Zoo Miami’s first newborn sloth bears in 25 years have their first exam. Here are the photos
Zoo Miami’s latest additions, a pair of sloth bear cubs, had their first photo op after the new year and the images are so expressive and cute you can almost imagine Mama Bear, Kematee, breaking out her phone to show everyone how adorable her offspring are.
Since she can’t do that, and Zoo Miami communications director Ron Magill can, we’ll leave his photos to the task. Especially since the public’s going to have to wait several weeks for the pair to go on public display. Their dad, Hank, 11, a 2016 arrival at Zoo Miami from the National Zoo in Washington, will be visible, however. Zoo vets want to make sure Kematee and her cubs are properly bonded and that the newbies can safely navigate their outdoor habitat before they greet guests.
“Yippee! I’m here, I’m cute, and I have all my parts,” one of the sloth cubs seems to be saying during its first neonatal exam after the new year at Zoo Miami exactly one month after its birth at the Kendall-area attraction on Dec. 4, 2023.
First look at the cubs
“Ooo, that’s cold. That tickles,” a newborn sloth cub seems to be complaining as a Zoo Miami veterinarian places some thingamabob atop its small furry head at the neonatal exam.
Both are female and weighed about 2 to 3 pounds at the exam.
Magill says that these are the first cubs for Kematee, a 4-year-old from Philadelphia Zoo that arrived at Zoo Miami in 2021. They are Hank’s first surviving cubs and the first sloth bears born at Zoo Miami since 1998.
“This is only the second time that we have had sloth bears born in the 44-year history of the zoo so it is significant,” Magill said. Those sloth bears born in 1998 moved on to other zoos when they reached sexual maturity to have their own families.
Kematee delivered the first cub in a secluded den area behind her public habitat at about 4 a.m. on Dec. 4. At around 9:30 a.m. she gave birth to a second cub.
Sloths can live 20 to 30 years in the wild and up to 50 in captivity, according to Sloth Encounters. They are threatened in the wild by poaching and habitat destruction, Magill said.
