Another sloth from the Sloth World attraction previously planned for International Drive in Orlando died Saturday night, according to the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens. Habanero, an adult male sloth, was one of 13 animals the zoo recently took in and began caring for from the planned Sloth World exhibit — which never opened, and now never will.
At least 33 sloths imported for the now-cancelled attraction are confirmed to have died. The total count of sloths receiving care at the zoo is now down to 11, following the deaths of Habanero and another male sloth, Bandit, last week.
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Bandit the sloth was between the ages of one and two years old when he died. It’s not clear exactly how old Habanero was. Determining sloths’ age and gender can be quite difficult, zoo CEO Richard Glover said in an interview with Central Florida Public Media Friday.
“We can estimate on a lot of them, but once they hit adulthood, the estimation is really just: they're an adult,” Glover said. “The records that we were given, it's not clear. And of course, these animals were taken, most of them, from the wild, and so they probably don't have any idea how old they were when they took them.”
Florida is a hotspot for exotic animal trade, and a gateway for a majority of wild-caught sloths imported to the United States.
More than 1,100 wild-caught sloths entered the country between 2011 to 2021, according to research published late last year by The Sloth Institute. Of 417 live sloth shipments analyzed by the nonprofit institute, more than 98% came through the port of Miami.
The nonprofit zoo’s veterinary and animal care teams are monitoring all 11 remaining sloths closely and providing them with ongoing medical attention.
Two of the animals are currently in “guarded” condition, including a roughly three-month-old baby sloth. Vets are keeping an extra-close eye on those two sloths in “guarded” condition, which is a less severe status than “critical,” according to a spokesperson for the zoo.
The baby sloth is stable and eating well, but experiencing gastrointestinal issues. Those kinds of issues can create major challenges for the delicate animal species.
“Sloths have incredibly slow metabolisms, so they're very slow to digest and then eventually expel anything from their body,” Glover said. “So it takes a lot of time, if they have a problem in their digestive system, to try to correct it.”
The sloths arrived at the zoo April 24 with “quite a few things wrong with them,” Glover said, namely dehydration, diarrhea and mineral deficiencies.
The zoo is still awaiting Bandit’s necropsy results, which are expected to come in early this week. When they do, it’s possible the results could help shed light on how to help the other 11 sloths.
“That's kind of the hope: is, if there was anything there that is maybe a communicable disease, or something that we didn't know they have, that that would be the thing to tell us,” Glover said Friday. “That would also mean that Bandit dying actually could help save some of the others.”
Like many sick or injured animals, sloths will often mask their symptoms up until the bitter end. It’s a survival instinct: in the wild, showing any signs of distress for predators to pick up on could be a “death sentence” for the sloths, Glover said.
“We’re basically detectives, trying to figure out what’s wrong with them. … It takes a lot of different factors to really determine what’s going on,” Glover said. “It's a process of elimination, just like it is in humans a lot of times, but without the ability to ask them anything.”
One strategy that may help determine how to help the 11 remaining sloths arrived at the zoo in the form of a unique shipment this week. The Los Angeles Zoo sent over a set of fecal samples from healthy sloths, to be introduced into the diet of the sloths here in Central Florida. The treatment is known as a fecal microbiota transplant, or FMT.
“While it may sound unusual, this treatment is grounded in science and can make a meaningful difference for sloths with sensitive digestive systems,” according to the zoo.
The zoo is posting updates on the sloths’ condition to a page on its website, where it’s also soliciting donations to help with the cost of medical care.
“This latest loss is gut-wrenching, but the focus remains on the 11 remaining sloths, and each day with them is a gift,” according to the zoo.
Meanwhile, the Florida Attorney General’s office announced on Friday a criminal investigation had launched into Sloth World’s operators.
