Who doesn’t love hanging out with orangutans, peering at seahorses and watching lemurs bask in the sunshine? Zoos and aquariums draw crowds with their charming residents and magical way of entertaining all ages. Many also play an important role in conservation, too, through research, funding and breeding programmes. From prancing wolves to preening otters, these are the best places around the US to get up-close to some of the world’s most fascinating, and frequently funny, creatures.

A short walk from New Orleans’ infamous Bourbon Street, on the banks of the broad, brown Mississippi, is an attraction that’s equally wild, albeit in a very different way. The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas is an underwater experience where visitors can peek at African penguins and fluffy sea otters.

Immersive attractions include the Great Maya Reef walk-through tunnel, where lionfish and moray eels lurk behind glass, and the Gulf of Mexico exhibit with rays and sharks. The aquarium is also known for its sea turtle rescue programme – the reptiles can often be spotted here, as a final stop before being released into the ocean.

This zoological garden is lauded for its conservation work and sensitively recreated habitats, with many of the residents well-suited to the tropical climate. There are Malayan sun bears, clouded leopards, Komodo dragons and Asian elephants. It also focuses on wildlife closer to home, with an exhibit on the Everglades.

A monorail makes it easier to cover all four habitats (the open-air zoo is a vast 750 acres) and those wanting to get closer to the animals can hand-feed Indian rhinos, giraffes, camels or giant tortoises.

Macaques, snow leopards, Caribbean flamingos, sloths and baby giraffes are among the delightful residents at the nonprofit Omaha Zoo, the centrepiece of which is an enormous desert dome. Visitors can stroll past sand dunes and desert flora while spotting bobcats, bush babies and aardvarks. It also has a stellar reputation for its conservation efforts and breeding programmes.

More unusual creatures include red-eyed crocodile skinks, from the tropical rainforest of New Guinea, giant elephant shrews and Salt Creek tiger beetles, which are critically endangered. The zoo breeds the beetles in a lab, raising the larvae to release back into their natural habitat.

This sprawling zoo, in the US capital, was founded in 1886 by a Smithsonian employee concerned about the near-extinction of bison in the US. Conservation, research and learning remain the core pillars of the free-to-visit facility, where experts gather data that’s used to help aide the recovery of threatened species and habitats. The zoo is home to everything from black-and-white ruffed lemurs to rattlesnakes. 

 

Recent success stories include the breeding of scimitar-horned onyx and black-footed ferrets, species that were extinct in the wild. Visitor highlights include red and giant pandas, elephants, lemurs and cheetahs. The park also hosts regular sleepovers, where you can drift off to the roars and howls.

Its giant panda exhibit was immortalised in the closing scenes of comedy hit movie Anchorman, with rival news stations violently vying to get the first glimpse of a newborn cub. It was inspired by (a somewhat less hysterical) reality: the first surviving panda cub born outside China was right here in August 1999, and Hua Mei went on to have 10 babies of her own back in the mother country.

San Diego Zoo, which has won numerous awards, also draws impressive crowds to see the smaller red pandas, which are a focus of the zoo’s conservation efforts in their Himalayan habitat. The sloths, orangutans, giraffes and burrowing owls are compelling, too, and you can watch them from anywhere in the world via a series of cams.

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This relatively small nonprofit makes the most of its chilly northern location to provide ideal conditions for snow leopards, reindeer, Canadian lynx and muskox, a hoofed species that has survived from the Ice Age. It’s also a rescue facility for orphaned or injured polar bear cubs and an official first responder in emergencies related to the threatened mammals.

Other intriguing Alaska Zoo residents include curved-horned Dall sheep and long-faced mountain goats, both with snow white coats. Because it’s less crowded than many zoos, it’s easier to get involved with hands-on experiences, from helping to prepare dinner for wolves to feeding fruit to prickly porcupines.

This desert-themed zoo has some fascinating creatures of the sort you perhaps didn’t know existed. There are bat-eared foxes, whose ears dwarf their faces, hairy black belly sheep, and chuckwalla lizards, which dive between rocks when threatened, inflating their bodies so they become immovably wedged.

The Living Desert Zoo, in the Coachella Valley and close to Palm Springs, focuses much of its conservation efforts on small desert carnivores like tiny, chihuahua-like fennec foxes and sand cats, categorised as threatened due to habitat loss. You can also see African wild dogs or painted wolves (as seen on David Attenborough’s Dynasties) and peek at rare, silvery desert pupfish.

This indoor aquarium was the largest of its kind when it opened in 1930 and it’s still pretty impressive. Exhibits showcasing the underwater life of the Amazon, Caribbean and (closer to home) Great Lakes are housed in and around the main neoclassical marble building. Successful breeding programmes include zebra sharks, with around 90 pups born at the aquarium so far.

Although the aquatic exhibits are indoors, the aquarium runs several programmes in the open-air, too. Visitors can join a guided paddle on the Chicago River to view and learn about the waterway’s ecosystem and how Shedd Aquarium is helping to develop new floating habitats.

This lesser-known (or lesser-spotted) zoo punches well above its weight when it comes to campaigning and conservation. Gladys Porter Zoo has won recognition particularly for its Kemp’s Ridley Turtle Project, working with agencies in the US and Mexico to monitor the endangered reptiles. It's also home to a pair of rare rhino hornbills.

Other research projects focus on rhinos, American ocelots and Galapágos tortoises. The zoo also helps to rehabilitate local wildlife, caring for injured, ill and orphaned animals with the hope of releasing them back into the wild.

Southern sea otters are the undoubted stars of this waterfront aquarium next to Monterey’s Cannery Row, a couple of hours’ south of San Francisco. And so they should be. They have the densest fur of any animal (a million hairs per square inch) and use tools such as stones to crack open shellfish.

Visitors to this respected aquarium can discover more about these fascinating creatures, alongside seahorses, giant Pacific octopuses and jellyfish. Kids will especially love the chance to dive into a tide pool, getting close-up views of starfish and coral.

This is the king of the urban jungle. One of the world’s most famous zoos, Bronx Zoo has earned a reputation for providing its residents with excellent care and meticulously reproduced habitats, from the densely green Congo Gorilla Forest, home to the eponymous apes alongside red river hogs, okapi and mandrills, to the Himalayan Highlands where you can see snow leopards. 

There are plenty of smaller animals too: don't miss Madagascar with its captivatingly odd lemurs and the Mouse House where you can discover secrets of these tiny rodents. The zoo, a member of the Wildlife Conservation Society, has bred and released to the wild endangered Tanzania’s Kihansi spray toads and helped to reintroduce American bison to the western plains. Look out for fluffy bison calves grazing alongside the resident herd.

Painting with rhinos is just one of the unusual attractions at this Midwest zoo. And we’re not talking sitting with a paintbrush and pad outside the animals’ enclosures, either. For this behind-the-scenes art ‘class’, small groups take animal-friendly paints and canvases and create masterpieces in collaboration with dolphins, penguins and other creative creatures.

It has conventional zoo attractions, too, with cleverly recreated desert, plain and forest habitats. Indianapolis Zoo is also home to an acclaimed orangutan centre, designed to be physically, intellectually and socially stimulating for the incredible apes, and to aide vital research into a critically endangered species.

Mesmerising jellyfish, jewel-coloured corals, two-toed sloths and bright-beaked Atlantic puffins – what more is there? Baltimore’s nonprofit National Aquarium is consistently ranked among the best in the country thanks to its enchanting animals and beautifully presented exhibits. And it has an equally impressive conservation record, rescuing and rehabilitating sea turtles and marine mammals including seals.

The aquarium is currently raising funds and looking for suitable site for a dolphin sanctuary, with plans to move its pod of dolphins to a natural environment where they can thrive and be given the care they need.

You don’t need any dollars to visit this wonderful zoo, which has been named one of America’s top free attractions. And its beautifully created habitats are as impressive as anything you’ll find elsewhere, from the boulders of Red Rocks, roamed by lions and tigers, to the savannah and wetlands of River’s Edge.

The zoo has won accolades for its breeding programmes, from American burying beetles to Puerto Rican crested toads, and has established two institutes focused on sustainability and protecting habitats including the waterways of the Missouri Ozarks.

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Zoo Tampa has received awards for its work with manatees or ‘sea cows’, which munch on seagrass in the warm springs and coastal waters around Florida’s coast. Its care centre for sick and injured manatees has treatment pools and an area where visitors can observe the intriguing, gentle giants.

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The nonprofit zoo has been recognised by the state of Florida as a centre for conservation and biodiversity, thanks to this and other work. There are also some stellar visitor experiences, from feeding Indian rhinos to going behind-the-scenes to meet African elephants.

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Woodland Park Zoo has won a raft of awards, and its stats are impressive. It works with partners around the world to protect millions of acres of habitat, has brought nearly-extinct Washington turtles back from the brink with a 500% population increase, and has an ongoing project monitoring river otters. Pictured is a snow leopard and her cub. 

Because this is Seattle, the zoo hosts a series of outdoor concerts each summer – ZooTunes gigs are held in the North Meadow, far enough from the enclosures so as not to disturb the animals, and proceeds go towards conservation efforts and care. There’s a lot to see here, from red pandas to lemurs, but try to make time for the Butterfly Garden, where you can stroll among thousands of fluttering beauties.

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