Dan Kitwood, Getty ImagesA Bolivian Squirrel monkey plays with a toy football at London Zoo on Aug. 18, 2011 in London, England. Male monkey Bounty has fathered eleven baby monkeys in the last three years since his arrival, enough to make up a football team. His latest offspring named Rolo was the eleventh and arrived last month.
Walt Disney World/APWhite rhinoceros Kendi, back left, shows off a baby male rhino she gave birth to Oct. 25, 2020, at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The baby rhino was the result of a Species Survival Plan overseen by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to ensure the responsible breeding of endangered species. Read more
Walt Disney World/APWhite rhinoceros Kendi, left, shows off a baby male rhino she gave birth to Oct. 25, 2020, at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The baby rhino was the result of a Species Survival Plan overseen by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to ensure the responsible breeding of endangered species. Read more
KAZUHIRO NOGI, AFP/Getty ImagesThis picture taken on Aug. 21, 2011 shows a baby giraffe (R) and her mother snuggling each other over wire netting in their enclosure at Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo. The baby giraffe was born on August 6 at the zoo.
Gene Blythe, Associated PressA rare baby Arakan forest turtle is shown at Zoo Atlanta Tuesday, May 1, 2007 in Atlanta. Zoo officials announced Tuesday they hatched one of the rare species earlier this week, the fourth of the brown-and-tan spotted reptiles born there. The zoo is the only facility in the world successfully breeding the Arakan forest turtle, which is on the list of the world's most critically endangered species.
GENE DUNCAN, AFP/Getty ImagesThis handout photo received Oct. 23 2006 shows a six-foot-tall, 110-pound baby giraffe(R), born on Oct. 7, 2006 at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Aibuni(L) a 9-year-old giraffe, gave birth to the healthy baby girl. The calf was Aibuni's first. Both the calf, who is named Imara (which means OstrongO in Swahili), and Aibuni are expected to rejoin their herd on Disney's Animal Kingdom savannah in the next few weeks. This was the fourth giraffe birth at Disney's Animal Kingdom and the fifth overall at the Walt Disney World Resort (one was born at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge). Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park and Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge are accredited by the (American Zoo and Aquarium Assocation(AZA).
Dan Kitwood, Getty ImagesA Bolivian Squirrel monkey plays with a toy football at London Zoo on Aug. 18, 2011 in London, England. Male monkey Bounty has fathered eleven baby monkeys in the last three years since his arrival, enough to make up a football team. His latest offspring named Rolo was the eleventh and arrived last month.
WICHAI TPAPREW, Associated PressXuang Xuang, a male panda, left, plays on the ground, as Lin Hui, right, a female panda, eats a cake made of bamboo and carrots to celebrate her fourth birthday at the Chiang Mai Zoo in Chiang Mai province, 580 kilometers (360 miles) north of Bangkok, Thailand in this Sept. 28, 2005 file photo. Zhang Zhihe, a leading Chinese expert, about one of many techniques tried over the decades to get captive pandas -- notoriously poor breeders -- to do it, and do it right. This recent one is to have uninitiated males view DVDs of their own kind mating. With a little help from panda porn, but mostly due to years of slogging research, scientists have sparked a baby boom among one of the world's most beloved but endangered animals, China's giant panda.
JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINELSeaWorld Orlando's one-week old dolphin, with mom dolphin 'Ariel' (left), plays at the Dolphin Nursery at the theme park, Tuesday, August 2, 2011. The dolphin calf was born last Tuesday, weighs 35 pounds, and is 40 inches long. Its gender is unknown at this time.
Joe Raedle, Getty ImagesA baby endangered Black Rhinoceros stays close to her mother, 6 1/2 year old "Circe" as she makes her public debut July 19, 2006 at the Metrozoo in Miami. The 91.6 pound calf was born July 15 after an approximately 15 month gestation period. She is Circe's first baby.
AJ MAST, Associated PressAfrican elephant Kubwa stands over her newborn bull calf at the Indianapolis Zoo Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005. The calf, as yet unnamed, was born Tuesday and weighs in at 195-pounds.
JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINELSeaWorld Orlando's one-week old dolphin plays at the Dolphin Nursery at the theme park, Tuesday, August 2, 2011. The dolphin calf was born last Tuesday, weighs 35 pounds, and is 40 inches long. Its gender is unknown at this time.
JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINELSeaWorld Orlando's one-week old dolphin plays at the Dolphin Nursery at the theme park, Tuesday, August 2, 2011. The dolphin calf was born last Tuesday, weighs 35 pounds, and is 40 inches long. Its gender is unknown at this time.
JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINELSeaWorld Orlando's one-week old dolphin, with mom dolphin 'Ariel' (left), plays at the Dolphin Nursery at the theme park, Tuesday, August 2, 2011. The dolphin calf was born last Tuesday, weighs 35 pounds, and is 40 inches long. Its gender is unknown at this time.
Sara A. Fajardo, Orlando SentinelMonday morning, February 11, keepers and staff of the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens found a surprise waiting for them -- a baby lesser spot-nosed guenon. ?Mom and baby are doing well. In fact, the keepers have determined that the baby guenon is very precocious and already attempting to experience its surroundings,? says Bonnie Breitbeil, Zoo Curator. Also on exhibit is a sibling, which is very curious and ready to play with the infant.
Matt Cardy, Getty ImagesThe mother of the three baby meerkats plays with one of them in her enclosure at Bristol Zoo on April 4, 2008 in Bristol, England. The four-week-old new arrivals, two boys and a girl, are being well looked after by the other four adult meerkats and are already proving a hit with visitors who will be able to see them out in their enclosure more and more as the weather gets warmer. Meerkats are quite lively and sociable animals, carnivores and belong to the family of mongooses, but can only be found in Southern Africa, in places like the Kalahari Desert, Namibia and Botswana. (
JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINELSeaWorld has dozens of bottlenose dolphins. One of them, 35-year-old Lily, died this week after having cancer for several years.
THOMAS LOHNES, AFP/Getty ImagesTwo ring-tailed lemur babies sit on their mother's back at the zoo in Frankfurt/Main, western Germany on March 30, 2010. The babies were born at the zoo on Feb. 11, 2010. Lemurs live mainly on the African island Madagascar and are active only in daylight hours.
MANDY CHENG, AFPGetty ImagesYuan Zai , the first Taiwan-born baby panda, climbs inside its enclosure at the Taipei City Zoo on January 6, 2014. Yuan Zai, who weighed 180 grams (6.35 ounces) at birth, now weighs about 14 kilos (31 lbs) and make made her anticipated public debut as she turned six months old.
Jacob Langston, Orlando SentinelA baby goat and a pig hang out in its pen at the Great American Petting Zoo at the Volusia County Fairgrounds on Nov. 3, 2010. Workers were on hand busily setting up the rides, booth and food stations to the fair that runs Nov 4-14, 2010.
KAZUHIRO NOGI, AFP/Getty ImagesThis picture taken on Aug. 21, 2011 shows a baby giraffe running in her enclosure at Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo . The baby giraffe was born on August 6 at the zoo.
Michelle Fleming, Associated PressIn this Photo supplied by the Perth Zoo, out for the first time since birth, the as-yet-unnamed female four-week-old critically endangered Sumatran Orangutan and her mother at Perth Zoo in Western Australia, Friday, Nov. 20, 2009. The baby was born at 10:40 am on Oct. 20 to 39-year-old mother, Puteri, with the infant weighing just under 2 kilograms at birth.
Joe Burbank / Orlando SentinelOne-year-old baby alligators are seen in their new habitat, the Baby Gator Marsh, Friday, August 4, 2017, at Gatorland, in Orlando. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
Mike Stark, Associated PressA baby elephant takes a mud bath at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009. The baby, which hasn't been named, will go on public display Friday.
Dan Kitwood, Getty Images
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A Bolivian Squirrel monkey plays with a toy football at London Zoo on Aug. 18, 2011 in London, England. Male monkey Bounty has fathered eleven baby monkeys in the last three years since his arrival, enough to make up a football team. His latest offspring named Rolo was the eleventh and arrived last month.
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By Alissa Smith
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:
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Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has recently welcomed the arrival of two baby sloths.
Skipping marriage entirely, two sloth couples jumped straight to starting their own families. The first baby, born in late March, is a Hoffman’s two-toed sloth and is currently being nursed by park staff every two hours. The second baby, born on April 2, is a Linne’s two-toed sloth and is currently being cared for by its mother.
Park guests will soon be able to see the baby sloths at Jambo Junction.
The baby sloths arrivals are possible due to the park’s partnership with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan.
According to the Metropolitan Oceanic Institute and Aquarium and SeaWorld, two-toed sloths are found in South American rainforests, where they spend most of their nocturnal lives sleeping in trees. Adult Linne’s and Hoffman’s sloths can grow to be up to 30 inches long and weigh up to 20 pounds.
Sloths sleep for up to 20 hours a day, moving so little that it’s possible for algae to grow on their fur, leading to one of the laziest forms of camouflage ever. Their diet mainly consists of fruit, leaves and twigs. Two-toed sloths are able to survive in captivity, unlike their three-toed counterparts.
