Overview
- Alface is a Linné’s two-toed sloth born at the Dallas Zoo in 2023 through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan.
- She arrived in Chicago in September and is bonding with caretakers behind the scenes before any public encounters.
- Once ready, she is expected to appear in the aquarium’s Amazon Rainforest section as an ambassador animal.
- Her name means lettuce in Portuguese, reflecting the first solid food she ate as a baby and the primary language in much of her native range.
- Her vegetarian diet includes greens, sweet potatoes, grapes and mangos, and Shedd highlights that sloths’ coarse fur can host algae as the species faces habitat loss from Amazon deforestation.