Athena was a sloth who lived at the National Zoo in Washington, and, according to the zoo, was a much beloved creature who had showed that sloths need not be slothful.
Instead, she had been spirited and rambunctious, the zoo said Monday in reporting her death. The seeming absence of slothfulness in this sloth seemed to raise the old question from Shakespeare: What’s in a name?
Athena had been in deteriorating health and died Nov. 13, aged 7, at the zoo hospital while being kept overnight for observation. No precise cause of death was given.
“We miss her dearly,” the zoo said.
Although not cited by the zoo, one of her distinctions was perhaps her service as a reminder of a well-known listing of human faults and failings. Athena was one of the zoo’s only three members of a species whose very name was one of the seven deadly sins: sloth.
One listing of the seven goes: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth.
Specifically, Athena was a two-toed sloth. Three-toed sloths also exist. Sloth bears, while part of the zoo’s collection, are said not to be true sloths. Two male two-toed sloths remain at the zoo.
The zoo said Athena had early-onset kidney disease and despite treatment, had been losing increasing amounts of weight. In addition to sleeping more, she had been losing interest in her favorite foods, the zoo said.
After being brought to the zoo hospital on Nov. 13, no obvious cause had been found for her symptoms and she was held for observation.
The popular image and usual description of the sloth appears to be that of a slow-moving creature, not involved in or inclined toward great activity. In humans, such qualities might lead to suspicions or accusations of laziness — or of course, sloth.
It seemed however, that Athena was not like that. Instead, according to the zoo, Athena’s keepers remembered her fondly “for her spirited and rambunctious personality,” shown at least in her youth.
Only a year old on arrival at the zoo in 2019, she was “very spunky,” said the zoo.
Often, Athena sneaked up behind keepers and tried to grab a hose or feed cups from them, according to the zoo. She enjoyed running through the spray of a mister.
By such means, apparently, the zoo said, she “showed visitors that sloths aren’t lazy or slow.”
Instead, according to the zoo, they are “active and inquisitive” and have “unique adaptations for a plant-based diet.”
Earlier, Athena had suffered from intestinal problems, for which, according to a report in a veterinary medical journal, she received what appeared to be a relatively novel treatment. Efforts were made to equip her intestinal tract with a new microbe population.
The new gut microbes were provided through a process known is known as a fecal transplant. Microbes from the excretions of healthy animals are supplied to those considered possibly able to benefit from them. Athena was provided with dried, powdered material in capsule form.
Although the name of the process may seem disagreeable, the research paper on Athena’s treatment indicated that at least at first, it brought some improvement.
“We are grateful for Athena’s contributions to this research,” which “will undoubtedly help countless other animals that could benefit from microbial treatments,” the zoo said.
It could not be immediately learned whether specialists thought that her kidney disease was connected to her earlier digestive problems or the treatment.
Two-toed sloths are native to the tropical rain forests of Central and South America, and spent most of their time hanging upside down in the tree canopy, eating leaves, fruit and shoots.
Their length is in the two-feet range, and they weigh perhaps a dozen pounds, with what has been described as the overall size and shape of a small dog.
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