February 2024 | Tales From The Jungle
February, Sloth Love Month, is over, and it’s time to say goodbye to our adorable Kokomo, the Sloth of Love, but before the month ends, you still have one day to subscribe to our VIP community to receive the adoption pack of Suzi & Ginger for free! Now, without further ado, here are the updates from the South Caribbean of Costa Rica!
Life of Urban Sloths
Our friends from Playa 506, a beach hostel, also part of our Sloth Friendly Network accreditation, shared with us this video of a two-fingered sloth that normally roams around the property and likes to hang out underneath the roof of the restaurant.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
If you’ve been following us for a while, you know by now that scenes like this are very common here. We can’t push wildlife away from our urban spaces, but we can create safer environments for them. We engage the community to peacefully coexist with sloths, monkeys, toucans, and literally hundreds of other species (yes, including bugs!).
Trees, Dogs, Bridges, and Cameras
Continuing with our plans to make our towns more sloth-friendly, we continue running our projects: we supported the spaying and neutering of 10 rescued dogs monthly to help the local pet shelter. This month, we also installed 11 new Sloth Crossings canopy bridges, and planted 140 sloth-friendly trees!
With a grid of over 250 Sloth Crossings, we’re now able to study the usage of the bridges. At the moment, we have 8 camera traps and two security cameras installed on some of our Sloth Crossings, and we retrieved footage and data from 19
Monitoring Post-Release Adaptation
Angel is a Two-fingered sloth found as an orphaned baby on the coral rocks at the beach, soaked, cold, and losing hair. A local rescue center initially took him in for care. However, when the facility had to shut down, we embarked on a 4-hour journey to transfer her to the Toucan Rescue Ranch, where she received care for almost a year.
Now a juvenile, Angel has returned to the South Caribbean for her release. Monitoring his adaptation is crucial, as sloths like Angel, raised by humans, miss the learning essential survival skills from their mothers.
We equipped Angel with a collar but no data logger and set her free near the Cocles River mouth, a location known for its two-fingered sloth population. Angel hesitated before leaving the crate to climb a beach almond tree.
Eventually, she ascended the tree, embracing her freedom. The following day, our tracking showed that she had moved to another tree, just five meters from his release point, where she was found sleeping high up on a branch. Follow us on our social media to get more updates on Angel!
La Selva GPS Collars
Last month, we went back to La Selva Biological Station and Reserve to retrieve the GPS collars from the sloths we collared back in June 2023. In case you missed the news, here are the chronicles of that trip!
Debunking Sloth Myths
Are sloths so dumb they confuse their arms with branches and fall from the canopy? Can they hold their breath for 40 minutes underwater? You’ve probably heard or read these ‘facts.’ The internet is polluted with fake news, and sloths are not the exception.
You wouldn’t believe the amount of crazy stuff we’ve heard over the years, and we’ve compiled all the sloth myths in our Slothopedia entry, “Sloth Myths: 14 Things You Think You Know About Sloths.” Have you heard anything bizarre about sloths? Let us know so we can include it in this list (a list that keeps getting bigger!).
Introducing the Wander Bracelet
We’re happy to announce a new partnership with the amazing Fahlo! Each bracelet tracks different sloths, and 10% of the sales are donated to us to support our research and conservation projects! We’ve already got ourselves the Rainforest Green!
Meet Darcey, A Young Conservationist
We love going out into the field and finding sloths thriving in their trees. We also love receiving support from young people inspired by our work. Darcey, a 13-year-old from the UK, decided from an early age that she wanted to be a conservationist. In this blog, written by Darcey herself, she’ll share her inspirations, her commitment, and why she’s choosing to support SloCo.