Word: wildes
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...animals living in the wild, nature plays for keeps. A life spent battling predators, famine, disease and the elements may be an independent one, but it can also be a very short one. That, at least, is the case zoos and wildlife parks often make when they contend that protective captivity may be a boon for many animals, particularly species that are endangered or threatened. But when it comes to at least one big and beloved creature, a new study suggests that a zoo might be the least safe place in the world...
...findings reported in the new paper, it's the life-span numbers that are the most shocking. Among African elephants, zoo-born females live a median of 16.9 years in zoos, while those in the wild make it to a wizened 56. Asian elephants, the more endangered of the two species, live 18.9 years in captivity and 41.7 in the wild. A few superannuated wild elephants have actually reached their 70s, and in Kenya, from 30% to 50% of the noncaptive population hits at least 50. "So far," says Mason, one of the authors of the new study, published...
Worse, what's killing the elephants is often ills they would never encounter in the wild. Obesity, for one: cage any healthy animal, feed it well and forbid it to move around too much, and it's likely to get fat. Cardiovascular disease is commonly reported among elephants, which, as in humans, can be a direct result of too many calories and too little exercise. What's more, baby elephants born in captivity are noticeably chubbier from the start than those born in the wild. That may be a result of the mothers weighing too much, but whatever the reason...
Herpes, improbably, is killing elephants too - at least the Asian species. Wild African elephants are often infected with a form of herpes virus that causes them little illness or discomfort, but when the two species were brought together in zoos, the virus jumped to the Asians and mutated into a lethal form. "Zoos have accidentally created this," says Mason. "It's killing Asian elephant adults, and it's a leading cause of the species' infant mortality." (See pictures of Asian elephants...
Another reason the babies are dying is, tragically, the mothers. Infanticide is almost unheard of among wild elephants. Mothers invest two years in their pregnancies, they live in stable matriarchal groups, and females collectively care for the young. In captivity, mothers are often held in relative solitude, undergo stressful and painful births, and then simply kill the source of all that suffering. Some mothers, Mason says, may even turn to infanticide because they just don't know what the small, squirmy creature that suddenly appeared in front of them is. "Many females in zoos have never seen a calf...