Tales from the Jungle: June 2022
Urban Sloth Project update
We are very pleased to announce that we managed to get our routine health check done on Luna and her baby Celeste, and they are both doing great! Celeste is growing up so fast, and Luna continues to do very well in her little territory by the sea. There have been no further deforestation attempts in her area and even vehicle intrusions are way down.
In other news, we’ve managed to change the backpacks on Mango and Maracuya, who are doing well and have acquired the nicknames “the fruit twins”. If you’d like to hear more about this adorable duo, get the full details by joining our VIP community!
Listen to Dr. Rebecca Cliffe’s latest podcast
Instant Genius is a bite-sized masterclass in podcast form. Check the BBC Science News Instant Genius Podcast about sloths and conservation, and listen to Dr. Cliffe herself!
Camera Trap Footage
The children from our Kukula Kids’ Club reviewed the footage from our new camera trap project on sloth bridges and identified the species found on the camera that had been using our wildlife crossings. They saw sloths, kinkajous, and a woolly opossum!
We did group discussions on these animals and why they need the bridge. Then they all picked one animal they saw and painted them!
Bringing photography to children
Our Kukula Kids’ Club keeps bringing new activities and opportunities to its members in the Kekoldi indigenous community! This time we teamed up with Girls Who Click for a wildlife photography workshop! If you’re interested in contributing to this project, each camera costs about $50 and is donated to children who will keep it to continue developing their skills throughout the year.
The importance of rainforests
Filtering water, capturing Co2, regulating Earth’s climate– learn about all the ways rainforests’ are so important to our everyday lives…even if you don’t live in one. This month we are raising awareness and celebrating how vital rainforests are for the future of sloths and everyone else.
Projects on track
This month we planted +310 trees, installed 7 sloth crossings while sloths have been spotted using our wildlife bridges (check the wonderful photo from Cerderholm Photography), started organizing our next spay and neuter campaign, received two different film crews, added 15 new members to the Sloth Friendly Network, and began two tourism-related projects in the area that we can’t tell you about yet. Tune in next time to find out more!
Meet the SloCo community: The Krueger Family
This month we would like to highlight the amazing support of the incredible Krueger family, who have been such amazing supporters of the SloCo community. They have already symbolically adopted ALL of our sloths, donated for 3 Sloth Crossings and 6 camera traps (with all the accessories!), and even helped transport this equipment all the way down to the jungles of the South Caribbean! Their family business is also a Platinum Star Partner of our Corporate Giving Program.
In Kim Krueger’s words: “We just see the world changing so much. And not a lot of people want to seem to help sloths. So we thought we wanted to help them more. We want to support SloCo and sloths in every way possible!”
Join our SloCo Community!
Fails of the month
Sick days are never over
After several months of nice, healthy calm, come June more than half of our team came down with either Covid, Dengue, or the infamous “Covidengue”, which is what happens when you can’t decide which one you have because you might have both. Covidengue is not a disease recognized by any health authorities anywhere, but for a disease that doesn’t actually exist it feels real! (And terrible. Really terrible. 0/10 would not recommend.)
Land purchase
As the lease runs out on our current headquarters, SoCo has been shopping around for some land to buy and build on. It sure would be nice to own our building and not have to rent! We thought we had some great luck this month and were about to close on purchasing some beautiful land complete with jungle and even a lagoon! Sadly, there were some irregularities in the last-minute background checks and the deal fell through for now.
-SloCo Team
