For Release: May 22, 2006
Media only:
John Gibbons 
(202)
633-3083
Peper Long (202)
633-3082
National Zoo’s Sloth Bear Cub Goes on Exhibit
The newest bear cub at Smithsonian’s National
Zoo will greet visitors for the first time tomorrow
morning, May 23. The 4 1/2-month-old male sloth
bear, which is yet unnamed, has spent most of his time
in an indoor den, but is now old enough to begin exploring
his outdoor exhibit under the watchful eye of his mother
“Hana.”
Since the cub’s birth on Jan. 9, National Zoo
staff monitored both mother and cub via a camera mounted
in their den. During the past two weeks, however, Zoo
staff has let the cub out into the exhibit periodically
to become acclimated with the outdoor yard and the exhibit’s
dry moat. When he is not investigating every inch of
the yard, he is playing with his mother or climbing
up and riding on her back—behavior unique to sloth bears.
He is rambunctious—climbing, chewing, and generally
keeping his mother very busy. The cub’s father,
“Merlin,” can often be seen out in the adjacent
bear yard. As in the wild, the male bear has no role
in the cub’s upbringing.
The cub will not be the only one exploring new exhibit
yards for long, however. This fall, all three sloth
bears will move to a new exhibit on Asia Trail, and
will be the first species visitors see upon entering
the Zoo’s main gates on Connecticut Avenue. Currently,
the Zoo’s sloth bear exhibit—one of the Zoo’s
oldest exhibit spaces—is located at the bottom of the
Zoo’s Beaver Valley area.
Sloth bears are one of seven species to be exhibited
on the Zoo's Asia Trail, which will also include clouded
leopards, Asian small-clawed otters and giant pandas.
Asia Trail is scheduled to open in September.
This is the third cub for Hana; she gave birth to two
cubs in Dec. 2004, but both cubs died within four days
of being born. At birth, sloth bear cubs are very small,
fragile and dependent on maternal care.
# # #
Note to editors: The sloth bear cub will be let into
the public exhibit at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, May 23.
Please contact the National Zoo’s office of public
affairs if you plan to cover the cub’s debut.
Also, photos of the cub are available through the National
Zoo’s office of public affairs.
