Do animals become obese in the wild?

Question

Do animals become obese in their natural habitat.

Answer 1

An obese predator doesn't catch prey and gets lean, an obese prey animal gets eaten.

Answer 2

In their natural habitat, animals do not get fat: no rabbit gets fat by eating too much grass; no lion gets fat by eating too much antelope; no hawk gets fat by eating too many mice.. etc.

In 'civilized' man and his domesticated animals, however, obesity is all too common.

As a direct descendant of the wolf, the modern domestic dog is a pure carnivore. In its natural environment, it would catch and eat rabbits and other small mammals. Even if it were starving, it would never dream of eating ears of wheat or digging up potatoes. Man, however, has largely turned the dog into a herbivore. Meat is relatively expensive, so the domestic dog now survives largely on wheat, in the form of dog biscuits, and bread.

Answer 3

no

Answer 4

Not usually, but there are times.

It is said that African male lions, once they have established a pride, tend to get lazy and out of shape; probably overweight.  This can make them lose some of the qualities that caused them to win the pride in the first place.

Answer 5

no, because unlike we humans, they have to hunt night and day for their food. they dont have refrigerators or supermarkets or fast food joints. exercise keeps them lean. they can however, become underweight if humans start to clear out their territories for construction and kill off their natural prey. this leads to them coming into our towns, looking for other sources of food.

Answer 6

No because they actually have to hunt for their food, so they don't eat just because they want to. They eat to stay alive. In captivity they may become obese because they get lazy because their food is just given to them. That is why in zoos the keepers try to make the animals work for their food. For example for monkeys the keeper hides their food throughout the exhibit and in toys where they have work to get the food out.