Now that, after a chlamydia outbreak, koalas appear to be going extinct, the race is on to find a new cute and cuddly animal to fall in love with. And we think we found it in the unlikeliest of places, the Pirelli 2010 calendar.

Last year, the Italian tire company tried to get us hooked on elephants, sending Peter Beard and an army of scantily clad supervixens to Africa. But elephants have bad skin and look sad.

Enter Terry ”I’m the new Helmut Newton” Richardson. Shot in breezy Brazil, this year’s crop of models not only eats bananas in sexually suggestive ways, they lick roosters and do the hula hoop with tires. In so doing, they’ve unwittingly introduced the new It-animal. Ladies and gentlemen, we present the sloth. Definitely cute and cuddly, a sloth won’t trample, strangle or abandon you. Plus, they’re always smiling—and with good reason(s).