Cute video: Zookeepers use toy as surrogate mom for orphaned baby sloth

Edward, who was born to Marilyn and father Leander seven weeks ago, was named after Johnny Depp’s famous character Edward Scissorhands for his impressive claws.

Unfortunately little Edward’s mother has stopped producing milk, so he is being cared for by zookeeper Kelly-Anne Kelleher.

Zookeeper Kelly-Anne Kelleher is now raising Edward by hand – with the help of a special teddy bear from the zoo’s giftshop.

A baby two-toed sloth is being hand-reared by keepers at ZSL London Zoo – and the pictures and video of him cuddling with his teddy-bear surrogate mum are nearly too cute to bear.

The stand-in mum is having to be patient, with Edward displaying the slowness and sleepiness the nocturnal mammals native to South America are notorious for.

She said: “We’re bottle-feeding Edward every three hours with goat’s milk, topped up with some vitamins to keep him fit and healthy”.

“If he’s feeling particularly hungry he makes a very amusing noise to let us know: a sound somewhere between a squeak and a sneeze”.

“We hang up this teddy sort of about six inches from the ground so that if the baby does slip, he’s not going to hurt himself and he is able to climb all the way around the teddy and make himself comfy however he wants to be”. He is being closely monitored so that details such as his sleeping and eating habits can be added to a registry shared by zoos around the world.

Edward is part of the European Endangered Species breeding programme.