KANSAS CITY • Don’t tell Dumbo, but he’s got too much junk in his trunk. That spherical silhouette, it turns out, isn’t so healthy — even for elephants. Zookeepers have long suspected it. And now they have some science to back it up. America’s zoo elephants have gotten fat. “Look at what percentage of the U.S. population is currently obese. Are we surprised that we’re feeding our elephants a little too well?” said Anne Baker, former director of the Toledo Zoo. “We’re feeding ourselves a little too well.” This fall, zoo researchers from across the country are wrapping up the biggest study of zoo elephant health in the nation’s history. And they’ve uncovered a range of major findings, from the...
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