By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Wright Park Zoo in Dodge City was home to more than 120 animals representing nearly three dozen species. A contract to begin a redesign of the zoo was approved in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. The project is regaining steam, and the zoo closed to the public in September 2022. Ashley Burdick, curator at the Brit Spaugh Zoo in Great Bend, said her facility is helping out by taking in a two-toed sloth and raccoon from Dodge City.
"The sloth, Lucia, is going to be on loan to us," Burdick said. "We don't know exactly how long, but we imagine it will be at least a couple of years. She's currently off-exhibit right now. It's too cold for them to be outside anyway. After the New Year starts, we're going to add a sidewalk and some fencing to get that enclosure open to the public."
Lucia will share the space with Enzo the tamandua. Two-toed sloths have toes with two claws on the front feet and three toes on the back feet. The nocturnal creatures spend almost their entire lives in the wild living upside down in trees. For this reason, their hair grows in the opposite direction of other mammals. The animals are notorious for moving slowly.
"The interesting thing about them is they are a little bit deceiving with that," Burdick said. "They can move fast, and they can sometimes be aggressive, which people wouldn't expect out of them."
Sloths are native to the forests of Central and South America. Due to a muscle mass of approximately 25 percent, which is half that of most mammals, sloths are unable to shiver to stay warm.