It’s getting sloth in here!

Fota Wildlife Park has announced the birth of the first baby sloth to be born in the park.

The Linné’s 2-toed sloth, whose gender is still unknown, was born on the 30 April to mother Talyta and father Matheo after a gestation of six months.

The public can view the new arrival in Fota’s Tropical House, which recently reopened after closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fota Wildlife Park is calling on the public to help name the baby sloth via its blog fotawildlife.ie/news. Participants will be in with a chance to win a conservation annual pass.

Matheo, who is 4 and a half years old, was transferred from Wilhelma Zoo, Stuttgart, Germany, to Cork in 2019. Mother Talyta, who is 3, came from Papiliorama Swiss Tropical Gardens in November 2020.

Fota Wildlife Park Lead Ranger, Julien Fonteneau, said the park can now boast great success in breeding the fastest, tallest, and now the slowest moving land animal on the planet: “Due to the nocturnal nature of the sloth, getting a glimpse of the baby can be elusive. Young sloths will cling to their mother’s belly for approximately 5 weeks until they have the strength to move on their own. The little one is already pulling at leaves and other foods we give to the adults, although not leaving the mother's safety on its own yet.”

Sloths are native to South America and eat, sleep, mate and give birth from their upside-down position high among the branches.

Sloths are the only mammals whose hair grows in the opposite direction from the hair of other mammals. To accommodate their upside-down lifestyle, the hair parts in the middle of the belly and grows upward towards the back. The hair on the face points upward, allowing water to run off during rainstorms.

Sloths are slow-moving, nocturnal creatures that spend almost their entire life suspended from trees.

The only time sloths descend to the forest floor is to go to the toilet, which they do about once a week. To move to a new area of trees, sloths often have to wait for the forest to flood, which facilitates swimming to a new resting site.

Their diet primarily consists of various leaves, stems, buds and a selection of fruit but insects are also consumed.

Predators such as jaguars and ocelots, harpy eagles and anacondas pose a threat to sloths in their native habitats.

They defend themselves with their sharp claws and teeth, and if required, sloths can move quickly through the trees to evade capture.