{"id":251354,"date":"2026-04-29T18:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251354\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T18:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:37:22","slug":"1-of-13-rescued-sloth-world-sloths-dies-at-central-florida-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251354\/","title":{"rendered":"1 of 13 rescued Sloth World sloths dies at Central Florida Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 A sloth that arrived in critical condition as part of a group of 13 animals donated to the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens by the failed Orlando attraction, Sloth World,<\/a> has died. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the zoo announced it was mourning the loss<\/a> of Bandit, who had shown some signs of improvement since arriving at the zoo\u2019s quarantine area, but took a sudden turn for the worse and died after veterinarians made the difficult decision to humanely euthanize him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are heartbroken by the loss,\u201d said Richard E. Glover Jr., CEO of the Central Florida Zoo. \u201cOur team did everything possible to give him the best chance at survival and ensure he was comfortable in his final days.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 13 sloths had been in quarantine for four days when zoo officials first raised the alarm about their condition. Veterinarians said most of the animals arrived showing signs of dehydration and malnutrition. Among the most vulnerable was Bandit, a three-month-old baby sloth.<\/p>\n

The zoo confirmed the remaining 12 sloths are currently in stable condition. Staff said their full focus has now shifted to ensuring those animals continue to recover.<\/p>\n

The Central Florida Zoo is asking the public for donations<\/a> to help cover the cost of the animals\u2019 rehabilitation. <\/p>\n

News 6 Orange County Community Correspondent Jayna Manohalal spoke briefly with Sloth World founder Ben Agresta last Wednesday regarding the 31 reported deaths and how they died.<\/p>\n

During that call, Agresta said the sloths died from an \u201cunknown virus.\u201d He also denied wrongdoing and said investigators had not found any issues involving staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they\u2019ve also found no wrongdoing by any of our staff or anybody. We\u2019ve just been dealing with a foreign-born virus,\u201d Agresta said<\/p>\n

But the former Sloth World employee disputes that account.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s lying about that. There were no viruses. It was bad conditions in him not taking care of his property. His business,\u201d the former employee said.<\/p>\n

The employee also said the company\u2019s priorities were misplaced during its buildup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the thing he was most worried about was selling merch and selling pre-sale tickets,\u201d he said. \u201cBen had plans to use the money towards the construction of Sloth World.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former employee also said he raised concerns internally about the animals\u2019 well-being while the project continued moving forward.<\/p>\n

The Sloth World website remains online, though ticket links now direct users to an email sign-up page. <\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 A sloth that arrived in critical condition as part of a group of 13 animals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2405,6654,28,30,29,1335,139,44635,44637,2411],"class_list":["post-251354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-attractions","tag-central-florida-zoo","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-sloth-world","tag-sloths","tag-theme-parks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251354","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=251354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}