A pair of sloths have speeded up their usual slow dating game to produce London Zoo’s first baby sloth - to the surprise of their keepers.
Zookeepers at ZSL London Zoo were surprised that two-toed sloth Marilyn was pregnant. They were unaware she had mated with male Leander, who arrived from Germany in 2012 to be paired with her. Staff at the zoo had no idea they had even acknowledged each other.
Two-toed sloths have been known to take nearly a decade to form a pair bond and breed but, including an estimated 11-month pregnancy, it appears Marilyn and Leander took a mere six months to successfully mate. Zookeeper Tegan McPhail said: “To say we were surprised when Marilyn fell pregnant is something of an understatement.”
Goggle-eyed on multiple screens
Two-thirds of football World Cup viewers will be glued to up to three screens during each match, a survey has predicted.
Of the 92 per cent of fans set to tune in, 63 per cent will be using multiple devices such as tablets and smartphones at the same time, the poll of 2,002 adults by Opinium Research for John Lewis found.
While the television remains the hub for viewers, 28 per cent will be using tablets to follow commentary and 25 per centwill be doing it on smartphones, while 56 per cent will be using smartphones for checking match and team statistics and 46 per cent will do this on tablets.
Five meerkats in public debut
Visitors to a zoo will be able to compare its baby meerkats after a brood of five youngsters were allowed out of their burrow for the first time.
The quintet of African mammals have made their first public appearances at Chester Zoo after being hidden away by their parents since being born on April 20. They have yet to be named because staff do not know whether they are male or female.
Zoo team manager Dave White said: “All of the pups are full of rough-and-tumble. They’re a real handful for mum, dad and the other adults in the mob who together are trying to keep them in check.”
Sweet revenge with frozen fudge
A man smacked an ice-cream van driver with a fudge bar in a dispute over change after his daughter bought the frozen treat.
The ice-cream seller told police in Rock Hill, Southern Carolina, that the man accused her of not giving his daughter correct change – and that was when the fudge bar was allegedly used as a weapon.
Officers who responded to the call reported that they saw a red mark on the driver’s arm. The driver gave officers a description of the man and the white truck he used for a getaway vehicle. The police report did not say whether he took the fudge bar with him.
Mum leaves bear cub behind her
Police in southern Oregon held an unlikely suspect overnight – a well-behaved black bear cub.
Police Chief Don Brown said a teenage boy and his parents took the cub to the police station in a large plastic storage bin after the boy found the cub whimpering in the bushes outside his house in the town of Myrtle Creek. He said the mother bear was nowhere in sight.
Mr Brown said it could have been risky to pick up the cub because the mother bear could have spotted him and attacked, but the (5.5kg) female cub was “very well-behaved” spending the night at the station. Wildlife department officials are hunting for the missing mother.
Concern gives way to vandalism
A sculpture of a man sleepwalking in his pants which has provoked some concern on an all-female college campus has been vandalised.
The fibreglass sculpture – dubbed Sleepwalker – was defaced with yellow paint on its face, left arm, left leg and a foot. It was one of several properties at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, to be vandalised, and campus authorities are investigating.
Some students at the women’s college had criticised the statue as threatening and demanded that it be removed, but it is part of a larger exhibit by sculptor Tony Matelli at a campus museum, and is scheduled to stay until July.