A zoo in the Chinese province of Sichuan (center) has announced that it will put a leopard on a diet whose obvious overweight had made him one of the stars of the place due to his resemblance to a character from the movie Zootopia.
The feline resides in the zoo in the city of Panzhihua and in recent times, as a result of videos published by Internet users on Chinese social networks, the number of visitors who come to see the plump animal has skyrocketed.
Center officials quoted this Friday by the China Daily newspaper explained that the leopard is 16 years old, equivalent to between 60 and 70 human years, and that it has gained weight as a result of the aging process, to which is added the lack of exercise due to space limitations.
The feline's daily diet consists of beef and pork, its health is good and it undergoes a complete veterinary check-up every year, they said.
However, in light of visitor concerns about the leopard being overweight, the zoo has committed to “adjusting” its diet and improving the environment to allow it to get more exercise.
In fact, the leopard might not be the only specimen put on a diet at Panzhihua, because visitors claim that the zoo's bears, ostriches and alpacas also look a few extra kilos. In recent years there have been several cases of overweight animals in Chinese zoos that have come to public attention, such as the one in the city of Weihai (Shandong, east), where an Internet user criticized that all the animals are fat, including the crocodiles, hyenas, tigers, lions and raccoons.
Another case reported last year was that of a plump fox from a park in Yunnan (south) that went viral on social media, and in 2020 two giant pandas with too much culinary pampering also ended up on a diet in a natural park in Hainan. (south).
In these situations, experts have recommended that zoos better control the diet of their 'residents', design plans to increase their physical activity and raise awareness among visitors about the risks of overfeeding animals.
