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Carolyn Sayre/New York

Fuji lost most of her tail to a mysterious disease. Stumpy crippled her leg in the wild. Motala had her foot blown off by a land mine. Only a few years ago, the wounded dolphin, kangaroo and elephant would not have had much hope of surviving. Now, that's changing. With the help of fancy new artificial parts, called prosthetics, veterinary surgeons are transforming lifeless metal and plastic into working tails, legs and feet.

The animals regain the ability to move like healthy creatures. More importantly, what the doctors learn as they put the critters back together could help the medical community work similar magic on humans. "We need to help animals, and we need to help people," says Dr. Erick Egger, a professor of small-animal orthopedic surgery at Colorado State University.

SOLUTIONS THAT HELP HUMANS, TOO

Surgeons at an animal hospital in Lampang, Thailand, gave Motala a shoelike artificial foot. It is little more than a sack filled with sawdust and held in place by a giant sling. But doctors are designing a lighter replacement made of fiberglass and silicone.

Attaching a limb to a plodding animal like an elephant is different from attaching a leg to a bouncing animal like a kangaroo. When Stumpy lost a hind leg, surgeons used carbon fiber to make a new one. It can spring back to its original shape after it is bent.

What about an animal that doesn't have any legs at all? Researchers in Japan attached a rubber tail to what remained of Fuji's mangled one. But Winter, a dolphin that lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, in Florida, presented more of a challenge. Her tail is completely gone. Researchers at Hanger Orthopedic Group, in Bethesda, Maryland, developed a sticky, gel-like material to create suction between the limb and the new tail. The gel not only helps hold the tail in place, but it also protects against irritation. The gel worked so well that Hanger recommended it to a man--a soldier. Now he can use his artificial legs again. "Winter helped him," says Hanger's Kevin Carroll, "and hopefully she'll help a lot of others, as well."

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