I’m going to a birthday celebration this month. It’s for a sloth. You can come, too; it is open to the public! Lovely Chloe is turning 21.
Chloe will be receiving guests in the Tropical Encounters exhibit at Como Zoo and Conservatory in Saint Paul, Minnesota. There is a special human-built tree there for her, shaded by a tall, real, ficus maxima stretching up toward the high glass ceiling. Brilliantly-colored saffron finches swoop, dipping to drink, fluttering in and out of patterns of sunlight and the thick tropical foliage. Her neighbors are fish and spiders, turtles and snails and reptiles, and many free-flying singing birds. They are all, as they do, communicating in a language that we do not understand.
Chloe is the only primate in the exhibit – one of the young keepers calls her “our star” – except she is not a primate. She is a Xenarthran, which sounds to me like something from the Mandalorian universe, but she is related to anteaters and armadillos, not Pedro Pascal. Also, Pascal moves much more quickly.
Pascal does not blend in, it is safe to say, but Chloe does. Sloths are so well-camouflaged in their natural habitat that Chloe is sometimes difficult to spot in her tree, and passing children can make a game of spotting her. Since she sleeps all day, sometimes people think she is not real. Sometimes, the keepers tell me, they even think she is a wig. Really.
Humans are prone to anthropomorphizing, and sometimes these perceptions stick and become the basis for language. Sloth is one of the Biblical seven deadly sins, and the word for sloth in most languages refers to laziness. Paresseux in French, faultier in German. Lazy is a human judgment and should not apply here; Chloe moves at exactly the right speed for her. Very slow.
Chloe is a Hoffman’s Two-Toed Sloth. There are two populations, separated by the Andes Mountains in the tropical forest of South America. She is a long way from home, here in St. Paul, although “home” is a somewhat elusive concept in this case. Chloe was born in a zoo, and brought to Como in 2005. She is a favorite of the public, with occasional television appearances and magazine articles and, sometimes, birthday parties. And she is a favorite of the keepers, who speak of her intimately, and with real affection.
There is a comfortable visitor bench adjacent to Chloe’s tree and, very soon, there will be streamers and decorations and possibly treats. I expect there will be singing, which may intrigue the free-flying finches, and I suppose will be ignored by the snails and unheard by the fish. On one past birthday, she ate a hollowed out tomato with steamed butternut squash, noodles, and a strawberry. Slowly. Happy birthday, dear Chloe…happy birthday to you!
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Decorations go up Sunday August 17 for the zookeeper talk at 11 am in the Tropical Encounters exhibit at Como Zoo. Thanks for the kind welcome and patient question-answering by keepers at Como Zoo, Jill, Alex and Frank. Photo courtesy of zookeeper Allison, from last year’s celebration.
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