The entertainment conglomerate behind Dumbo also recognizes that elephants aren’t always sweethearts—especially when too many pachyderms are competing for too few resources. And so Disney’s top veterinarian has spent the past few years traveling the globe, making sure that elephant populations stay within reason. His method? Straight-up surgical:
Wildlife officials in several countries are considering killing elephants to control the burgeoning population, according to Disney officials, but surgical vasectomies can help save habitat without harming the animals.
According to Disney, elephants are unique among most mammals since their testes are internal and require abdominal surgery to perform a vasectomy, making the relatively simple procedure much more complex to conduct on elephants in the wild. The team used laparoscopic medical equipment specifically developed for this project and scaled from human to elephant proportions.
More here. Despite our yen to visit Swaziland, this is a job we don’t envy in the least.
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