PROVIDENCE –– When it comes to exotic animals, Dr. Dolittle would feel right at home in Rhode Island.

The mountain lion that bade farewell to Little Rhody on Thursday had plenty of company, according to the state Department of Environmental Management, which issues permits for non-native species.

Dromedary? Check.

Kangaroo? Aye.

Yak? Yup.

Zedonk. Verily. Wait –– zedonk? It’s a cross between a donkey and a zebra. It lives on Block Island, which probably has the state’s most comprehensive menagerie.

Scott N. Marshall, the state veterinarian, is the DEM’s point man for shepherding exotics.

For common household pets, poultry and livestock, no permit is needed. As for native wildlife, Marshall said the DEM rarely issues permits.

Then, there’s exotic wildlife. It would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, particularly after last year’s horrendous attack on a Connecticut woman by a chimpanzee.

“We would make an assessment on the general risk to humans or domestic animals,” he said. “We wouldn’t allow a very dangerous animal or an invasive species that could threaten the local ecology.”

As for the Chepachet lion, he said, “I can say point-blank that in today’s climate that permit would not have been issued. The things that sway our opinions now include the recent event in Connecticut with the chimpanzee, a large, dangerous animal that probably should not have been permitted.”

As for Rhode Island’s private exotic fauna, a woman in Little Compton owns eight yaks.

A private sanctuary in Hopkinton is home to a Patagonian cavy, a South American rodent related to guinea pigs and capybaras, and a South African crested porcupine, Marshall said. He said the same owner has 33 Quaker or monk parrots, which are invasive. A crate broke open at T.F. Green Airport in the 1980s, freeing a number of the birds. Communal, they promptly took roost around the airport and began building nests six or seven feet across, which didn’t sit well with power lines.

Elsewhere, there are a fallow deer from England, two reticulated pythons and an anaconda. The latter lives in a pet store.

But the crowning glory of Rhode Island’s wild kingdom is probably a collection of exotics adjacent to the Hotel Manisses on Block Island. The critter farm, open to the public, is run by Justin Abrams. His daughter, Rita, is the innkeeper.

The collection includes kangaroos, lemurs, llamas, camels and a zebu.

Zebu? Good Scrabble word. It’s a bovine native to Africa and Asia that has a hump and a dewlap.

Also in residence, Rita Abrams said, are a Brahma bull, pygmy goats, a four-horn sheep sometimes known as a Jacob’s sheep, and a tortoise.

The aforementioned tortoise resides regally in an insulated cage at 80 degrees, Abrams said, presumably cocking a snoot at the rest of its neighbors in the New England winter.

She said the little zoo does not allow the camels to leave their barn during the winter. Desert animals, the camels feet are not designed for cold weather, she said; they tend to slip on ice.

As for why her father began collecting a menagerie?

“It’s just his love for animals,” she said.

tmorgan@projo.com