Foundation Plans To Open A "Fat Farm" For Elephants In California

Monday, January 27, 2014 - 17:01 in Biology & Nature

Who you callin' fat? An African elephant at the San Diego Zoo. Brett Baker / YouTube African elephants are the world's largest land animals. But some of them are too large. A recent study, for example, found that about 75 percent of elephants in American zoos are overweight.  Plans are in the works to open a "fat farm" for overweight African elephants, where they'd be fed fiber-rich plants and allowed room to move around and exercise as they would in their natural habitat, the Wall Street Journal reports. It won't be too big, though; the proposed "semi-wild" herd would comprise three to five animals at first, and hopefully grow to a group of 12 to 15 members over a 20-year span. The preserve would be located in Tehama County, in Northern California, and funded by a foundation set...

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