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Wildlife Weight Watchers

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• A green tree monitor lizards prepares to eat a baby mouse at the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill., on Feb. 12, 2008. Thanks to mounting research on wild animals' food needs, today's zoo staffers are trying new feeding tricks to keep their animals healthy and happy.
• Melissa Zabojnik, a senior keeper at the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill., feeds Harley, a deaf sea lion, on Feb. 12, 2008.
• Jennifer Watts, a staff nutritionist at the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill., is seen Feb. 12, 2008, holding a bag of small dead rats in the kitchen where she oversees food preparation for the zoo's animals. The nutrition craze has hit U.S. zoos, where keepers are trying sugar-free snacks, Weight Watchers-style point systems and other creative ways to keep animals trim and healthy.
• A selection of nutritional food items lemurs is seen in the kitchen at the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill., on Feb. 12, 2008.
• Jennifer Watts, a staff nutritionist at the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill., is seen with items for a carnivore diet Feb. 12, 2008, in the zoo's kitchen where she oversees food preparation for the wild animals.
• Cookie, a 74-year-old Major Mitchell's cockatoo, is fed an apple at the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill., on Feb. 12, 2008, by senior keeper Kris McCoy. Cookie has been at the zoo since 1934, long before exotic birds' dietary needs were well-understood and has developed osteoporosis, the same bone-thinning condition that affects millions of older humans.
• Cookie, a 74-year-old Major Mitchell's cockatoo, bites into an apple at the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill., on Feb. 12, 2008. Cookie has been at the zoo since 1934, long before exotic birds' dietary needs were well-understood. Cookie now gets minerals in his diet to combat thinning bones. Before a nutritionist was hired Cookie would eat seeds high in fats and oils but with little bone-building calcium and phosphorus resulting in osteoporosis, the same bone-thinning condition that affects millions of older humans.
• A western lowland gorilla munches on a monkey chow biscuit at the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill., on Feb. 12, 2008. Thanks to mounting research on wild animals' food needs, today's zoo staffers are trying new feeding tricks to keep their animals healthy and happy. The days of letting visitors throw marshmallows to the animals are mostly history at zoos around the country, replaced by a growing focus on diet and nutrition that parallels the nutrition craze in humans.