The Leipzig Zoo published a short clip on Instagram on Thursday with some good news. The two-toed sloth Elfriede can be seen in the video. The 7-year-old mother is carrying a baby who was born on October 21st. The zoo writes in the description of the clip: “Our sloths Elfriede and Sid have become parents again. Elfriede carries the young animal on her stomach.”
And because this is the second offspring of the sloth couple, Elfriede is very familiar with raising them. The Leipzig Zoo writes: “In her second rearing, the female is already very experienced and experienced in handling the young animal.” The sloths have already had a total of three litters. The first young animal was only a few days old. In 2022 another offspring was born.
12-year-old Sid and Elfriede live with their offspring in the tropical adventure world “Gondwanaland” in the Leipzig Zoo. The huge hall has an area larger than two football fields and is home to around 170 exotic animals and 500 different plant species. So that visitors can discover as much as possible, there is a treetop path with hanging bridges and a panoramic roof – and a boat trip through the rainforest is also possible. The sloths can move freely in this area of the zoo and climb through the trees. This means that the two-toed sloths can only be discovered with a lot of luck and a keen eye. The animals can be seen regularly at the feeding station, where Sid and Elfriede’s second offspring were discovered using a surveillance camera.
When they are born, sloths are around 20 centimeters tall. Adult animals can be around 70 centimeters tall and weigh 9 kilograms. The animals’ natural habitat is in the tropical rainforests of South America.
Sources: Zoo Leipzig Instagram, “Leipziger Volkszeitung”
