Elephant Obesity Might Cause Them To Go Extinct From U.S. Zoos

Kari Morfield carries out extensive research into the health and well-being of zoo animals. Her latest research has been focused on elephant obesity and the potential threat it poses to elephant populations in U.S. zoos. It has also led to a rather large collection of photographs featuring elephant behinds.

Morfield is an animal endocrinologist at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo’s Wildlife Conservation Research Center. Her findings have shown that many elephants in U.S. zoos aren’t just larger than usual but actually suffering from obesity. As with humans, being overweight comes with a number of health problems which include cardiac disease, arthritis and infertility.

The implications are more serious than most people think as told to the Lincoln Journal Star:

“In the next 50 years, the captive population will not be viable and will be extinct. In 50 years, there will be no more elephants in zoos.”

She goes on to add:

“The last thing they want to do in zoos is take animals from the wild to stock zoos. We have to take care of the ones we have. We want the population to be self-sustaining.”

Measuring the level of obesity present in elephants isn’t an easy task if done using tape measures and scales. That’s why Morfield has been examining pictures of elephants behinds to put together a scale for assessing elephant obesity. Fatter elephants wear excess weight mostly in their hindquarters and can be recorded using a scale (from 1 to 5) that describes the normalcy of their body mass.

In the wild, elephants average 2 on the scale; in the U.S. forty percent are 5’s.

The most pressing issue is infertility, with 50% elephants measuring a 4 on the scale being unable to reproduce. 3s and 2s aren’t affected but they make up a small proportion of the captive population.

Potential solutions include forcing elephants to hunt and forage for their food in captivity, as opposed to being given it without a challenge. Lower quality hay and less calorific foods would also help to alleviate elephant obesity.

Do you think you could spot elephant obesity?

Image: qmnonic / Flickr