East Sussex zoo to offer ‘once in a lifetime’ baby sloth experience

Drusillas Zoo in East Sussex is giving away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to one lucky visitor – a close encounter experience with their new baby sloth, to raise money for sloths in the wild.
By Sam Pole
Published 29th Sep 2023, 12:34 BST
Updated 29th Sep 2023, 12:35 BST
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On, August 23 the surprise arrival of the adorable new baby was caught on video by visitor Erica Huggins.

The baby, who has since been named ‘Echo’ after a public vote on our socials, made international news due to the unusually public way the infant’s mum, Halina, chose to give birth – in the middle of the day in front of visitors.

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Keepers have confirmed that baby is presenting as healthy and happy and will soon form part of the zoo’s close encounter experiences.

Drusillas Zoo in East Sussex is giving away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to one lucky visitor – a close encounter experience with their new baby sloth, to raise money for sloths in the wild. Picture: DrusillasDrusillas Zoo in East Sussex is giving away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to one lucky visitor – a close encounter experience with their new baby sloth, to raise money for sloths in the wild. Picture: Drusillas
Drusillas Zoo in East Sussex is giving away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to one lucky visitor – a close encounter experience with their new baby sloth, to raise money for sloths in the wild. Picture: Drusillas

Knowing how popular sloths are among visitors to the zoo, Drusillas is aiming to harness some of the excitement around the new arrival into fundraising for our conservation Charity of the Year, The Sloth Conservation Foundation (SloCo).

Sloth fans who would like to be in with a chance of being up close to the adorable babe are invited to enter the fundraiser prize draw with all monies raised donated to SloCo. Drusillas hopes to raise enough money to help support SloCo’s Sloth Census Project with the purchase of sloth GPS collars which cost a huge £2,000 each.

SloCo, based in Costa Rica, is dedicated to the protection of sloths living in wild and human-modified habitats through research, education and community-based conservation. They are currently embarking on their biggest project to date - the great sloth population census, having trained and employed the use of the first ever sloth detection dogs.

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Habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, dog attacks, traffic, and powerlines are all significant threats to sloth survival, however, the largest and most invisible threat is ignorance.

Without accurate data on wild sloth populations, governments cannot pass protective legislation, NGOs cannot assess the effectiveness of conservation programs, and sloth genetic diversity may reach a critical state before anyone even knows what’s wrong. Anyone entering the prize draw, which closes on International Sloth Day (20th October), will be helping support this crucial project.

With the arrival Echo, Drusillas now holds five Linne’s two-toed sloths, including seven-year-old Flash who was hand-reared by the Park’s resident sloth specialists, Mark Kenward and Gemma Romanis.