ZooParc Overloon welcomes a female tamandua and sloth

ZooParc has welcomed two new female residents: a southern tamandua and a two-fingered sloth. The two ladies come to live in Madidi, the expedition section that opened last year and is all about South America.

Steven van den Heuvel, head zookeeper says, "We are very happy to be able to introduce our two new female residents on International Women's Day." Madidi is already home to males of these two endangered species. The females have come to the zoo in Overloon as part of European management programs. With these programs, European zoos ensure a healthy population of species that are endangered, or whose habitat is under pressure.

Van den Heuvel: "Last year, two tamandua came to our park. We were under the impression that these were a male and a female. Because these two did not get along very well, we examined them more closely. After all, the sex of these animals is not easy to see. And then it turned out that they were two males. This explained the behavior towards each other. We would like to contribute to the preservation of this species. Therefore, we had to decide to have one of the males moved to another zoo soon. Currently, this male still resides in the indoor building with the spider monkeys. The female tamandua Daria will now come in his place." Daria is one year old and comes to ZooParc from Zoo Dresden.

Management Program
In addition, the female sloth Frieda is also coming to ZooParc from Zoo Krefeld. She too is one year old. It will be some time before any young come, Van den Heuvel knows: "Frieda is still very young now, so it will take a few years. But it is very nice that our visitors can already see her in the near future."

Good tree climbers
Southern tamandua live mainly in trees. To hold themselves securely to the branches of the trees, they use not only their claws, but also their tails. The skin near the tail is therefore somewhat thicker, hairless and a bit rough. This gives it extra grip when climbing trees. This tree anteater is not only in the trees, as it is also good at swimming.

Sloths are also good swimmers, but mainly live hanging upside down in trees. The two-fingered sloths have two hooked fingers on each hand and three on each foot, allowing them to hold on tightly. Because these animals hang mostly in trees, their hair grows upside down, namely from the belly to the back. Also, the hairs of these sloths are hollow inside, allowing algae to grow in the hairs. Therefore, in the wild, this species often has a greenish color, making them well camouflaged.

Habitat destroyed
The tamandua and sloths live in the wild mostly in the tropical rainforests and savannas of South America. One of these areas is Madidi, a national park in the upper Amazon basin. Much of the Amazon region has already been largely destroyed. Madidi is also under pressure from urbanization, forest clearing and road construction. Several animals found in the area are also threatened by this.

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