International Sloth Day

Saturday October 20 is International Sloth Day. Although many zoos have sloths, it isn’t very common that they’re displayed prominently. Sloths do required moderate temperatures, so the requirement of an indoor exhibit makes showcasing these animals slightly challenging…but we’ve come across a few zoos who have.

If you have kids, than most of your sloth knowledge might come from the movie “Zootopia”, where all the sloths work at the DMV. In the movie they’re depicted as being very slow, which isn’t an exaggeration as they are the slowest land mammal. Sloths sleep a lot, and often don’t move from where they’re at. However, if you do have a chance to see a sloth climbing, you can see that although their movements are very deliberate, they do have the ability to maneuver somewhat quickly due to their long arms.

As the movie “Zootopia” states, sloths are very slow, topping out at a speed of five feet per minute on land

The place that we’ve had the most interaction with a sloth would be at Brookfield Zoo. The sloth at Brookfield is kept in the Monkey and Ape House. Upon entering the first house, you can see a long limb near the viewing area with a home for the sloth. He might be sleeping in the nest, or climbing up and down the vines. Frequently we’ve seen the sloth moving up and down the vines, which makes for a nice photo opp.

We also saw a sloth at the Chattanooga Zoo. There, the sloth is displayed in a large attraction in the middle of the indoor exhibit. Making its home on a large tree, viewers are able to watch the sloth, should it choose to move. The John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan has a sloth (picture at top of article) in its “Treasures” building. Similar to Chattanooga, good views are had when it’s awake.

But the zoo that from our vantage point is ahead of the curve in displaying the sloth is the Indian Creek Zoo in Lambertsville, Michigan. This is a smaller, privately owned zoo. Over the past several years they’ve been redoing the grounds to become more compliant with standards, enhance the well-being of the animals, and further improve the viewing experience. Along the way they came across two sloths, named Hokey and Pokey. They soon had a baby named Flash (presumably named after the character in “Zootopia”). For a while, the sloths made their home in the main building of the zoo, which is also home to admission, gift shop, and events. We haven’t made it back to this zoo since Fall of 2016, so they may have since moved them to a more permanent exhibit.

Initially the zoo created private viewing opportunities by hosting “painting parties”, where an artist comes in and paying guests are taught how to paint a picture, which would be zoo themed. For a while they would do sloth-themed paintings, and the owner would bring Hokey, Pokey, and occasionally Flash out to visit with the guests. Starting in 2018, they offered “Sloth Enounters”, which for $40 would include a 20-30 minute private session (minimum of 4 people) for guests over 10 years of age to pet and feed the sloths.

While most zoos offer encounters for their larger animals, like giraffes, rhinos, or even elephants, a sloth encounter would not only make for an unusual experience, but also a very enjoyable one.

Thanks for reading about the sloths – next time you’re at Brookfield Zoo be sure to stop in and check them out!