New Baby Sloth at Zoo Atlanta Will be Named by the Internet

Zoo Atlanta is home to an adorable new resident. The infant Hoffmann's two-toed sloth has been charming zoo employees since it was born four months ago, but it still hasn't been given a name. Now, WSB-TV Atlanta reports that the Georgia zoo has asked the public to pick one for the baby sloth.

The tiny sloth was born to the female sloth Bonnie and the male Cocoa on November 4, 2018. Its sex hasn't been revealed yet, so the zoo allowed voters to choose names for both sexes. And maybe because the internet doesn't have a stellar track record when it comes to naming things, the voting choices were narrowed down to a list of six possible names.

The options are Blossom, Fern, and Willow if it's female and Bean, Clyde, and Rio if it's a male. Voting closed at 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, March 10, and both the winning name and the sloth's sex will be revealed on Zoo Atlanta's social media pages at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19. The zoo may want to keep it a surprise, but chances are the baby is a girl: The species has an imbalanced sex ratio that favors females.

Hoffmann's two-toed sloths have an unusually long gestation period for mammals their size. After a nearly year-long pregnancy, a two-toed sloth baby is born with fully developed claws for clinging to its mother, which it does for roughly the first year of its life. Sloth babies are also notable for the impossibly cute squeaking noises they make.