Male Sloth With Baby: A Rare and Unexpected Discovery in the Wild
In 2019, wildlife photographer Andres Espinoza captured something astonishing in Manuel Antonio National Park: a wild adult male sloth carrying a baby. While sloth parenting is typically the sole role of the mother, this unexpected sighting raises new questions about sloth behavior, paternal care in wildlife, and how animals adapt in changing environments. Could this be an act of adoption, instinct, or something else entirely?
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The Strong Connection of a Baby with the Mother
In many mammal species, it’s exclusively the females who raise the young, and sloths are no exception. A baby sloth’s world revolves around its mother’s chest, where it clings tightly for the first several months of life. This contact isn’t just for comfort, it’s vital for survival, regulating body temperature, heart rate, and providing access to food and protection.
Snuggling Orphaned Babies
In rescue centers, orphaned baby sloths are often paired up. Their mutual snuggles mimic the contact they’d naturally receive from their mothers and provide critical emotional and physiological support. Even adult sloths in captivity, mostly females but some males too, have been observed ‘adopting’ these orphans. But it’s important to note that captivity often brings with it behaviors we’d never expect to see in the wild.
Which is what makes this case so remarkable.
Why a Male Sloth Would Adopt an Orphaned Baby?
We don’t have information about the mother, the baby, or even the full history of the male. But the sighting was clear and verified: this wasn’t a momentary interaction. The baby was securely attached, and the adult male was moving about with the infant in tow -just as a mother would.
So, what could explain this? There are several possibilities:
Orphaned baby, instinctive adoption? The most likely hypothesis is that the baby’s mother died or was separated, and the infant, driven by instinct and desperation, clung to the nearest adult it could find. And perhaps this male, unlike others, simply allowed it. Whether out of tolerance, confusion, or some rarely seen paternal behavior, he didn’t reject the baby.
Kin selection or genetic connection? Could the male be the father? It’s possible. While male parental care is nearly unheard of in sloths, it’s not biologically impossible. If the infant is his offspring, it might point to a rudimentary form of paternal instinct not yet documented in wild sloth populations.
Environmental or social stressors? Unusual behaviors can emerge when habitats are disturbed or when sloths are forced into closer proximity than usual. Could human-altered landscapes or habitat fragmentation be changing how sloths behave? Manuel Antonio is the most visited National Park in Costa Rica, with up to 2,500 visitors on a busy day, and almost 480,000 yearly.
A glitch in the sloth matrix? Sometimes nature simply surprises us. Just because we haven’t seen this before doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen!
Whatever the reason, one thing is clear: wild sloths still have secrets. According to the photographer Andres Espinoza, this scene was never seen again since then.
Other Rare Cases
While this sighting is unusual, it’s not the only surprising record of sloth parenting behavior. Over the years, there have been several cases of female sloths raising two babies at once: an extraordinary feat given the demands of carrying and feeding even one infant.
And perhaps the rarest case of all: a three-fingered sloth adopting a two-fingered sloth baby, documented in the Arenal region of Costa Rica.
This record is remarkable, not only because it’s a confirmed case of a sloth adopting an orphaned baby, but because it involves an animal adopting a baby from a completely different species! Nature never stops surprising us.
Each observation like this brings us one step closer to understanding the full complexity of their behavior, not just as a species, but as individuals navigating a changing world.
-Cecilia Pamich
Communications & Outreach
