The cutest animal ever: melt at the Power of Sloth - in pictures

Zoologist Lucy Cooke is on a mission to educate people about sloths. Her new book The Power Of Sloth is full of the most irresistible sloth photos known to mankind so we just had to share some of the very sweetest. Here baby sloths are shown in a basket. They love to hug so much that collectively they form a cuddle puddle.
Photograph: Lucy Cooke

Baby Violet in some seriously snazzy bandages after a visit to the "slothpital". Photograph: Lucy Cooke

Did somebody order a bucket of sloth? Every home should have one: a party-sized bucket of sloth hugs to go around.
Photograph: Lucy Cooke

The sloths take a splash in special green tea to keep their skin healthy.
Photograph: Lucy Cooke

After their wash the sloths are hung out to dry. Of course there’s no need for clothes pegs!
Photograph: Lucy Cooke

It has to be said that sloths have very poor table manners. They munch with their mouths open and frequently fall asleep in their food. Photograph: Lucy Cooke

No one knows how long a sloth can live. Queen Buttercup has just turned twenty, making her the oldest-living, captive three fingered sloth.
Photograph: Lucy Cooke

Mateo: The Dark Lord of Cute; has the power to paralyse with a single sloth squeak.
Photograph: Lucy Cooke

The Choloepus are the cousins of the Bradypus and have just two fingers. They look more like a cross between a Wookie and a pig.
Photograph: Lucy Cooke

The Bradypus, or three-fingered sloth, is the Muppet with the medieval haircut and the Mona Lisa smile.
Photograph: Lucy Cooke

Don't worry nobody is going to cook this tiny sloth – it just looks cute in here!
Photograph: Lucy Cooke

It's not all about sloths you know! You can see more of The Power of Sloth author, photographer and zoologist Lucy Cooke on TV later this summer in Talk to the Animals on BBC1. Photograph: PR