AquaZoo welcomes second sloth: Silio arrives at Frisian zoo

AquaZoo has welcomed a second sloth. Three-year-old Silio arrived at the Leeuwarden Zoo late last month. He has since been introduced to Viana, the two-fingered sloth who was already staying at AquaZoo.

"We are very happy about Silio's arrival and hope visitors can come and admire him in two weeks. Silio has come to us as part of the European breeding program. The purpose of this program is to ensure healthy populations in zoos of wild endangered species," says head of animal care William Kreijkes.

The two-fingered sloth faces several threats. One is that their habitat is being reduced by cutting down the trees they live in. Partly for this reason, there is a breeding program for the two-fingered sloth. Under that program, Silio and Viana are paired together.

Young side
Meanwhile, Silio and Viana are in their enclosure together. "The first introduction went smoothly and all goes well between the two. Silio is easy to recognize: he has a rather dark snout compared to Viana," says Kreijkes. The male sloth, from the Swiss zoo Papiliorama, is currently still a bit on the young side to provide offspring.

"So it may be some time before young sloths can be seen at AquaZoo. But we are convinced that Viana and Silio are a good match and we hope that they will eventually ensure that we will be able to welcome young so that we can make a nice contribution to the breeding program," Kreijkes said.

Lots of sleep
Originally, the sloth is found in tropical forests in southern South America. The two-fingered sloth has two hooked fingers on each hand, which allows this species to climb trees well. These animals spend most of their time high up in the tree: they sleep up to 15 hours a day.

Sloths do this upside down, as well as mating and giving birth to young, for example. Because this species does everything upside down, the hairs of its fur grow from its belly to its back. The two-fingered sloth only comes out of the tree once a week and that is to defecate.