Sexing a Sloth is a Tricky Business For Drusillas Park
After picking out a beautifully feminine name for their slothy senorita, Drusillas Park in Alfriston, has discovered that Consuela the sloth is packing something slightly different to most females… Consuela, it turns out, is actually a male
It’s very hard to determine the gender of a sloth, as there is virtually no difference between males and females. In fact, it is so hard to tell their sex, it’s actually quicker to send a fur sample off for DNA testing than it is for zoo keepers to try and work it out for themselves.
Drusillas’ Head Keeper, Mark Kenward, had his suspicions for a while that Consuela wasn’t female. After embarking on a little investigation, he uncovered that the poor fella had been wrongly named.
Head Keeper, Mark Kenward, commented: “Unlike the large majority of animal species, sloths display almost no sexual dimorphism whatsoever. This means that they look pretty much identical, therefore making it almost impossible to tell which gender is which.”
“Now we know for sure that Consuela is a male, we feel we really ought to give the little guy a more masculine name!”
Consuela was originally supposed to join Drusillas’ other male sloth, Sophocles, as his mate. However, now Consuela is showing a strong and unsurprising interest in the ladies, he will remain living with Flash. Drusillas are very hopeful that the two will breed over the coming years, particularly now they have had the time to form such a strong bond.
Drusillas is running a competition to re-name Consuela. Anyone who wants to be in with a chance of winning should go to the Drusillas Facebook Page for details of how to enter https://www.facebook.com/drusillaspark/ . The competition will be closing on Wednesday 2nd August 2017.