September 2024 | Tales From The Jungle
Slothtober is just around the corner, and we’re really excited to kick off our favorite month of the year! But September was indeed another busy month: we planted over 200 trees, performed maintenance on several canopy bridges, bid farewell to one of the sloths we were monitoring, continued with transects and habitat surveys for the Great Sloth Census, and carried on with the usual monitoring of the sloths for the Urban Sloth Project.
We also had the opportunity to meet with some of our wonderful colleagues who work with armadillos, the sloths’ cousins. Although this month is ending on a high, it had a complicated start.
Connected Gardens Setback
We started the first Monday of the month by arriving at our HQ, only to discover that a large part of our tree nursery had been destroyed over the weekend. The neighbor had decided to cut down a tree, and it fell onto our property.
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Thankfully, he took responsibility and paid for the damages caused, although it was sad to lose many trees we had patiently nurtured from seed. The good news is that within a couple of weeks, we recovered! If you would like to help us restore sloth habitat, you can donate to plant trees.
An Adorable Surprise
With a grid of over 300 Sloth Crossings canopy bridges, maintaining them has now become a full-time job. One of our bridges was about to fall, so Dayber went to fix it and found these sloths in the tree! Check out the video below!
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Farewell Buddha
The little Buddha was found as an orphaned baby and was raised by our colleagues at the Toucan Rescue Ranch. Since sloths raised by humans don’t learn essential skills from their mothers, it’s crucial to monitor them after reintroduction into the wild.
And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing! After a few months, we’re happy to confirm that Buddha is now ready to live in the trees on her own, with us continuing to check on her from time to time. Farewell, Buddha!
Team Sloth Goes to Brazil!
As you may know, sloths belong to the Xenarthrans, a group of animals that also includes anteaters and armadillos. Sloths, anteaters, and armadillos are not only family but also face similar threats, research challenges, and conservation issues.
I am excited to share that we have been in Brazil for the past week visiting our colleague Gabriel Massocato and his team from Projeto Tatu Canastra / the Giant Armadillo Project. Both Gabriel and I won a €50,000 award from the Future For Nature Foundation in 2022 for our research and conservation initiatives, which funded important projects like The Great Sloth Census and Gabriel’s work with armadillos.
Future For Nature is once again supporting our efforts by giving us the chance to travel to Brazil to learn more about the incredible work being done by Gabriel and his team to save the Giant Armadillo from extinction.
We will share a full update about this soon (it has been a wild adventure!), but for now we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Future For Nature Foundation for sponsoring this important collaboration and for enabling us to strengthen our work and deepen our understanding of wildlife conservation across regions.
Slothtober is here!
How are you celebrating Sloth Month? Share your art, your songs, your poems with us—we know a big part of our community is passionate about sloths, not only for their ecological importance but for everything they represent in our fast-paced world. If sloths mean more to you than just being the slowest mammal, let us know!
We’re also launching our annual Slothtober fundraiser, with a goal of $20,000! No matter the size of your gift, every contribution makes a difference!
Make your gift to sloths
Thank you once again for your steady support of our research and conservation initiatives. We couldn’t do this vital work for sloths without you!
-Dr Rebecca Cliffe
Founder and Executive Director
