Olivia is all grown up!

Hello, my name is Sean, one of the members of the Sloth Care Team. As I’m sure you’ve heard, we had a baby sloth born on August 9, but did you know the baby has a big sister? Mom Nutella and the baby are living in our KIDZone habitat with the baby’s father, Cocoa, an unrelated female, Bonnie, and golden lion tamarins Blixx and Tiete. The older sister I mentioned, Olivia, who is now over a year old, is living in the Brazilian Outpost habitat and will be moving to another Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited organization to start her own family.

In the wild, a baby sloth remains near its mother for around a year before the mother starts pushing the baby out to live on its own. This might sound absurd for humans, but it is natural for sloths. Sloths are born with claws that are used to cling onto the mother soon after birth. A baby clings to the mother’s stomach for the next six months. Babies start sampling solid food at 2 weeks old. They become fully independent between 6-9 months old. Sloths are primarily solitary, so it makes sense for the mother to push them out at about a year. We started to see some of these natural behaviors between Nutella and Olivia when Olivia was about 1 year old, and once Olivia’s younger sibling was born, we knew it was time for Olivia to begin living separately and start her adult life.

The AZA Species Survival Plan® (SSP) is a way AZA-accredited facilities work together to manage the breeding and care for different species in zoos and aquariums. The goal is to maintain genetically diverse and self-sustaining populations for future generations. SSPs have a record of all individuals of a particular species in the zoological population and their genetics and breeding history; this is known as a studbook. The studbook is used to make recommendations on which individuals should and shouldn’t breed and helps facilitate transferring animals between AZA zoos and aquariums to maximize the genetic diversity and reduce the risk of inbreeding. 

The SSP for Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths has provided us with a recommendation for a new zoo for Olivia, so she can start her adult life and ideally start a family. So next time you are at Zoo Atlanta trying to catch a glimpse of our new baby sloth, make sure to stop by and say farewell to Olivia. 

(Photo: Sean L.)

Sean L. 
Sloth Care Team