Most diets that are fed to rhinos at zoos are associated with low fertility. Here's how scientists are fixing that.
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00:00For the last 7 years, we've been working on studying rhino diets and looking at the amounts of phytoestrogens in those diets.
00:09Phytoestrogens are chemicals that can mimic the natural hormone estrogen and cause reproductive problems in animals that consume high quantities of them.
00:18We found that most diets that are fed to rhinos are high in phytoestrogens, and that's associated with low fertility in this species.
00:23So we've worked with our nutritional services department to develop a new pellet that's not high in soy and alfalfa or does not contain soy and alfalfa, which have high amounts of phytoestrogens, to make a low phytoestrogen pellet, which we're now feeding our rhinos.