Click on the Osth to hear it.

National Zoo News, online vol. 1023

A New Species Discovered in The National Zoo

 October 23, 2005- In the National Zoo a new species was discovered.  This animal looks like a three-toed sloth but has the head of an otter.  But she did not always look like this.

 When the sloth was born she did not look like a normal three-toed sloth but no one could tell what she looked like.  Her head did not look like other sloth’s heads but the veterinarians said that she was fine but they would keep an eye on her. They checked up on her every day to see if there was anything wrong, the only thing was her head was always looking different but no one could tell what it was starting to look like. 

 On day when a zookeeper went in to feed the sloth she noticed that her head looked like an otter to her.  The zookeeper called the veterinarian and she called all of the other staff that could come.  One of them brought a picture of a sloth’s head with them.  They compared the picture to the animal’s head.  They looked almost exactly the same.  When the veterinarian arrived she said that she had never seen anything like this before so she did a full checkup on the creature.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with her that anyone could find.  The veterinarian decided that the only explanation was that this was a new species that the zoo discovered.  The zoo named the species an Osth for the two creatures that she looked like.  Because of the new discovery The National Zoo became even more famous than it already was.  They get at least thirty- five people that come just to see the Osth everyday and then stay to look at the other animals.  Because of the number of animals at the zoo no one can finish the whole zoo in one day so they keep coming back till they see the whole zoo and then want to keep coming back.

 The Osth baffled every one, the zoo staff, and everyone who knows anything about the Osth.  The National Zoo hired scientists to try and explain why this happened.  The scientists tested everything that could have caused this.  They finally came to the conclusion that the Osth’s water had water that came from the pool that the otters swim in everyday.  Now they give half of the sloth babies’ water from the otter’s pool to drink so they can keep the species alive.  Even though some people would never want to harm them and they are not endangered or threatened they are still being protected because they are a new species and there are not as many of them as people would like.