{"id":244444,"date":"2026-04-24T08:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T08:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244444\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T08:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T08:27:09","slug":"florida-zoo-captures-adorable-moment-when-a-newborn-baby-sloth-meets-his-dad-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244444\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida zoo captures adorable moment when a newborn baby sloth meets his dad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teddy, the two-toed sloth<\/a>, has become a proud papa, and thanks to a video posted by the St. Augustine<\/a> Alligator Farm Zoological Park, we all get to witness his adorable reunion with his newborn son<\/a>. Mama sloth, aka Grizzly, gave birth to their healthy little one in February 2022, delighting more than 3,000 people on Facebook. Mama sloth was probably happy to give birth because a sloth\u2019s gestational period is an entire year.<\/p>\n

The video, posted to the Florida zoo\u2019s <\/a>YouTube page, shows Grizzly slowly climbing toward her mate, who is at first blissfully unaware as he continues munching on leaves. Typical dad. Teddy quickly kicks into love mode once he sees his precious cub, however. Pretty soon it\u2019s nothing but a sweet nose nuzzle fest<\/a>. Be still, my sloth-loving heart!<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial Delivery! We have some big news to tell you: Grizzly had a baby! Grizzly and Teddy (the father<\/a>) are Hoffman\u2019s two-toed Sloths, and the family is doing well,\u201d the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park announced on Facebook.<\/p>\n

How do sloths raise their young?<\/p>\n

As with most mammals, male sloths don\u2019t typically care for their young<\/a>. Usually, a sloth mama will go it alone, spending up to six months with the little one clinging to her chest as she traverses the trees. Eventually she\u2019ll spend time teaching the cub to climb, forage and even do the \u201cpoop dance\u201d (yes, it\u2019s a real thing<\/a> with sloths). However, the zoo is allowing the father to be involved in the baby\u2019s upbringing if he so chooses.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut since that is how they\u2019ve elected to, we felt it was really important to keep them here that way,\u201d a zoo curator said<\/a>. \u201cMom and baby need time to bond together, and Teddy, very smartly, decided to give them some space.\u201d In a follow-up video<\/a>, Sarah, one of the zoo\u2019s bird and mammal curators, praised Teddy for \u201cvery smartly\u201d knowing when to give Grizzly and baby their \u201cmuch needed space.\u201d Healthy boundaries at their finest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why this birth was especially remarkable<\/p>\n

The birth of the baby sloth is also notable because of the parents\u2019 advanced ages. At the time of the birth, 37-year-old Grizzly was one of the oldest sloths ever to give birth<\/a>, and 47-year-old Teddy was one of the oldest sloths ever recorded. The birth was the couple\u2019s fourth child. They came to St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in 2019 from Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. The Hoffmann\u2019s two-toed sloths can be found<\/a> in tropical rainforests across Central America, Northern South America, Peru, and Brazil.<\/p>\n

The family currently lives at an exhibit in the park known as Sloth Landing, where visitors can get up close with the animals while learning about the conservation of rainforest animals. \u201cThe Rainforest Encounter places you up close and personal with the sloths, even providing opportunities to touch these shy animals. A brief introduction will provide an overview of the species\u2019 habitats, behaviors, and diet, and you\u2019ll also learn about the conservation work being done at the Alligator Farm to protect sloths throughout the world,\u201d it says on the zoo\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

It looks like this sloth family of three<\/a> will continue cuddling away at their sanctuary, and the internet is here for it.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Florida zoo captures adorable moment when a newborn baby sloth meets his dad<\/a> appeared first on Upworthy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teddy, the two-toed sloth, has become a proud papa, and thanks to a video posted by the St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[107656,107686,1292,28,30,29,107690,107688,107687,107689],"class_list":{"0":"post-244444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-alligator-farm","9":"tag-baby-sloth","10":"tag-facebook","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-sloth-family","15":"tag-st-augustine-alligator","16":"tag-st-augustine-alligator-farm-zoological-park","17":"tag-zoological-park"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}