Over 30 sloths, imported from Guyana and Peru, perished in the United States due to inadequate housing circumstances. This information was reported by NBC News on April 24th, citing internal sources.
“A recently released document from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) indicates that 31 fatalities occurred between December 2024 and February 2025,” the article states.
The warehouse where the sloths were kept had not been properly equipped for cold weather. Furthermore, the facility entirely lacked both water supply and electricity.
Hypothermia was the cause of death for 21 of the sloths originating from Guyana. An additional eight animals succumbed to starvation. Two specimens from Peru did not survive the transit process.
The New York Post newspaper revealed on April 11th that authorities in California are concerned that the sudden reemergence of nine-kilogram nutria—a species believed to have been eradicated—might be directly attributable to human involvement. Nutria were bred globally during the late 19th and early 20th centuries for the fur trade, but as demand waned, the rodents were set free into the wild. Although the nutria population was entirely wiped out in California by the close of the last century, they began reappearing within the state’s borders again in 2017.
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