A baby sloth at London Zoo is being hand-reared using a teddy bear as a surrogate mother.
The seven-week-old animal, named Edward because of comparisons between his claws and Edward Scissorhands, found that his mother stopped producing milk and was unable to care for him.
Zookeeper Kelly-Anne Kelleher has since taken on the role of his mother, with the help of a specially adapted teddy bear.
Zookeeper Kelly-Anne Kelleher cradles Edward
The bear has been adapted using carabiners, climbing equipment which enables it to be hung from a branch whilst he climbs on and has the opportunity to strengthen his limbs. Sloths normally develop their muscles by clinging on to their mothers.
Kelly-Anne said: “We’re bottle-feeding Edward every three hours with goat’s milk, topped up with some vitamins to keep him fit and healthy.
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“Just like with human baby formula, we heat it up until it’s at room temperature, and test its warmth on our wrists- it took him a few days to get used to the bottle, but now he’s hungrily suckling as soon as we give it to him.
“If he’s feeling particularly hungry he makes a very funny noise to let us know- a sound between a squeak and a sneeze, but it’s very loud and he makes his point.”
