Cincinnati Zoo places Lightning the sloth on 24-hour birth watch

CINCINNATI — Caretakers at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden on Thursday placed Lightning the sloth on 24-hour birth watch.

The zoo announced in October that the two-toed tree-dweller was slow-cooking a new addition to the Cincinnati Zoo.

Lightning will be under 24-hour surveillance for the next several weeks until the pup is born. The zoo initially estimated Lightning’s pup would join the family in the early summer of 2023. So far the 10-year-old mother-to-be is right on schedule.

Lightning’s first pregnancy came to a sad end in October 2021 when she delivered a stillborn pup.