Perezoso Power!

Because I dedicated the last couple of posts to the baby perezosos, I think it’s only fair that the adults get a post too. There are over 100 adult sloths at the Aviaros Sloth Sanctuary who have ended up here for different reasons. Some have fallen from trees, others are orphaned babies who have grown up in the sanctuary, and some have been tangled in barbed wire, or zapped by power lines. The list goes on. Because very little is known about the biology of both species of sloths, it has been very hard for anyone to come up with an effective release method for the sloths. There is one student from Manchester who is here at the moment who will be returning next year to study sloth behaviour in the wild, which will eventually lead to her devising a release program. Until then though, the sloths spend their days at the sanctuary.

Our daily routine consisted of an early morning check, clean and feed, baby time, and then an afternoon check and feed. The area was divided into sections, and we were each responsible for making sure the animals in our section were healthy and getting fed. Usually faeces are a great way to check if an animal is ok, but since it takes sloths almost 30 days to digest their food, it’s important to watch their behaviour and make sure that they are eating ok.

Laurel tucking into some berros leaves... yum!

I was lucky to have some beautiful sloths in my section. Hershey, a two fingered sloth would always great me in the morning with a game of “hide the keys”

Hershey

 Luna would always make me second guess myself by guzzling her morning meal of berros and almond leaves without a trace left behind, and then give me puppy eyes as if to say “you missed me, I haven’t eaten yet!”

Luna

And Romeo, my beloved Bradypus, would never start to eat unless we had held hands for at least a few minutes. It’s funny, because when I first started to work with Romeo, no one told me that he was a hand holder, and so when he would reach out for me I would swiftly duck, hang up his Cecropia leaf bundle, and get the hell out of there. I must have broken that poor sloths heart those first couple of mornings, because on discussing Romeo’s “grabbing” behaviour, I was told that it was completely normal, and that with some people he had a strange need to hold on to them for a couple of minutes before he started to eat. Our morning holding hands ritual is something I will cherish for the rest of my life. He would literally squeeze my hand with his three fingers, or sometimes my arm, sigh, and close his eyes as if there was nowhere in the world he would rather be. It was so special J And then when he was done, he would gently let go, and make his way to his food. I will really miss these guys, and am so lucky to have been given the chance to come and volunteer. If you are ever in Costa Rica, you know where to go!

Handsome Romeo!