East Sussex zoo mistakenly tried to breed two male sloths (Picture: Reuters)

It’s normally sloths that are slow but experts at a Sussex zoo took a while to realise they were trying to breed two males.

Staff at Drusillas Park were perplexed as to why their treasured animals Sofia and Tupee had been unable to produce offspring since 2011.

Eventually they decided to get some help and that’s when they found out they had been trying to breed two males.

‘We are going to have to find a more suitable name for Sofia,’ said head zoo keeper Mark Kenward.


He blamed medical records that had categorised Sofia as a female and said it was difficult to tell what sex sloths were.



‘We had never looked after sloths before and were relying on the information provided,’ he added.

Mr Kenward said it was unlikely the two males would be kept together at the Alfriston zoo – although we’re not sure they would still want to.