An Unexpected Turn: Tamara and Gemma’s Eye-Opening Journey
In the first week of December, we received the visit of our colleagues from Drusillas Park, Tamara and Gemma, who traveled from the UK to Costa Rica to deliver a donation to SloCo, after a fundraiser they held for #InternationalSlothDay back in October. A shoutout to Drusillas and a huge thank you to everybody who donated!
Tamara and Gemma were really excited about seeing our projects firsthand: they took action and helped us plant trees, install a Sloth Crossing, and participate in our research projects, including accompanying Keysha, our scat detection dog, to the forest, and assisting Jose and the tracking team to monitor the sloths we’re studying for the Urban Sloth Project. They were also really happy to see three sloths (and a baby) in the span of a few minutes!
But just a day after they arrived, they started noticing the reality sloths are facing here: they saw for the first time a sloth sleeping on a power line. Maybe because we see this on a daily basis, we assist in rescues and work on different initiatives to prevent scenes like this, we forget how shocking it is to see a wild animal in a dangerous situation for somebody who has just arrived and met wild sloths only a day ago.
Later that week, Tamara and Gemma were helping the tracking team monitor one of our sloths, Deborah, in Playa Negra. In the video they posted on social media, Tamara jokes about Deborah pretending to be a coconut while sleeping on a palm tree, but she also noticed the proximity of the power lines. Suddenly, somebody approached us to inform us about a sloth that was on the ground and seemed injured, just a few meters away.
The team arrived immediately, and Jose made his observations: the sloth was indeed injured with what seemed like electrocution. While the rescue center team arrived, Jose took some photos of the sloth. It’s also important to document these situations to show the world what’s happening to wildlife when we do not consider them in our human-centered urban spaces.
The best solution to this problem is to bury and make power lines underground. However, this is extremely costly and not possible in many cases due to the terrain and climate conditions of the country. So we’re opting for the simplest solution: insulating power lines.
Insulating power lines is not the only thing to do: we also work to make our towns more sloth-friendly by endorsing businesses to engage in conservation, expanding our grid of now over 240 Sloth Crossing canopy bridges, reforesting gardens and properties with sloth-friendly trees, and helping local organizations to spay and neuter dogs to prevent attacks on wildlife.
Conservation initiatives are made possible through research.
Freckle, a sloth in the Urban Sloth Project, was also found with electrocution injuries. After several weeks of rehabilitation, Freckle was successfully reintroduced. By monitoring her daily, we are gaining valuable insights into how sloths thrive and adapt in urbanized habitats, and this knowledge is helping us enhance our projects to ensure their safety.
You can help wild sloths like Deborah by donating to any of these projects, buying a gift in our sloth shop, or symbolically adopting a sloth like Freckle! Even better, you can subscribe to our VIP, make monthly donations, and receive updates on the sloths we are monitoring for the USP.
We extend our gratitude to Drusillas Park for their enduring support over the years, and to Tamara and Gemma for their visit. I also want to express my appreciation to you, who have taken the time to engage with these stories about sloths. Your interest and support are invaluable. Looking forward to seeing you in the upcoming update!
-Cecilia Pamich
Communications & Outreach
