Orphaned Baby Sloth Clings Onto Stuffed Animal For Emotional Support
(INSIDE EDITION) After Ash the orphaned baby sloth was brought to the Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica, she turned to a stuffed animal for emotional support.
The Sloth Sanctuary often gives its rescued sloths stuffed animals to keep them from bonding too much with humans, giving them a better chance of survival upon release.
"[She] clings onto the plush toy 'surrogate,'" while she is fed goats milk from a bottle, the Sloth Sanctuary said.
"Nature is changing around us, and we ideally do not want these rescued sloths to be dependent on human care," the Sloth Sanctuary wrote on their website.
Ash was seen tumbling out of an almond tree by a couple setting up their hair braiding business. According to the Sloth Sanctuary, the couple couldn't find the two-toed sloth's mother, so they picked her off the ground and took her to the sanctuary, a 30-minute drive from where she was found.
Ash's light color coat indicated that she was still a baby, and therefore prone to hypothermia without the warmth of her mother's body. Mother sloths have been known to abandon their babies due to overpopulation or changing food supply, according to the Sloth Sanctuary.
But Ash arrived to the center in good health, although a little bit dehydrated, making him an excellent candidate for the Sanctuary's release program.
According to the Sloth Sanctuary, many sloths that are rescued often do not survive after being released due to the stress of the new environment, but they hope that giving Ash the comfort of a stuffed animal will help condition her to be released.
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