Baby sloths cling to mom for the first nine months of life and this little six month old is still enjoying her free ride. These photos of mother sloth Alba and her daughter, were taken May 2nd by Shirley Ng at the Singapore Zoo. As newborns, baby sloths are only the size of a baseball.
We have featured Costa Rica's sloth rescue center, Aviarios del Caribe, in the past but never any of their incredible baby sloth videos. Enjoy this recent footage and some older video from the world's only sloth rescue center.
If you are interested in supporting Aviarios del Caribe, adoption information can be found here. Also note that the center includes a boutique hotel for the adventurous so consider planning your next vacation to sloth-land.
This little two-toed sloth was born to an elderly sloth couple just a month ago at the Philadelphia Zoo. Keepers had assumed the parents were well beyond breeding age when the little furry friend appeared. Despite her age, mama sloth is proving to be an attentive and capable parent.
The Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary cares for injured and orphaned sloths in Costa Rica. They also lead sloth education efforts to improve the plight of wild sloths. From time to time, they even have a captive birth, including this baby three-toed sloth called a bradypus or pale-throated sloth.
At 2 days old, the baby bradypus weighed just 425 grams or 15 ounces!
Here the little guy tries to get a taste of what mom is eating.
At two weeks he has packed on the pounds, or pound rather, weighing 475 grams or just over 1 lb.
You can help the Sloth Sanctuary by adopting a sloth, purchasing items on their wishlist, or even visiting next time you are in the neighborhood in Costa Rica.
The Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica rescues injured and orphaned sloths. Many of these sloths are released back into the wild but often stick around the neighborhood.
This series of photos follows Joy, a baby sloth born on October 25, 2008 to two of the sanctuary's residents, Juliett and Gigia. Mama Juliet came to the sanctuary with severe electrical burns. However since then she has thrived and become a sweet and gentle resident. Father Gigia was rescued from street vendors when he was a week old. Joy is the pair's their fourth baby.
In addition to rehabilitation, Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary promotes conservation and sloth interests within Costa Rica. Joy and her parents are two-toed sloths, also called Choloepus. Many many more photos below the fold.
Clyde Nishimura got these great shots of Vlad the sloth being tormented by a curious baby golden lion tamarind. The confrontation went down a little over a month ago at the National Zoo.
The Golden Lion Tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia) also known as Golden Marmoset, is a small New World monkey of the family Cebidae. Native to the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil, the Golden Lion Tamarin is an endangered species
with an estimated wild population of "more than 1,000 individuals" and
a captive population maintained at approximately 490 individuals.
Sloth babies are ridiculously cute. Case in point: this adorable two-toed sloth at the Central Florida Zoo born this summer. While sloths in captivity appear brown, grayish or even yellow, wild sloths often appear to have greenish coats because they move so slowly that algae grows on them during the rainy season!
Keepers at the National Aquarium were proud to to welcome their first baby sloth in early September. The world’s slowest mammal, sloths spend their entire lives living in trees.
Did you know: Baby sloths are referred to by scientists as "baby sloths!"
Little known fact: in their native habitat, two-toed sloths listen exclusively to smooth jazz with world music influences.
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