Everyone at the National Aquarium in Baltimore is excited to welcome its newest member in the Upland Tropical Forest – a two-toed baby sloth – except its mother, Rose.
Debra Dial, an aviculturist at the aquarium, said the baby learns to hang on to the mother out of natural instinct, but “the mom’s done after birth.”
“Her habits haven’t changed, except she now has a baby on her belly,” Dial said.
Rose’s indifference to her baby attached on her side follows the general characteristics of sloths being “slow and lazy, a deadly sin, as some may say,” but that might be what makes them so fascinating, Dial said.
“It looks cool. The long nails and how it moves so slow,” said Deiah Quimby, a Mattawoman Middle School student from Charles County, who saw a sloth for the first time.
Seeing Syd, the father of the baby, for the first time, Nida Yousfi, a Mattawoman Middle School student, was interested in the sloth’s appearance.
“I think I’m going to come with my family next time,” Yousfi said.
But who knew these animals that are notorious for sleeping 20 hours a day were active?
Ken Howell, curator of Rain Forest Exhibitions at the National Aquarium, said two-toed sloths are fairly common, but much of its biological history is a mystery.
“Adult two-toed sloths can be fairly aggressive animals,” Howell said.
Dial said the newborn is surprisingly active. The baby has developed claws and is now crawling.
Aquarium caregivers have taken a hands-off approach to the palm-sized sloth and have not intervened to care for the baby.
“We’ll wait for when an appropriate time comes, and then we can determine its [gender] and have the veterinarian do an examination,” Howell said.
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