Photo by Kelli S. Hewett.
Coconut has quickly become a social media favorite.
Coconut the two-toed sloth is officially on Birmingham time, and she’s in no hurry to do anything about it.
The Birmingham Zoo’s newest resident, nicknamed Coco, arrived in April from the Essex County Turtle Back Zoo in New Jersey. She has already settled into her custom-built sloth habitat in the Predator Building.
Animal care professional Angelina Bruno calls her “smart, a little sassy and an afternoon girl.”
“I think the cutest thing she does — and it’s because I like a little sass in my animals — when she takes her food from us, as soon as she finishes, she’ll look directly at us and she’ll follow us” with her gaze, Bruno said. “She’s like, ‘I’m ready, where’s my next food?’ It’s the very direct eye contact that comes after the treat.”
Coconut is currently the zoo’s only sloth and is expected to stay that way.
Sloths are naturally solitary animals, Bruno said, coming together only to mate. Because Coconut wasn’t born in a facility accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, there are no plans to breed her.
“She’s going to live her best single lady life,” Bruno said.
Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Zoo.
Coconut swings in her custom habitat in the Predator Building at the Birmingham Zoo.
Coconut, who weighs just over 19 pounds, is especially food-motivated — and not shy about asking for seconds at meal time. She moves in slow, deliberate motion, almost as if she were underwater. She sports surprisingly soft shaggy fur and a nose that feels like a wet puppy’s.
Her menu is sophisticated: a specially formulated sloth gel frozen into popsicle-style pieces. It’s packed with nutrients for her famously delicate tummy. She also loves squash, carrots, sweet potato, lettuce and a carefully curated “Coconut-approved browse list” of leafy greens collected around the zoo.
Coconut is pretty low maintenance, zoo staff members said. She only poops once a week, and for sloths, that ends up being about one-third of their body weight.
Coconut’s road to Birmingham wasn’t exactly a straight shot.
She was confiscated from a non-accredited facility and went to the accredited Turtle Back Zoo for temporary care.
Meanwhile, the Birmingham Zoo already had a sloth-ready habitat, having lost its male sloth in October 2025.
Sloths live an average of about 15 years.
When word went out in professional circles that Coconut needed a long-term home, Birmingham reached out.
Transported in her own crate with food, water, a calming blanket and two animal care professionals as her personal escorts, Coconut took to her new surroundings right away.
“She hand fed from us the next day,” Bruno said. “There was never any behavior that indicated she was stressed.”
Now, whenever Mary Claire Vaughan needs a guaranteed hit on the Birmingham Zoo’s social feeds, she knows exactly who to feature.
“I post a picture of Coco and it’s guaranteed to get a few thousand likes,” Vaughan said. “I think seeing [her] up close and personal is really interesting for people.”
For the best chance to see the normally sleepy Coconut at her most active, Bruno recommends visiting when the zoo first opens or in the last few hours before closing.
