Sloth Bear 'Soda' Created By Cambridge Students

TAMPA, FL – From time to time, visitors will be able to see Lowry Park Zoo’s sloth bears sipping on some specially designed “soda,” thanks to middle schoolers from Cambridge Christian School.

Sloth Bear Soda was designed by the middle school robotics team at Cambridge Christian as the students prepared for First Lego League tournaments. AT&T engineer Howard Petree launched the First Lego Lancers two years ago of which is sixth-grade daughter, Jasmine, is a member.

The idea to create an enrichment project came from the 2016-17 First Lego League Challenge: Animal Allies. While they researched enrichment for sloth bears last September, the team was introduced to Lowry Park Zoo’s education department by leaders of AT&T Pioneers, a volunteer network of current and former AT&T employees.

The students presented zoo officials four different ideas for enrichment for the sloth bears: a treat launching device, a drawer puzzle feeder that hides treats, a honey dispenser and Sloth Bear Soda.

“The students continued working with the zoo educators on their ideas, and finally presented their idea for a ‘Sloth Bear Soda’ on Jan. 18,” said Karen McAllister, AT&T’s senior public relations manager for west Florida. “The zoo leaders liked it so much, they decided to have the team install the project.”

The Sloth Bear Soda features a main base of conduit piping to function underground. A 5-gallon bucket with mealworms is placed in the piping, and a second 5-gallon bucket with holes cut into the bottom is placed on top of the bucket. The conduit piping is capped with a hard plastic circle with one hole in the center for a PVC “straw” to be placed.

According to Christina Lasso, the digital marketing coordinator at Lowry Park Zoo, the idea is for the sloth bear to move the straw around until it drops into one of the four holes in the top 5-gallon bucket. At this point, the bear would be able to suck up the mealworms through the PVC straw.

While the thought of a sloth bear sucking through a straw may sound ridiculous, Lasso said this actually mimics the sloth’s bear natural behavior.

“The sloth bears’ main diet is termites,” she said. “They will essentially rip open termite-filled logs and ‘suck’ them up through their termite tunnels.”

The First Lego Lancers were invited to install the Sloth Bear Soda project on Wednesday, Feb. 1. When the zoo’s two sloth bears had their first attempts at the Sloth Bear Soda, it didn’t go quite a well as hoped.

“Ken interacted with it for several hours before we set it back up for our female, Anne,” Lasso said. “Anne interacted with it for a solid hour and also seemed to really enjoy investigating.”

While the Sloth Bear Soda is expected to become a permanent fixture in the sloth bear habitat, Lasso said visitors may not see the contraption every time they visit the zoo.

“Enrichments, like the Sloth Bear Soda, are used periodically and can be used in different ways to keep that uniqueness in their day,” she said. “Guests may have a chance to see the enrichment, but it is not guaranteed.”

Despite the bears’ initial trepidation with the sloth bear soda, Lasso said zoo officials still consider the project to be a success since they achieved their goals of helping people – especially children – make connections with animals and inspiring them to care about a specific species.

“Students coming to design and make enrichments for an animal, and then getting to see the animal use that item, is a great learning experience,” Lasso said. “They get to see that animals don’t always use enrichments the way we may intend for them to and can come up with their own ways to get the treats that we may not have considered when designing. You never know, these kids might become future animal care professionals and conservationists of the next generation because of this experience.”

Images courtesy of Lowry Park Zoo