Is this one of the cutest stories ever? We like to think so. A two year old Dutch girl has helped to save the life of a baby sloth by giving it her favourite teddy bear.
Orange.co.uk reports that Sjakie, a baby sloth born at the Burgers’ Zoo in the Netherlands was slowly starving to death as his mother was not producing enough milk for him to feed.
Zoo keepers had tried hand-feeding the little baby, but this wasn’t working either as Sjakie refused to nurse when he wasn’t able to cuddle his Mammy. Aw, cute but sad too, right?
“Baby sloths need to cuddle, especially when they nurse. We knew it needed to take milk from a syringe but without mum there it was not interested,” said Boudeqijn Stenbreker, a zoo keeper who was looking after Sjakie.
Desperate to save the baby sloth, staff at the zoo had thought of using a teddy bear to encourage Sjakie to cuddle as he nursed, but none of the soft toys at the zoo were working.
It was then that Boudewijn’s two year old daughter Lieke offered up her favourite teddy bear. And, surprisingly, it worked…
“Lieke was delighted. Sjakie took to the bear as if it was its own mum and now grasps it while zookeepers feed the baby extra milk as well as liquidised vegetables,” Boudewijn said.
The only drawback is that Lieke is unlikely to get her favourite teddy bear back, but fortunately, the toddler is just happy to see that the baby sloth is alive, well and thriving.
And thus, another baby sloth is saved. In celebration of this fact, we felt it was only fitting to show you this hilarious video of actress Kirsten Bell absolutely freaking out about a sloth. Enjoy…
