If I could take any animal home from the zoo ....

.... I would probably want to a primate. My first instinct is to say a chimpanzee, but then I remember all the horror stories with chimp aggression, including the famous story where that lady got her face ripped off and eaten by a chimp.I'm not sure I'm dominate enough to stay dominate with a chimp, but they sure are cute.

And they are so remarkably intelligent. I would love to have a chimpanzee in order to study its' use of language. I would love to have a conversation with one, figure out what it thinks, what it feels. I've read several different books about chimpanzees and the development of language. It is something that I would love to experience for myself. Maybe even learn something new. The books that I've read have never been very definitive about whether or not chimpanzees are self aware or if they have abstract thoughts. Chimps are so remarkably close to humans on a genetic scale that I can't help but find them absolutely fascinating.

I would highly recommend reading the following .....

The Song of the Ape : Understanding the Language of Chimpanzees by Andrew Halloran.
The Language Instinct : How the Mind Creates Language by Steven Pinker

Half-Brother by Kenneth Oppal

The Only and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

That being said though, they are by far more aggressive and I'm not I would be capable of handling that.

So I'll settle for a nice shy gorilla