Pet Safari Sloth Appears on Talk Show Today

Larry Lipke and a 6-month-old have every reason to tune in to Anderson Cooper's new daytime TV talk show today.

They're in it.

Lipke, owner of Main Street store , recently flew to New York with the a baby two-toed sloth to be filmed and interviewed for a 10-minute segment on "Anderson."

Lipke said that famed CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has a fondness for the exotic animal.

"As it happens, Anderson Cooper loves sloths and when preparing for a show about pets, he mentioned to his staff that it would be really exciting to have someone on the show with a pet sloth. Consequently his producers began looking. They found [me] through previous news articles about the birth of his sloths," Lipke wrote in a news release dated Sept. 23.

The (Channel 11) at 9 a.m. today (Friday, Oct. 7).

It is considered rare for sloths to reproduce in captivity, but the imported adult sloths at Pet Safari have reared two. The first infant sloth was born in 2007. It was eventually adopted to a human family after about a year. The latest Pet Safari sloth has grown to about a foot long and is yet unnamed. 

"Anderson" premiered on ABC on Sept. 12.

Pet Safari visitors may observe the mother (named Baby) and baby in the sloth room during store hours. The pet store also offers educational programs for groups.

Watch Pet Safari's sloths on the SlothCam.

Have you been to Pet Safari? on Dunedin Patch.