Family witnesses ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ birth at East Sussex zoo

When Erica Huggins and her family arrived for their first visit to Drusillas Park by Alfriston they hoped to be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the sloths, but what happened far exceeded expectations as they witnessed the birth of a baby sloth.

On August 23 Mrs Huggins, her husband and their two children were exploring the zoo’s walk-through enclosure when the ex-veterinary nurse noticed a ‘glistening’ whilst admiring the sloths and was quick to pull out her camera to capture the amazing moment.

She said: “The process was extremely quick, lasting a few minutes at most. I noticed a strange glistening membrane at the sloth's rear, so I stayed to investigate. As I turned to get a better view, I noticed her push out the baby, which was still within her amniotic sac. The mother quickly turned, licked off the membrane and started to care for her baby.”

Visitors and staff were stunned to see such the rare moment and a video shows the moments after the baby emerged and mum Halina tenderly licking her new infant clean.

Sloth pregnancies are difficult to predict due to their anatomy and their abdomen swelling to a minimum, so keepers at Drusillas have not witnessed a sloth being born themselves.

The new arrival is especially precious to the team as they suddenly lost their infant sloth Athena at just six-months-old last year.

Head Keeper Gemma Romanis added: “The new arrival is something we are immensely proud of as a team. Baby seems to be thriving under the careful watch of our keepers and is doing everything it should be at this stage. Halina is being wonderfully attentive, and is more than happy for us to do our checks on baby when we need to. We don’t yet know if it’s a boy or a girl.

“We are so surprised that Halina chose to give birth right by the public walkway of her enclosure. It shows how comfortable and safe she must feel and is testament to how respectful and lovely our visitors are when they come to see our sloths.”