Philly Zoo's Baby Sloth Bear Making Debut Online Thursday

PHILADELPHIA — A baby sloth bear was born at the Philadelphia Zoo in early December.

And now, the baby sloth bear will make its debut to the public Thursday during the zoo's Philly Zoo at 2 live Facebook series.

You can see the cub's debut on the zoo's Facebook page here at 2 p.m. today.

Kayla, the zoo's 7-year-old female and 6-year old Bhalu, a male, welcomed the cub on Dec. 11.

Since its birth, the cub has remained indoors with Kayla bonding.

During this quality time, Kayla kept the baby very close, with neither of them exploring very far from the other.

Keepers kept a watchful eye on the two by a video camera that was installed in the exhibit.

The camera provided privacy for the animals while enabling the keepers to observe them ensuring all was going well while mom and cub were denned up and out of sight.

Recently, Kayla began to give the cub more freedom to explore, indicating to the keepers that she is ready to venture outdoors with the cub.

The birth marked the first successful sloth cub birth since 1997 after Kayla lost a cub shortly after birth last year. Kayla also lost another cub in her litter that birthed the new cub.

According to the zoo, the cub is the fourth sloth bear there, joining Kayla, Bhalu, and Balawat, a 13-year-old male.

As the cub continues to grow, it will ride on Kayla’s back by clinging to her long fur to get around faster.

Eventually it will become more independent, and will continue to grow larger, ultimately weighing up to 300 pounds when fully grown. Still nursing from mom, the infant will learn how to use its unique flexible snouts to suck up termites or ants from trees. Aside from insects, sloth bears also enjoy fruits, flowers, sugar cane and honey.

Native to the lowland forests of India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, Sloth bears are listed as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with populations declining dramatically in recent decades due to habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and poaching.