Dehydrated Baby Sloth Enjoys Teddy Bear as Mom

Sjakie (pronounced "Sharkey"), took birth at sloth at the Burgers' Zoo in the Netherlands, was
soon observed as suffering from hunger, by a zoo staffer and when separated from mother, it was observed that he was dehydrating.  Park manager Wineke Schoo told The World: "After a few days we could hear sounds like he was really hungry. And when we checked him out we saw that he was dehydrated so it was probably caused because the mother didn't have enough milk."

The zookeepers had to take the sloth home because he needed milk every three hours. One of the keeper's daughters, a 2-year-old girl, had another idea. She gave him her teddy bear.

The teddy bear gave Sjakie something to hold on to, his sharp claws too dangerous to cling to a human. He had rejected all of the other stuffed options that the zookeepers had tried. The keepers believe that this teddy bear worked because of its size.

The baby sloth is expected to crawl on his own soon, but will inevitably go back to the teddy bear when he is done crawling. The little girl is proud of her contribution to Sjakie and visits him on a regular basis.