Why do zoo animals die younger in captivity—despite free food, no predators, and round-the-clock medical care?
Elephants, dolphins, even great white sharks.
They’re safer than ever… yet they die sooner.
It’s not food or medicine. It’s mismatch.
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Elephants, dolphins, even great white sharks.
They’re safer than ever… yet they die sooner.
It’s not food or medicine. It’s mismatch.
(🧵1/10)
In the wild, African elephants can live 60–70 years.
In captivity, many don’t reach 20.
Dolphins live 30–50 years in nature but rarely make it past their teens in tanks.
Great white sharks refuse captivity altogether—they simply stop eating and die.
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In captivity, many don’t reach 20.
Dolphins live 30–50 years in nature but rarely make it past their teens in tanks.
Great white sharks refuse captivity altogether—they simply stop eating and die.
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At first, it seems impossible.
Safe, fed, protected… and dying early?
That’s because comfort isn’t health.
The conditions that make life easier can make it unnatural.
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Safe, fed, protected… and dying early?
That’s because comfort isn’t health.
The conditions that make life easier can make it unnatural.
(🧵3/10)
And humans?
We’ve recreated the same paradox.
We are the most comfortable species in history—fed, housed, medicated—
and yet, the most anxious, depressed, and chronically unwell.
Welcome to the human zoo.
(🧵4/10)
We’ve recreated the same paradox.
We are the most comfortable species in history—fed, housed, medicated—
and yet, the most anxious, depressed, and chronically unwell.
Welcome to the human zoo.
(🧵4/10)
Our biology evolved for sunlight, movement, scarcity, and danger.
Now we live under fluorescent light, on processed food, in constant safety and stress.
Our bodies haven’t changed.
Our environment has.
That gap is what I call The Evolution Gap.
(🧵5/10)
Now we live under fluorescent light, on processed food, in constant safety and stress.
Our bodies haven’t changed.
Our environment has.
That gap is what I call The Evolution Gap.
(🧵5/10)
Evolutionary mismatch explains why:
– our metabolism fails in constant abundance
– our sleep suffers under artificial light
– our minds collapse under chronic stress
We are Stone Age biology trying to survive digital-age living.
(🧵6/10)
– our metabolism fails in constant abundance
– our sleep suffers under artificial light
– our minds collapse under chronic stress
We are Stone Age biology trying to survive digital-age living.
(🧵6/10)
You don’t have to abandon modern life to feel human again.
Just start closing the gap.
Two easy ways:
• Reconnect to natural rhythms — sunlight in the morning, darkness at night.
• Eat like seasons still exist — periods of lighter eating and natural variety.
(🧵7/10)
Just start closing the gap.
Two easy ways:
• Reconnect to natural rhythms — sunlight in the morning, darkness at night.
• Eat like seasons still exist — periods of lighter eating and natural variety.
(🧵7/10)
Your body isn’t broken.
It’s doing exactly what it evolved to do—
just in the wrong environment.
Close the gap, and you rediscover what “human” was meant to feel like.
(🧵8/10)
It’s doing exactly what it evolved to do—
just in the wrong environment.
Close the gap, and you rediscover what “human” was meant to feel like.
(🧵8/10)
I wrote about this in detail — including the science, the examples, and how to test your own level of mismatch — in my new Substack article:
The Evolution of Captivity
👉
(🧵9/10)open.substack.com/pub/theevoluti…
The Evolution of Captivity
👉
(🧵9/10)open.substack.com/pub/theevoluti…
If you want to see how well your modern lifestyle matches your evolutionary design, take the free Gap Finder Assessment at
.
We don’t need to live in the wild—
but we do need to stop living in captivity.
— Eric EdmeadesGapFinder.com
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We don’t need to live in the wild—
but we do need to stop living in captivity.
— Eric EdmeadesGapFinder.com
Author of The Evolution Gap, The WILDFIT Way, and PostDiabetic
(🧵10/10)
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