An article in the Seattle P-I caught my attention this week.  The article explains that animals at zoos, like the human beings that create zoos, are getting - surprise, surprise - obese.  Chubby chimpanzees, zaftig zebras, obese ocelots, beer-bellied bobcats, you name it.

 

So, the zoos announce, it’s time to put the animals on a Weight Watchers style diet, applying the same misguided principles of diet and nutrition we’re so fond of in this country to the animals in our captivity. 

In the new zoo diet, every food has points.  Points for molasses for the gorillas,  points for granola bars for the bears...  As another measure, the unhealthy treats to which the animals have become accustomed are being replaced with new, improved substitutes like sugar-free jello for the polar bears.

Sugar-free jello?  I’m scratching my head.  Why would you feed any kind of jello, sugar-based or chemically-sweetened, to a polar bear?  How is this supposed to be an improvement?  And why were we giving sugar and grains to the animals as treats in the first place?

Animals need to eat a diet close to that for which they are adapted.     From what I read, bears have evolved to eat meat and have adapted to supplement their diet with simple, easily digested plants, roots, nuts and the like.  Granola bars, sugars, grains, and, it goes without saying, chemical sweeteners are nowhere to be found in the evolutionary diet of bears.

We’re not much different, in our need for foods for which our bodies are adapted.   There are a growing number of advocates for eating a diet similar in ingredient-type to that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, that is, one more focused on meats including organ meats, dairy, saturated fats, vegetables, and berries, as opposed to the largely grain-based diet common today.  It’s an interesting idea, based on the premise that we spent far more years evolutionarily as hunter-gatherers than we did as members of an agrarian society.  There’s also quite a bit of science to back up the nutritional value of such a diet.  Personally, I figure this gives me an evolutionary explanation for my huckleberry and raspberry addictions, and validation for eating large quantities thereof.

We’re applying misguided nutritional principles in our own lives, in our calorie-obsessed, diet-industry-focused, body-image-issues-ridden modern society, and that’s already a problem.  But to apply the same principles to wild animals in our captivity is deeply troubling.  To take animals into a zoo is to acknowledge a certain level of responsibility for them.  Zoos have come a long way, from the cages and concrete cells of yesteryear to the best approximations of natural environments they can create today.  Shouldn’t the same approximation of nature be applied to animals’ diets?  And, while we’re at it, shouldn’t we take a look at what we eat and making sure we’re feeding ourselves a diet for which we’re adapted, that’s nutritionally valuable, and delicious?

I will say that this is just one article, and I’m still unclear as to whether they’re talking only about treats they give the animals occasionally and what kinds of meals the animals eat on a regular basis.  However, even if they are only talking about treats, if it’s happening enough to cause obesity in the animals, it’s clearly affecting their wellness.

No wonder that tiger in San Francisco wanted to eat someone.