Senior Citizens of the Zoo

March 30, 2008 — -- They are a group of senior citizens unlike any you're likely to find at a typical retirement home. But that's because their retirement community is at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo.

First, there's May, a fennec fox who is losing her hair at the ripe old age of 11. Virginia, an 18-year-old grey seal, is going blind from glaucoma. And Marta, the black leopard, is battling severe arthritis at her advanced age of 18 years.

"Animals are very similar to humans," said Robin Barbiers, vice president of the zoo. "As they age, the animals face the same conditions that humans do."

Animals often live much longer in captivity than they do in the wild, which means zoos increasingly deal with geriatric animals who need the kind of care that is often associated with geriatric humans.

For example, May the fox gets animal Rogaine with her meals, while JoJo, a male silverback gorilla, weighing in at more than 500 pounds, takes aerobics classes to keep in shape. But only when he feels like it.

"You can't make a 530-pound gorilla do anything he doesn't want to do, so the keepers will ask JoJo to come and participate," said Sue Marguilis, the zoo's primate curator.

The trainers reward JoJo for his hard work with food — but only leafy veggies — no junk here. And like every senior citizen, JoJo sometimes gets winded.

"I notice he sometimes has to go into the corner and catch his breath," said Dominic Calderisis, one of JoJo's trainers.

At 28, JoJo would already be considered old in the wild. In captivity, he could live into his fifties.

Taking It Easy?

Virginia, the seal, faces a problem common among human seniors: loss of eyesight. Her glaucoma makes her even more dependent on her trainers for help — help she would not get in the wild.

But some say the easier lives these animals have in captivity may not be a good thing, even if it means they may live longer.

"The stimulation that animals get in the wild, the struggle for day-to-day existence, keeps them fit, keeps them strong," said Wayne Pacelle, CEO and president of the Humane Society of the United States. "In a zoo setting you don't have those kinds of pressures."

For example, elephants in the wild may roam 30 or 40 miles in a single day, which is something no zoo can recreate. For this reason, the Humane Society argues, some animals, such as elephants and polar bears, should never live in zoos.

"One of the problems with some zoos is that they try to be the ark that has all of the animals," Pacelle said. "The public really doesn't need to see every single animal, every major mammal at the zoo."

'From Birth Until Death'

Zoos may not be able to recreate the wild, but they can provide excellent medical care for their aging populations.

"We care for our animals from birth until death," Barbiers said. "Some of our animals get special diets to meet their medical needs. Some of the animals have ramps to help them get up to their high ledges because of their arthritis."

But taking care of the zoo's seniors is not always easy.

"Treating animals is different from treating humans," Barbiers said. "You can't ask an animal to hold out its arm and draw blood."