BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A baby sloth will be hanging out with Brevard Zoo staff for the next few months after it was left by its mother shortly after birth last month.
Zoo staff said the yet-to-be-named newborn is the first sloth born at the zoo.
Staff said the baby’s mother, Tango, a Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth, left the baby the night of its birth, Oct. 17.
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“When we found the baby away from Tango, we tried to reunite them,” said Lauren Hinson, a curator of animals at the zoo. “But the new mother was not nursing, nor did she show interest in the newborn. Tango is a first-time mother whose inexperience likely led her to not care for the little one.”
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Hinson is now hand-raising the baby sloth, feeding it goat’s milk every two and a half hours.
Because newborn sloths are inclined to cling onto their mother, animal care staff said they gave the baby its choice of materials to hold onto. It chose a sloth blanket from the zoo’s gift shop, they said.
Hinson said she expects to provide substantial care for the baby for at least five months.