No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeTopicsEnvironment and WildlifeCosta Rica Wildlife: For the love of sloths

Costa Rica Wildlife: For the love of sloths

There are thousands of cute sloth photos floating around the internet, and we all love to ooh and aah over every one of them. If you scroll through the comments, you’ll notice that a good many of them express a desire to either hold a sloth or have one as a pet. We realize that these comments are brought on by the high cuteness factor and not really based in reality, but they signal a new trend that is popping up here in Costa Rica and other places.

While this recent popularity of sloths is great for programs aimed at learning more about them and their conservation, it has its downside. Sloths are adapted for living high in the tree canopy and only climb down when absolutely necessary. They are solitary creatures and have no interest in interacting with other animals or humans and can stress easily when forced to do so.

Photo via Toucan Rescue Ranch.

At the Toucan Rescue Ranch, we receive many sloths whose lives have been disrupted more and more by human interference. Usually, it’s unintentional, but intention means nothing to the poor sloth.

Most of these are orphaned babies who then join our Saving Sloths Together program. This is a multi-step, two year program that aims at returning all of these orphans successfully back into the wild. While wild sloths are solitary, the newly arrived babies adapt to their new life with other orphaned sloths quite easily. They love to cuddle with each other in the absence of their mothers.

Last November, we received a very cute young sloth who had been living with a local family for less than a week. The story was that a homeless man sold him to a woman for 20,000 colones (about $34). She decided that, while it was illegal to own any native Costa Rican wildlife, she just had to take this cute little fuzzy guy home to her kids. What she didn’t realize is that even those baby sloths with sweet dispositions have very sharp claws and teeth, and they aren’t afraid to use them! She also had no idea what to feed him and ended up giving him a diet that gave him horrible diarrhea. Being quite young, he also cried day and night, sounding like a lost lamb.

Less than a week into her ordeal, she realized that she had made a big mistake and called wildlife police from the Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE). She confessed to her crime and begged them to come get him as soon as possible.

Bon Jovi, as he came to be called, arrived on our doorstep wide-eyed, smelly and begging for constant attention. After his physical exam, we discovered that he was full of parasites, and therefore couldn’t join the other babies until he was healthy. This caused a challenge for us, since he cried for attention 24/7. We ended up having to watch over him as he sat in a tiny fabric baby carrier with a caretaker. When he would finally calm down, we placed him with his favorite plush toy into a blanket filled tub, gave him a hibiscus flower to eat, placed a blanket over the tub and tiptoed away.

Photo via Toucan Rescue Ranch.

Being a very sweet little guy, he assimilated easily into the group of other babies and with them, continues his journey toward being a wild sloth once again.

— Denise Gillen is a Sloth Nanny at Toucan Rescue Ranch. 

Toucan Rescue Ranch Logo

This article was produced by The Toucan Rescue Ranch. The Toucan Rescue Ranch specializes in helping wild animals recover so that they can be reintroduced into the wild. For more information or to donate, visit the Toucan Rescue Ranch website.

Trending Now

Riu Guanacaste Hotel Reopens in Costa Rica After Renovation

The Riu Guanacaste hotel in Costa Rica has reopened after a complete renovation, welcoming guests back to its beachfront spot on Matapalo Beach. The...

Costa Rica Weather Alert: Heavy Rain, Flooding, and Landslides

The National Meteorological Institute (IMN) issued a warning on Thursday about persistent heavy rains and thunderstorms affecting much of Costa Rica.These conditions are the...

White House Calls Nobel Prize to Venezuelan Machado ‘Politics Over Peace’

The Norwegian Nobel Committee handed the 2025 Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Friday, sparking sharp words from the White...

Costa Rica Women’s National Team Coach Steps Down Amid World Cup Push

The Costa Rican Soccer Federation dropped a major update this week: Spanish coach Beni Rubido is stepping down from his role with the women's...

Costa Rica’s Hyatt Centric Escazú Finalist in GRI Awards

Costa Rica's hotel scene keeps building momentum on the global stage. The Hyatt Centric San José Escazú stands out as a finalist for Best...

Starbucks Honors Costa Rica’s Coffee Roots in October Festivities

Coffee runs deep in our veins, a tradition that started in the 1700s and shapes our country's economy and culture today. This October, Starbucks...
spot_img
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica