Cincinnati Zoo’s sloth habitat to be named after boy who passed away earlier this year

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is renaming its sloth habitat after a Cincinnati boy who passed away earlier this year.

According to the zoo, Oliver Nicholson and his brother were born seven weeks premature and diagnosed with a series of rare birth defects that affect different systems in the body. He would have been two years old Monday, October 11.

His father told the zoo he gave him a stuffed sloth during one of his hospital stays that he slept with every night.

When the family learned the zoo’s sloth was pregnant, they started a petition to name the baby after Oliver.

Unfortunately, the zoo announced on Sunday, October 10 that the baby sloth was stillborn.

>> Cincinnati Zoo sloth delivers stillborn pup

The zoo will still honor Oliver by renaming the exhibit the “Oliver Nicholson Memorial Sloth Habitat.”

“We had been in contact with the zoo and had discussed other ways that we could honor Oliver,” said Alex Nicholson, Oliver’s father. “This tribute will be lasting and means so much,” said Alex. “It gives us a huge bright spot on an especially difficult day and some positive news to share with the 80,000 people who signed our petition.”

The zoo says that Lightning, the mother of the sloth baby, is currently in the Zoo’s Animal Ambassador Center but will likely be reunited with Moe, her 22-year-old companion, in The Oliver Nicholson Memorial Sloth Habitat at some point in the future.

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