Frequently Asked Questions

The Animal Park at the Conservators Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit independent zoological park in North Carolina that houses more than 20 species of exotic animals. This includes about 20 big cats (lions, leopards, and tigers). The Animal Park at the Conservators Center supports wildlife conservation through education and raising public awareness of rare and endangered species.

The Animal Park at the Conservators Center believes in educating people, caring for animals, and advocating for species. The Park’s animal residents serve as ambassadors for their wild counterparts: You are more likely to become invested in these species after you meet them and learn about their inherent value. Looking a tiger in the eye, hearing lions call to one another, howling with wolves, and meeting a binturong for the first time will forever change your perspective. You protect what you know.

The Animal Park was founded in 1999 and moved to its current location in Caswell County, NC, in 2001. We opened to the public for tours in 2007 as a means to fulfill our educational mission, and as a way to fund continuing improvements for the high-quality care we provide our residents. Guests visiting for educational programming are a critical source of support for our animal population.

The Animal Park at the Conservators Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The income we receive from educational programming, Lifetime Adoption, partnerships with local businesses, donations, and occasional grants is critical to being able to provide a high quality of care for our animal residents.

No. We respect the work performed by the AZA and believe they do an admirable job of facilitating the mission and work of their institutions. They also work to manage the very limited gene pools of species under their Species Survival Plans® (SSPs). We work with facilities around the world to help manage a few of the thousands of species not included in the AZA’s breeding program, so while we are not officially affiliated with the AZA, we consider our work to be complementary, as we are helping to manage populations not currently in their purview.

Like any industry, the community of exotic animal owners is highly interconnected, so we exchange animals with AZA institutions, we have staff who are members, and members of our leadership team attend conferences and are members of AZA-sponsored working groups.

AZA accreditation requires that many resources be allocated toward areas beyond just those that impact the safety of the public and the welfare of the animals. While the physical appearance of a facility is important—and the visitor experience is shaped by that appearance in many ways—facilities with more-limited income must carefully choose how to allocate their resources. Most smaller zoos opt for simpler landscaping and basic signs and graphics, and often offer equally effective exhibits that do not showcase multi-million-dollar rock backdrops and water features.

An accrediting organization is not the same as a regulatory agency. Accreditation from an organization requires that a facility meet certain standards, usually across several areas of the business. The goal is generally to ensure the accredited business is engaged in standards of practices intended to provide for the sustainability and positive public perception of the business. Some accrediting organizations focus solely on encouraging best practices in public safety and animal welfare; others seek to ensure a certain level of organizational ethics, public appearance, and positive experience for visitors; and still others include a thorough assessment of the business model and financial concerns.

No matter what accreditation we may seek, the focus for us will always be on developing our business model to create a sustainable business, support best husbandry practices, and make smart population management decisions based on the needs of our facility and the species under discussion. Until we choose to apply for any accreditation, we will continue to meet (and often exceed) the standards put in place by the USDA for all facilities open to the public that house exotic animals, regardless of accreditation.

The Animal Park was founded by two avid wildlife specialists, Mindy Stinner and Douglas Evans. Mindy and Doug have decades of experience with carnivore management and founded the Animal Park at the Conservators Center together in 1999.

Our animals come to us from a variety of situations. Many were very loved and well cared for at their previous homes but simply needed a different living situation. Some were retired to us from other reputable zoological programs. A handful of our smaller cats were owned by individuals who entrusted us with their care when their circumstances changed. Additionally, some of our much older animal residents came to us from dire negligent circumstances, or as an alternative to euthanasia. As much as we are proud that we have, in the past, served as a home of last resort for animals that required emergency placement, we are so grateful that the need for emergency placement has greatly diminished in recent years.

The Animal Park at the Conservators Center has a small staff of about 15 full-time and part-time employees. We depend heavily on the work of our dedicated volunteer corps who help provide for our animals by working in all departments of the organization.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we are an incorporated entity that maintains ownership of our property and our animal residents. We receive no public (taxpayer) funding for operational expenses, and are—legally speaking—the private owners of the animals in our care. Even if an organization does receive a portion of its income through taxpayer support, it is still considered a private owner if it maintains ownership of its animals, rather than the government entity that is providing the funding.

There are many areas where complex arrangements like public-private zoo partnerships and loan or lease arrangements (very common and accepted practices across the entire scope of the managed wildlife community) with specific animals for breeding, education, companionship, etc. complicate the matter of which animals are owned “privately” and which are owned “publicly.” In these types of instances, careful analysis of the nature of the entity owning the animal and the composition of an entire animal collection would be required to ascertain the type of ownership under which each animal falls.

The vast majority of our animals did not begin their lives in the wild but are many generations removed from their species’ wild habitats, so they would not be equipped to survive on their own. Our few residents that did once live in the wild were first brought into human care by wildlife rehabilitators or other third parties due to being orphaned, injured, or otherwise unable to survive without help.

The bigger picture is that unfortunately, “the wild” is disappearing with increasing speed. Humans have eliminated much of the natural habitat that these species once called home by reallocating the land for farming, ranching, and other activities, and there have been precious few successful wildlife reintroduction programs. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that humans can, we hope, make the wild a safe place for these species again. If that reality comes to pass, the Animal Park at the Conservators Center will be one participant in what will hopefully be a large, collaborative network of organizations supporting strong, healthy managed genetics.

In the meantime, our residents at the Park serve as ambassadors for their wild counterparts, educating the public about the challenges these species face and what we can do to help, and ensuring future generations of humans have the opportunity to learn from these animals.