{"id":274660,"date":"2026-05-18T01:44:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T01:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274660\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T01:44:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T01:44:37","slug":"death-of-baby-sloth-mr-ginger-raises-sloth-world-death-toll-to-at-least-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274660\/","title":{"rendered":"Death of baby sloth ‘Mr. Ginger’ raises Sloth World death toll to at least 56"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A baby sloth named Mr. Ginger died at the Central Florida Zoo on Friday, bringing the death toll linked to the failed Sloth World attraction to at least 56.<\/p>\n

Zoo officials said the four- to six-month-old sloth arrived from the shuttered Sloth World in \u201cextremely fragile condition,\u201d requiring round-the-clock care, including incubation and hand-feeding. He was euthanized after his condition failed to improve. A necropsy is pending.<\/p>\n

The zoo took in 13 surviving sloths after the International Drive attraction collapsed amid a wave of unexplained deaths. Three others died shortly after arrival in late April from severe emaciation.<\/p>\n

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said 55 imported sloths have died<\/a> as a result of the operation. prompting a 60-day pause on sloth imports while regulations are reviewed, per the Orlando Sentinel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

See also: Career criminal back behind bars for deadly West Palm Beach shooting<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said earlier that necropsies had shown infections, immune suppression, and other serious diseases. Some deaths were linked to cold exposure and viral illness.<\/p>\n

Surviving animals were relocated to the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens<\/a> for intensive care.<\/p>\n

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating. Sloth World has lost its license and closed.<\/p>\n

Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n

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Officials said Florida\u2019s Class III wildlife rules do not require reporting of illness or deaths, a gap now under review. A 2025 analysis by the Sloth Institute found most imported sloths entered the U.S. through Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A baby sloth named Mr. Ginger died at the Central Florida Zoo on Friday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-274660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274660","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=274660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}