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  1. #1
    BPnet Lifer dakski's Avatar
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    Katie and I met a Sloth today through zoom! Thank you Bronx Zoo

    I will start with we weren't able to take pictures, but we did meet a Sloth today!

    Katie loves sloths and I surprised her with a virtual experience from the Bronx Zoo in New York USA.

    https://bronxzoo.com/things-to-do/wild-encounters

    https://bronxzoo.com/things-to-do/wi...unters/virtual

    We met a male 6 year old 2 toed sloth via zoom and his enclosure mate, an armadillo, also from South America.

    It was great. They were feeding the sloth and we got to ask a lot of questions and see him really close up. I found out that armadillos are insectivores and like the same things my leopard geckos and Ferry, my Chewie, like to eat.

    The sloth was adorable and personable and is one of two types of 2 toed sloths kept at the bronx zoo. He was a Hawthorne 2 Toed Sloth. The keeper said it takes years for them to became this friendly and trusting. However, the other 2 toed species they keep apparently only take a few months to get acclimated.

    3 toed sloths are endangered and not kept at the zoo because of their food requirements. This guy was chowing down on some yams.

    He moved slowly, but when it came time for food, his nose went nuts and happily took food from the keeper's hands. Apparently, Sloths have poor eyesight and rely on smell for finding food and mates (as well as a weird call they make to attract sloths of opposite sex).

    Anyway, I wanted to show users here that were unaware of these types of experiences that they are out there. For our honeymoon last year, Katie and I fed seals at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in RI.

    Check out your local zoos and big zoos around your area to see what you can do in person and what you can do online.

    With COVID the zoos haven't been making as much money and many do a lot for conservation and education - reptiles included.

    Why not have a great experience and support a zoo at the same time?

    Finally, here is a picture of what a Hawthorne 2 Toed Sloth looks like.


  2. The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to dakski For This Useful Post:

    Bogertophis (09-16-2020),cincy (09-17-2020),jmcrook (09-17-2020),Luvyna (09-17-2020),Reinz (09-17-2020),richardhind1972 (09-17-2020),Toad37 (09-17-2020)

  3. #2
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    What a great idea, Dave! Your own experience for sure, but the larger picture too...supporting the zoos during these tough times this way if you can.

    Sloths always look like they'd be so cuddly...I can't imagine what an angry or upset sloth would look like.
    Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
    Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

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  5. #3
    BPnet Lifer dakski's Avatar
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    Re: Katie and I met a Sloth today through zoom! Thank you Bronx Zoo

    Quote Originally Posted by Bogertophis View Post
    What a great idea, Dave! Your own experience for sure, but the larger picture too...supporting the zoos during these tough times this way if you can.

    Sloths always look like they'd be so cuddly...I can't imagine what an angry or upset sloth would look like.

    Actually, they have enormous canines, which we saw up close. They show them to potential predators as a scare tactic, much like Blue Tongue Skinks show their blue mouths and tongs. The keeper said they can move quickly if they have to/want to and escape is an option as well. However, as calm as they seem, I wouldn't want a bite from one, that's for sure.

    They also have very coarse hair - more like hair than fur it seems.

    Natural predators for sloths include hawks and even anaconda.

    Yeah, I am big on anything that helps raise awareness and appreciation for animals, especially reptiles being so misunderstood. Many of the zoos I've seen show reptiles as well as "cute" mammals. We chose the sloth experience, but there are different options we've seen from cheetahs to hedgehogs to carpet pythons. It depends on the zoo and your availability to be in person, online, and what times are options.

    Honestly, the impetus was to give Katie a good time. She's a healthcare worker and has been working her butt off through COVID. I ended up having a lot of fun too, but she deserved something special. Too risky to take her to the zoo and schedules make that difficult right now as well. So this worked out well.

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  7. #4
    BPnet Senior Member richardhind1972's Avatar
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    Re: Katie and I met a Sloth today through zoom! Thank you Bronx Zoo

    That really is so cool Dave.
    So glad Katie and yourself had fun, I saw the sloths at our Chester zoo last year when we went and was awsome.

    As you say a lot of zoos have been under so much pressure due to lack of visitor numbers which they depend on to feed there animals. Our zoos was closed for 3 months during lock down and was touch and go whether some would actually open again, fingers crossed most have pulled thru, let's hope they carry on this way



    Sent from my ELS-NX9 using Tapatalk

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  9. #5
    BPnet Lifer Reinz's Avatar
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    What a great experience Dakski! Thanks for sharing. Just too cool!

    The San Diego Zoo and Sea World San Diego offer, or at least used to offer all kinds of behind the scene tours and one on one education.

    The Zoo would even have special sleep overs in the shark tunnel for birthday parties and such. They also have/had special breakfast/brunch programs with animals as well.

    25-30 years ago I did a few behind the scene tours with my family at Sea World SD. We did the Arctic Fox tour to see Boris and Natasha. And we did one with the Walrus and also the, sorry having a blonde moment; I can’t remember the name of the dolphin/small whale that has a huge forehead.
    The one thing I found that you can count on about Balls is that they are consistent about their inconsistentcy.

    1.2 Coastal Carpet Pythons
    Mack The Knife, 2013
    Lizzy, 2010
    Etta, 2013
    1.1 Jungle Carpet Pythons
    Esmarelda , 2014
    Sundance, 2012
    2.0 Common BI Boas, Punch, 2005; Butch, age?
    0.1 Normal Ball Python, Elvira, 2001
    0.1 Olive (Aussie) Python, Olivia, 2017

    Please excuse the spelling in my posts. Auto-Correct is my worst enema.

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  11. #6
    BPnet Lifer dakski's Avatar
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    Re: Katie and I met a Sloth today through zoom! Thank you Bronx Zoo

    Quote Originally Posted by Reinz View Post
    What a great experience Dakski! Thanks for sharing. Just too cool!

    The San Diego Zoo and Sea World San Diego offer, or at least used to offer all kinds of behind the scene tours and one on one education.

    The Zoo would even have special sleep overs in the shark tunnel for birthday parties and such. They also have/had special breakfast/brunch programs with animals as well.

    25-30 years ago I did a few behind the scene tours with my family at Sea World SD. We did the Arctic Fox tour to see Boris and Natasha. And we did one with the Walrus and also the, sorry having a blonde moment; I can’t remember the name of the dolphin/small whale that has a huge forehead.

    Beluga Whale?????? We met two at Mystic Aquarium here in CT. The guy below is from the Georgia Aquarium, but it's a good pic.


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