Aging Animals

Call it luck, call it a curse, but whatever humans are up to in this world, you can bet we'll drag the animal kingdom along with us. (For example, 57 percent of American pets are overweight or obese.) When the U.S. government announced earlier this month that the U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years (still behind 30 other countries), it was yet another mirror to the lives of our animal friends. The Golden Years have arrived at America's zoos which means unchartered waters for zookeepers.

Recent media coverage has taken a look at the unique challenge that comes with caring for wild animal senior citizens. Mother Nature, in her efficient, business-like way, didn't really include Social Security in her Grand Plan for wilderness/jungle life. Everybody gets their allotted time on Earth and then, poof! One day, you're somebody's lunch. Somebody younger, with more teeth, I'm sure.

No AARP card for Phoenix, a Sumatran tiger living at the Jackson Zoo in Mississippi. Phoenix is 18 years old, the approximate equivalent of a 110-year-old human: a Sumatran tiger’s life expectancy in the wild is 15 years old. (Records show that the median age of Siberian tigers living in zoos in 1970-1990 was a little over 11 years old; the median age of those tigers has now topped 15 years old.) While old age has made Phoenix less active and has diminished his eyesight, the zoo vets observe him closely and keep a lookout for signs of pain or dementia.

No spiffy dentures for Rollie, a 17-year-old Emperor Tamarin (monkey) who started life with 32 teeth and is now down to six. With his bushy white grandpa moustache, Rollie - who lives at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo - has looked old for years but his species life span is about 15 years so he's finally earned his appearance. (Rollie now lives on a diet of of soft-boiled veggies, just like grandpa.)

With very little precedent in these situations, wild animal professionals are asking themselves hard questions lately, such as:

Do female gorillas, now living in to their 40s and 50s, experience menopause?
Can an aging lemur suffer from dementia?
Most of all, where do we draw the line between prolonging pain and ending life for these animals?

Determining the answer comes down to data tracking - birth, death, ages and behaviors. Meanwhile, the nation's zoos are adapting. For example, at the Philadelphia Zoo, a giraffe gets arthritis pills hidden inside her bananas, as does “Mrs. Emu”, age 24 (life expectancy in the wild: 10 years). The Philly Zoo also has an elderly tree kangaroo that can no longer climb her pole so they (I shiteth you not) installed handrails and ramps. And the snow leopard with failing vision? She got brighter lights.

Over at the Inverse Square blog, proprietor Thomas Levenson featured guest blogger, Michelle Sipics, who has a very different take on this issue. Beyond her two degrees in computer engineering, Michelle joined the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT, where she spent a good part of her year working on issues of geriatric mental health. The animal-aging issue has her pissed off in an interesting direction. Her angle is similar to those that protest the ready-healthcare of incarcerated humans, only in this case it's emus and snow leopards:

"We’re talking about a zoo monkey who was given – without having to file paperwork, wait a month for a doctor’s appointment, or fight an insurance company to have a claim paid – X-rays and an ultrasound....it’s the fact that animals are getting immediate medical attention and treatment while elderly human beings have to fight to be seen by a doctor, struggle to pay for life-saving medications, and find a way to cope with diseases like Alzheimer’s, which the doctors and researchers that I’ll collectively refer to as “science” can’t claim to understand. Let me be clear: this is not a rant against scientists or doctors. Most of them are doing their best to keep up with the impending massive increase in the elderly population in this country as the Boomers turn 65, and are fighting against a lack of funding and–at least until recently–a general lack of interest in geriatric research. This is also not a rant against zoos, zookeepers, animal lovers or the animals themselves. The zookeepers are just doing their jobs, trying to keep the animals healthy; and the animals have a right to be kept healthy, I’m sure. But if a monkey can get arthritis medication, why is it so difficult for elderly human patients to receive good medical care?"

Meanwhile, Paulita Meisel points out on her blog, Anti-Aging Treatment Tips, that some animals don't bother with aging at all:

"Take the lobster, for example. Despite all the eating and farming that takes place, there's less funding for basic research into lobster biology than you might expect. As a consequence: To date, there is no proven method to determine the exact age of a lobster. ... as best scientists can tell, lobsters age so gracefully they show no measurable signs of aging: no loss of appetite, no change in metabolism, no loss of reproductive urge or ability, no decline in strength or health. Lobsters, when they die, seem to die from external causes. They get fished by humans, eaten by seals, wasted by parasites, but they don't seem to die from within."

Beyond zookeepers, those who work with animals in rescue operations and sanctuaries have also observed the animal-aging process. Dorothy Davies and Monte Jackson are the saintly founders of Sasha Farm (Sanctuary And Safe Haven for Animals), "the Midwest’s largest farm animal sanctuary." They also keep a blog by the same name and in a touching recent post named
for their old dog (and "Senior Political Analyst"), "Aging Mabel", they discussed the advanced aging symptoms of animals who had previously worked for a living:

"Like most sanctuaries, we always have a large population of aged animals. The saddest, in my opinion, are the huge pigs and broiler-type chickens who’ve endured genetic tinkering from the food industry, and begin to display age-related disease almost immediately upon reaching adulthood. Skeletal and cardiac problems nearly always cut their lives short. We lost a broiler-type hen this past weekend to congestive heart failure at the ripe old age of four months. Her siblings will be lucky to see six months, and this is not an unusually short life span for these poor birds. Some were displaying the age-related skeletal problems at three months old that Mabel is showing at around fourteen years old."

No one is dispensing free meds or making special Senior Grain for broiler chickens, I guess.

Finally, this post is dedicated to my friend, Stanley, who happens to be a 125-year-old desert tortoise. Stanley's brushes with death are the stuff of legend - he's like the Keith Richards of reptiles. Let's put it this way, when Stanley was born, Chester A. Arthur was president of the United States. Wait ... who?

Exactly.