As Thin as an Elephant?

Out in Fresno, California, zookeepers are touting the newly svelte physiques of their elephants, Shaunzi and Kara. Together the pair have lost a ton (that's 2, 175 pounds) of weight!

Shaunzi now tips the scales at 9,135 lbs. (down from 10,245) and Kara is a lithesome 8,735 (down from 9,800). So how did they do it? The same way we do: by cutting calories and increasing exercise.

Zookeepers cut down their food intake and began hiding some of their food in their enclosures so they had to exercise to find them, much as they would if they were in the wild. The extra scavenging has had the added benefit of making the elephants more spry. They were also allowed to wander in their enclosures at night instead of being confined to their stalls, a move that you know engendered contentment as well as weight loss.

It all started when the zookeepers at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo actually purchased an elephant scale so they could weigh the pachyderms on a regular basis. Before that, they were relying on episodic weigh ins with a truck scale. When they realized how heavy the elephants really were, they kicked their "Biggest Loser" program into high gear.

Now they are adopting the plan for other animals in the zoo. All of which is a sea change from the former method of keeping animals in captivity. According to Harry Peachey, curator of mainland Asia animals at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, in the "old days," "If you had an 800 pound gorilla in your collection you would brag about it. Now you would be embarrassed to say that in front of your peers."

It turns out that thinner animals are healthier, happier animals. "The less weight that older people carry around, the healthier they usually are, and that goes for elephants too," said Harold Mountain, Fresno Chaffee Zoo assistant animal curator.