Environment & Climate

Eight sloths are making progress at Central Florida Zoo

Central Florida Public Media | By Molly Duerig

Published July 7, 2026 at 6:05 PM EDT

Dolce, one of the eight sloths at the zoo, hangs out while chewing on a snack.

Eight sloths receiving care behind the scenes at the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens in Sanford are making good progress.

The sloths arrived there in poor condition in late April, part of a group of 13 that were originally destined for a canceled Sloth World attraction in Orlando. At least 57 animal deaths are connected to the planned exhibit, which never ultimately opened to the public.

Five of the sloths that came to the zoo have since died. But the eight remaining in the zoo’s care are doing well, health-wise and with ongoing human desensitization training.

The training helps staff collect vitals from the animals and provide required treatments without causing them unnecessary stress, associate zoo veterinarian Dr. Haley Straub said.

“This species in particular is a very stressy species, and they don't react well to very high-stress situations,” Straub said. “Trying to accomplish what we need to do in the least stressful manner is very, very important for their management.”

As the sloths are increasingly desensitized to having members of the zoo’s animal care teams in their space, they’ll only become more comfortable participating in the diagnostic and treatment processes necessary for them to stay healthy.

That’s the goal: for the animals themselves to participate in their own care. It’s all about facilitating what Straub calls a key foundation of zoo medicine: “choice and control.”

A scale created by the zoo’s training team allows staff members to collect “voluntary weights” for the sloths from right inside their exhibit, instead of needing to pick up the animals and bring them into a medical facility. Straub said it’s “a huge advantage” being able to avoid handling the sloths directly.

Staff are also working on a way to collect “voluntary” X-rays from the sloths, Straub said. “If we're able to bring our plate out to their exhibit and bring our machine out, and they're able to just hang from their enclosure and eat some food from their keepers, and we're able to shoot an X-ray and get the image that we need without even having to handle the animal — that is huge.”

Chewie, one of the eight sloths at the zoo, trains to get into an X-ray position by hanging from his back legs and doing a long stretch toward the ground. Getting the sloths to participate in voluntary X-rays eliminates the need to sedate or restrain the animals in order to evaluate them, according to the zoo.

Sloths are sensitive animals with highly specific dietary needs and slow metabolisms. Their slow digestive systems can delay the onset of symptoms until they become more severe and difficult to treat.

Because of those factors, zoo staff have been cautious in speaking about their prognosis. At least some of the five sloths that recently died had appeared to be improving before suddenly experiencing “a very, very quick medical downfall,” Straub said.

Leeloo, the smallest sloth at the zoo, is very shy but recently started coming out of her shell. “She'd come out for food, but she would not come out for people. And now, it's really cool to see her move about, and she will come up to the [zoo]keepers and participate with them,” said associate zoo veterinarian Dr. Haley Straub.

“We really are not sure exactly when we're going to be fully out of the woods with this whole group,” she said.

These days, though, the sloths’ progress is helping zoo staff “feel a little bit more hopeful” about what the animals’ future might look like, Straub said.

“It's not the goal to ever have them be handled by people — not for photo opportunities or anything like that,” Straub said. “However, they are going to be in captive environments, in AZA institutions, for the remainder of their life, because of their situation. And so we're doing everything we can to set them up for success.”

While lots of details are still being worked out, the hope is that some of the sloths can stay at the zoo in Sanford, Straub said. Some will likely end up at other facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The zoo is one of 240 facilities worldwide with the accreditation, a marker widely seen as the gold standard for animal care and conservation education.

A temporary ban on importing sloths to the state of Florida expires Friday, and from there, a new sloth permit requirement will take effect. The vast majority of sloth imports to the U.S. come through the Port of Miami, according to Sloth Institute research.