A subset of those elephants that could be blood sampled were further studied to assess metabolic markers (glucose, insulin, glucose to insulin ratio, fructosamine) and lipids (low and high density lipoproteins, total cholesterol, triglycerides) in relation to diets, physical activity, and levels of obesity [29,30,40]. The gene discussed is INS; the disease is obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.