Aquarium narrows list of sloth names

BALTIMORE - The National Aquarium in Baltimore has narrowed a long list of name suggestions for its baby sloth to five.

The naming contest began October 18 for the Linne's two-toed sloth born in Baltimore in August.

Names being considered are as follows:

       Iris - In honor of the beautiful flower
       Camden - In honor of the city it was born in, Baltimore, and the winning baseball season
       Waylay - Meaning surprise, like the baby was for Ivy
       Izzy - Submitted by a teacher on behalf of a Frederick County Public School class that selected the name
       Luna - Meaning moon in Spanish

A panel of National Aquarium staff from various departments, selected the final five names from 1,726 entries.

The public is invited to visit http://www.aqua.org/slothcontest between now and November 15 to vote on their favorite name for the newest addition to the Upland Tropical Rain Forest and the first born to Ivy, one of the four sloths in the exhibit. After votes are tallied, the winning name will be announced on the morning of November 16.

"We were thrilled with the name suggestions that we received," said Steven Schindler, National Aquarium VP/CMO. "From silly to sweet, the names submitted by the public were clearly well thought out. The final names selected are all incredible and we think the public has as tough of a choice to make as we did narrowing it down but we're eager to finally give the baby sloth a name."

Linne's two-toed sloths are commonly found in South America's rain forests, where they spend almost their entire lives in the trees. They are nocturnal by nature, fairly active at night while spending most of the day sleeping. Adult sloths are typically the size of a small dog, approximately 24-30 inches in length and about 12-20 pounds in weight.