Tales from the Jungle 15 September: Projects Update Edition
Hello, sloth community! This week we have some great news, and we just couldn’t wait until the end of the month to share it with you! What do the numbers 500, 5,000, 200, and 6,000 have in common? Read on and let us tell you.
500
As you may know, we work with Puerto Viejo Dogs (a local pet shelter) to spay and neuter at least 10 rescued dogs every month, and this month we reached our 500th puppy! That’s 500 dogs that get to live healthier, happier lives, and an uncountable number of puppies that won’t be homeless, add to the stray dog population, pass on zoonotic diseases, or harass wildlife.
Speaking of dogs, have you heard about our latest scientific project to have dogs help us count sloths? Nothing like it has ever been done before, so check out our link to stay abreast of some groundbreaking research!
5,000
We started our Connected Gardens Project in the late 2018 with a tiny tree nursery of no more than a few dozen saplings. Our project has grown so much in the last four years that last Friday we celebrated a really epic milestone: we planted our 5,000th tree!
The property that was being reforested used to be a parking lot, but the new owners are committed to making their garden a sloth-friendly place, and worked with us to help plant trees. We are so happy to say that change is possible, and turnabout is only fair play: it was very satisfying to see a parking lot go back to the trees!
200
We are SO CLOSE to this one! We have put up 196 wildlife bridges so far, and we are only four away from reaching number 200 this month. We still need some sponsors though, so if you’d like to be in on this month of milestones, just think of what bridge number 200 would look like with your name on it!
We’re so close, it could happen! Help us connect the canopy!
6000
Perhaps most impressively, our greatest number this month goes to what might be the most important project of all: passing on our love of sloths, science, and conservation to the next generation.
Our sloth school program has now reached 6,000 students–yes, that’s right six THOUSAND young people have had access to enriched education about nature generally, science especially, and sloths specifically! (And if you can say that last sentence three times fast, you automatically graduate.)
We work with schools in many countries to get the word out about sloths, though our classes are most popular in Costa Rica, England, and the United States. We have lessons in Spanish and English and are working on adding even more languages!
We like to get out in the forest as much as possible, but when that isn’t feasible, our online classes are available to students all over the world, in any classroom, at any time.
What do sloths have to do with red pandas?
September 17th is International Red Panda Day and we are excited to celebrate it with our friends from Red Panda Network in our latest edition of Sloths Vs, in the aptly named “Sloth versus Red Pandas”. Can you guess what these two have in common? No? You’ll just have to read on then, because, rather like sloths, red pandas are really cool!
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Stay tuned for the upcoming Slothtober, and see you in the next Tales From the Jungle!
-Sloth Team
