{"id":304720,"date":"2025-11-21T07:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/304720\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T07:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T07:16:09","slug":"meet-alface-the-shedds-new-two-toed-sloth-named-for-one-of-her-favorite-treats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/304720\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Alface, The Shedd’s New Two-Toed Sloth Named For One Of Her Favorite Treats"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUSEUM CAMPUS \u2014 The Shedd is welcoming an adorable new addition to its lineup of animals to \u201cawww\u201d over: Alface the sloth.<\/p>\n

For the first time in 20 years, the slow-moving yet charismatic mammal will grace the halls of the Shedd. Alface is a Linn\u00e9\u2019s two-toed sloth. Her name means \u201clettuce\u201d in Portuguese \u2014 which was the first solid food she ate as a baby. Portuguese is the primary language spoken in her native habitat of South America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since arriving in Chicago in September, Alface has been exploring her new surroundings behind the scenes and bonding with her caretakers at the Shedd.\u00a0She will eventually be able to be seen in the Amazon Rainforest section of the aquarium.<\/p>\n

Besides her namesake of lettuce, Alface\u00a0eats other fruits and vegetables at the Shedd like sweet potatoes, grapes and mangoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce she\u2019s ready, we\u2019re excited to bring Alface face-to-face with guests, inspiring them to care for sloths and the other animals that call the Amazon Rainforest home,\u201d said Katie Majerowski, manager of animal engagement, in a news release.\u00a0 \u201cEvery encounter with an animal at Shedd can be the spark that inspires conservation action, which truly brings the aquarium\u2019s mission to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Alface the sloth hangs out at The Shedd. Credit: Shedd Aquarium\/Brenna Hernandez<\/p>\n

While Alface is a native Texan, born at the Dallas Zoo in 2023, her natural habitat is the Amazon River basin. In the Amazon, sloths like Alface can be found living their lives in the tree canopy \u2014 sleeping up to 15 hours a day.<\/p>\n

The Shedd points out that the sloth\u2019s coarse fur keeps the animals warm and dry in rainy weather, but can also grow algae and host insects. The algae growth helps the sloths to camouflage in the treetops by giving them a greenish tint.<\/p>\n

Like many other animals in the Amazon, Alface\u2019s species faces an existential threat by deforestation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Shedd hopes Alface will serve as an \u201cambassador\u201d for her species, and raise awareness for the challenges facing sloths and other exotic animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MUSEUM CAMPUS \u2014 The Shedd is welcoming an adorable new addition to its lineup of animals to \u201cawww\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-304720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}