Obesity in Zoo Animals

RatioTile

RatioTile

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
What animals are especially prone to obesity in captivity? I’ve noticed tree frogs are often overfed, as are sea turtles and sand tiger sharks. It seems like some animals people stereotype as fat, so that thinner specimens that are actually healthy get accused of being underfed.
 
A lot of reptiles in general, especially snakes, are prone to obesity. Big cats and primates are also contenders, and heart disease (probably linked to obesity, correct me if I'm wrong) is a huge problem with great apes in captivity.
 
RatioTile said:
What animals are especially prone to obesity in captivity? I’ve noticed tree frogs are often overfed, as are sea turtles and sand tiger sharks. It seems like some animals people stereotype as fat, so that thinner specimens that are actually healthy get accused of being underfed.
Click to expand...

Bears , big cats and primates come to mind as being especially prone to obesity in captive environments.

Also just a personal observation but some individuals of canid species like gray wolves and bushdogs I've also noticed tend to put on excess weight quickly.
 
Last edited:
The worst example I"ve seen sofar was a Brown bear at the now closed Lübeck Zoo - Germany. It was kept in a very small cage ( maybe 25 squar-meter ) and at that time ( around the 1990s ) it still was allowed in many zoos to feed the animals and Lübeck wasn't an exeption :( !
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Bears , big cats and primates come to mind as being especially prone to obesity in captive environments.

Also just a personal observation but some individuals of canid species like gray wolves and bushdogs I've also noticed tend to put on excess weight quickly.
Click to expand...

The public is so used to seeing overweight big cats in zoos, that when they see animals in good condition they often complain that the animals are 'starved and emaciated'.
Do some zoos deliberately overfeed to avoid this? - means the fences can be lower too...:rolleyes:

With lemurs it is often not always just diet related, as some individuals are prone and others are not, and once the (mammary) tissue is distended it usually cannot resume its original shape.
 
Andrew Swales said:
The public is so used to seeing overweight big cats in zoos, that when they see animals in good condition they often complain that the animals are 'starved and emaciated'.
Do some zoos deliberately overfeed to avoid this? - means the fences can be lower too...:rolleyes:

With lemurs it is often not always just diet related, as some individuals are prone and others are not, and once the (mammary) tissue is distended it usually cannot resume its original shape.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree with what you've said here and it is a shame that the public (and of course some of the animal rights activists who encourage such misinformation and attitudes) do not realise this.

I know that some zoos in Europe practice feeding every couple of days rather than on a daily basis to replicate conditions that these cats would experience in the wild. In Latin American zoos the norm is unfortunately largely still to feed big cats daily.

I'm not too sure about lemurs as haven't worked with them but I've seen some very ugly cases of both old world and new world monkey species that were shockingly obese and suffering the health consequences of this (these were pretty much all animals that had been rescued as illegal pets so not really from zoo conditions though).
 
Speaking of pets, the typical view of a "healthy" dog or cat to an average person is actually pretty overweight, or even obese, so I'm not surprised that people will often see a normally-weighted zoo animal as malnourished.

Awhile back at the zoo once, I overheard someone saying that one of the polar bears seemed "emaciated" (it was around summertime, so the bears seemed a bit more leaner than their usual winter pelage)
 
I have definitely seen some overweight goats in zoos, in an exhibit where visitors can feed them. There is actually a sign at the exhibit explaining that no, the goats are not pregnant and shows the four-stomach system they have. There are also a lot of species in which the healthy weight is not necessarily known. The one species I have run into this with is silver fox rabbits. Since they are a meat breed, they were bred to get fat quickly and then be slaughtered. I worked with one that was an incredible animal ambassador for my local zoo, and weighed around 15 pounds before losing a little weight since we though it might have been overweight. I am sure there are also quite a few more exotic species that the same is true for.
 
Opossums and non flighted birds
 
Large monitors such as Lace Monitors are prone to obesity, although most zoos do feed them proper amounts, in the pet trade though, I have seen lace monitors with the width of an A3 piece of paper.

Another animal worth mentioning is Australian Green Tree Frogs (litoria caecerula), they will eat and eat and eat and eat, especially when there are females around, I'm talking over 10 medium sized crickets a day, one year ago the Green Tree Frog at school (in the science rooms) named Forrest was probably a quarter of the size he is right now.
 
Snakes, particularly those that are naturally somewhat sedentary, such as pythons, vipers, and rattlesnakes. Smaller, more active species usually do not suffer from obesity. Given in many cases snakes do not get a whole lot of space, and hence little exercise, they can be subject to gaining weight. As it is a large python or boa can go quite a long time between meals and still be healthy, and it is not uncommon for some individuals to occasionally refuse food for no apparent reason. They may refuse for an attempt or two, then resume feeding again. Other individuals can be quite greedy however, and if fed til sated on a continual basis will rapidly become obese.
 
Don't forget that seal at the Osaka Aquarium that's famous for being ridiculously fat. I think it's name is Yuki. The problem seems that it's exhibit is very small and it's probably fed far too much.
 
Orangutans- particularly the females. While both Bornean and Sumatran are prone to this, Borneans are more likely to become obese as they are considerably less active, at least in captivity, than their Sumatran counterparts. One problem is the unwillingness to climb or search for food as it is normally provided on the ground and Orangutans are far too intelligent to mobilise for no good reason.
 
Elephants and rhinos in zoos used to be overweight, about one step up the 1-5 scale on average. This is now worked upon, among others to avoid foot issues.

Carnivores in zoos are usually slightly overweight. The normal wild carnivore to people appears lean or starving. Most people have here a false benchmark, because most photos of carnivores show other overweight zoo animals. I joke that a wild wolf has shape like a MMA fighter, and a zoo wolf like a video game player.

One particular zoo is Mexico zoo, where many animals are obese.
 
Jurek7 said:
Elephants and rhinos in zoos used to be overweight, about one step up the 1-5 scale on average. This is now worked upon, among others to avoid foot issues.

Carnivores in zoos are usually slightly overweight. The normal wild carnivore to people appears lean or starving. Most people have here a false benchmark, because most photos of carnivores show other overweight zoo animals. I joke that a wild wolf has shape like a MMA fighter, and a zoo wolf like a video game player.

One particular zoo is Mexico zoo, where many animals are obese.
Click to expand...

Happens with domestic dogs as well. People think seeing the ribs of a carnivore is bad. I have a lab and she was once up to 75 lbs. People all said she was healthy weight, but the vet thought she was overweight. So I put her on a diet and now she is down to 59 lbs. And now random people comment about how skinny she is :rolleyes:
 
I visited a bird show once, and was surprised how much bigger are birds raised in aviaries are compared to the wild ones. Cage canaries are bigger than house sparrows, cage bullfinches are close to the size of wild European blackbirds... They reminded me of these monstrously big and fat people one see in McDonald's in America.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top