Cleveland's Baby Sloth Bear: Help Name The Cub

CLEVELAND — Northeast Ohioans can help the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo name its sloth bear cub.

Born in January 2019, the cub is the first sloth bear born at the zoo in three decades. Recently, veterinary and animal care teams had their first check up with the bear and determined the cub is a female.

There are three names to choose from for the cub:

• Lali — meaning darling
• Nisha — meaning night
• Shala — an homage to the cub's mom, Shiva, and dad, Balawat

Guests can vote for their name of choice at the sloth bear habitat at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo or online by donating to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo through the Future for Wildlife Fund. Whichever name gets the most donations will be chosen as the cub's name. Voting will continue until midnight on May 27.

Each of the possible names is unique to the sloth bears' native habitat of India. Each donation, for any name, will go towards efforts to protect the sloth bears in the wild.

Sloth bears can weigh up to 300 pounds as adults. They have flexible snouts to vacuum up termites or grubs from trees. The sloth bear also eats fruits, flowers, sugar cane and honey. Young sloth bears will ride on their mother's back by clinging to the long fur.

Sloth bears are currently listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is supporting a project in Nepal to protect the sloth bears. The species has been decimated in the Nepal region due to habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and poaching.