Kristen Bell Sloth Love: Actress Sheds Happy Tears for Jungle Mammal [VIDEO]

Kristen Bell loves sloths.

So much that on her birthday, when boyfriend Dax Shepard surprised the actress with an actual sloth, she pretty much lost it.

I had no context for knowing what [the present] was. But I grabbed the dogs and walk into the back room of the house and I immediately was overcome and I thought, 'There's a sloth near. There's a sloth here; it's close; it's gonna happen, Bell explained on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in an episode airing Tuesday.

I didn't know how to process that . . . because my entire life had been waiting for this moment where I would get to interact, I'm serious, with a sloth, Bell continued, in a tearful voice.

Shepard, her boyfriend of four years, was filming the surprise when he found Bell in a fetal position, complete with (happy) tears.

The House of Lies actress went on to share some of the personal footage with Ellen DeGeneres and the studio audience, and Bell was really not kidding about the tears.

When Bell found out that the sloth was staying for her birthday party later that evening, she lost it again.

They had set up a little habitat of like, a jungle gym. And she just hung out in the jungle gym for like, three hours. Her name was Melon. I needed to be sedated, clearly, Bell said, as DeGeneres tried to contain her laughter.

In true DeGeneres fashion, the talk show host joked about bringing a sloth on stage, sparking another emotional spell for Bell.

On Tuesday afternoon, Bell took to Twitter to address her embarrassing sloth moment.

you guys are so sweet. it was scary 2 show an ugly cry video but i am so glad if u got a laugh from watching- thats what i was hoping!!! xo, she wrote.

Scroll down to watch the hilarious video of Kristen Bell describing her love for sloths on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

House of Lies, starring Bell, Don Cheadle and Ben Schwartz is currently in its first season on HBO.

(New to sloths? BuzzFeed has a nice breakdown of the furry jungle animal).