Meet Tango, the first baby sloth born at Brevard Zoo

ORLANDO — Brevard Zoo recently welcomed the first sloth ever born at the facility. Tango, the zoo’s Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth, gave birth to the baby, whose sex is unknown at this time, around 5 p.m on Oct. 17. The as-yet-unnamed newborn did not remain with the mother overnight and will be handraised.

“When we found the baby away from Tango, we tried to reunite them,” said Lauren Hinson, a curator of animals at the zoo, in a press release. “But the new mother was not nursing, nor did she show interest in the newborn. Tango is a first-time mother whose inexperience likely led her to not care for the little one.”

Hinson has stepped in to provide round-the-clock care for the baby sloth, who is fed goat’s milk every couple hours, according to the zoo.

Because newborn sloths are inclined to cling onto their mother, animal care staff gave the baby its choice of materials to hold onto; ironically, the newborn chose a sloth blanket from the zoo’s gift shop. Hinson expects to provide substantial care for at least five months, after which will begin the weaning process.

The zoo’s release says the youngster, who weighed 11.2 ounces at birth, is also the offspring of male sloth Dustin. The newborn’s sex is unknown at the time as laboratory testing is sometimes needed to determine the sex of sloths. The length of the species’ gestation is not exactly known, but likely sits between six and 12 months.

Notorious for their slowpaced lifestyle, Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths face challenges from habitat loss and the exotic pet trade in central and South America.

Brevard Zoo is a 75-acre, not-for-profit facility that is home to more than 900 animals representing 195 species from all over the world. Address: 8225 N. Wickham Road, Melbourne. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 pm daily. More information is available at brevardzoo.org.