SANFORD, Fla. (WSVN) — Over a dozen sloths are continuing to recover at the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford, with some showing signs of life.
“The improvements that we’ve seen in just their behaviors and their clinical condition have been really, really hopeful and positive,” said Dr. Haley Straub at the Central Florida Zoo.
One of the sloths, Bandit, is in critical condition. Straub said that the animal is lethargic and weak, but her team is working daily to give him the nutrition and hydration he needs.
“He’s shown signs of little improvements throughout his aggressive supportive care,” said Straub.
She said that the warm and humid environment at the zoo is helping the sloths, as well as a healthy diet of leafy greens and a method of recovery called fecal transplantation.
“One thing that we can do to help get that back to where it should be is take feces from a healthy sloth and give it to them in a pill or a slurry via their mouth. They eat it, and that helps reestablish their healthy gut microbiota,” she said.
A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report shows that at least 31 sloths died months before the Sloth World park was set to open.
The report says that some of the sloths were cold stunned after temperatures inside their warehouse dropped to the mid-40s in December.
The owner of Sloth World, Ben Agresta, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Central Florida Zoo has been doing blood work on the sloths to monitor their health, but do not know how the animals got sick.
“It’s hard to say how that happened, like I mentioned, the most important thing that we can do for these guys is provide them that adequate, very specialized diet,”
The zoo says that they will continue to monitor the sloths condition and provide updates on their website.
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