the wild in the 1980s
Human-based mortality (gunshots/vehicle collisions) cause for status
False reputation of being aggressive and sly
Actually skittish and shy, not a threat to humans
Fewer than 20 in the wild and about 250 under human care
The tufted deer gets its name from the tuft of hair seen on the top of its head. In captivity, tufted deer can live for up to 15 years. There are estimated to be about 10,000 tufted deer in China. The tufted deer is a crepuscular animal, most active at dawn and dusk. When fleeing the tufted deer holds its tail up revealing the white underside, much like the white-tailed deer. The tail flops down with ever cat-like bounce, making the deer's progress difficult to follow. Tufted deer are territorial, and rarely leave their home range, which is criss-crossed by a network of trails. Both sexes will bark when alarmed.
Reptiles
Reptiles are cold-blooded vertebrates. (Vertebrates have backbones.) They have dry skin covered with scales or bony plates and usually lay soft-shelled eggs.
The shells and skin are a brownish or yellowish in color, perfect for blending into a desert habitat. The head and limbs are the same color as the shell and are protected with thick scales. There are one or more enlarged, conical spurs (or tubercles) on the upper hind limbs. African spurred tortoises will dig burrows in order to conserve moisture. The burrows may reach up to 10 feet below ground. Their skin is thickened and aids in the prevention of water loss. Much of the water they need to survive is extracted from the succulent vegetation that they feed on.
The red-eared slider is native to the Southern United States and northern Mexico, but has become established in other places because of pet releases, and has become invasive in many areas where it outcompetes native species.
Endangered due to habitat loss/fragmentation, road mortality, agricultural machinery mortality, predators, poaching, invasive plants, degraded water quality, emerging diseases.
Grow to between 5.5 and 7.9 inches in straight carapace length.
Amphibians
Amphibians are cold-blooded vertebrates (vertebrates have backbones) that don’t have scales. They live part of their lives in water and part on land.
This amphibian is normally found in very humid conditions in tropical rain forests, close to fresh water. It is often found on flat rocks, trees, plants (notably bromeliads), and the leaf litter of the forest floor. During the dry season, specimens are known to congregate in damper places, such as under rocks or fallen tree trunks.
Birds
Birds are warm-blooded vertebrates (vertebrates have backbones) and are the only animals with feathers. Although all birds have wings, a few species can't fly.
Adult Bald eagles have dark brown feathers covering their body. The feathers on the head and tail are white. Juveniles have brown feathers. The female are larger and can weigh 14 pounds and have a wingspan of 6 feet. They mate for life. Nests can reach 10 feet and weigh half a ton.
They are up to 24 cm long with a green body and yellowish bill and iris. They males have more colors while the females have entirely green plumages.
They are small birds with relatively large heads. They have downward curved beaks with short legs. This bird has a cream-colored head and chest, with pale-blue bellies and dark green wings.
They spend most of their time in fields. They have a white body with yellow plumes.
The male and females are different. The males are blue with a red crest on their head and the females are green with no crest. The spend most of their time foraging and on the ground. They can fly fast but not for a long time.
Their elegantly dappled plumages offers excellent camouflage so they are hard to spot. They forage in groups, scurrying between cover or bursting into flight if alarmed.
These birds have distinct coloration with a blue and black body. Their heads are black with a white speckled crown and orange skin surrounding the eyes. The bright blue tails are one of the longest in the corvid (crow) family and have a diamond shape when extended in flight.
The most abundant of the world's cranes. They mate for life. Their sound is loud, rolling, and trumpeting.
They are 18 to 19 cm long. They have a long narrow bill, robust bodies, strong feet and a distinctive plumage pattern. They have black heads, blue-green body, and orange stomach. They also have a long and loud song.
They are 17-19cm long. This bird has white cheeks, dull grey-brown bodies, black head, yellow vent, and a white tail top.
They are a medium sized perching duck. The males are more elaborate with multicolored iridescent plumage and red eyes, with a distinctive white flare down the neck. The females are less elaborate.
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