“Oh my gosh,” says my boss, holding the binoculars to her face. “I think Croissant is a boy.” I take my eyes off the beeping box attached to our portable radio antenna and peer into the trees, trying to find the small, tan-colored sloth amongst the palm fronts and tree bark. Boy or girl, I personally think Croissant might actually be a coconut, but I defer to Amelia’s experience.

Last year Team Sloth were thrilled to receive an invite to visit the Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica.  Tortuguero is renowned as one of the most important turtle nesting sites in the whole world, and in particular, its white sand beaches are a haven for endangered green sea turtles. 

Certain wild animals, such as our sweet sloths, are slow-moving and would not be able to hide quickly. They are no match for a fast-running dog. It is not the dog’s fault that they have this instinct, but it is entirely up to us as pet owners to ensure that our dogs are trained well and learn not to attack wildlife.

Team Sloth have been the opposite of slothful this month – we have been chasing invisible sloths through the jungle, carrying out emergency surgeries, castrating dogs and we were shamefully outsmarted by a herd of hungry goats. Read on below to learn about our biggest successes and failures this month!

These images were captured by one of our camera traps (a motion-activated camera) which we have been using to monitor our sloth crossings. On its own, this bridge helps wildlife safely get across the gap in the canopy (without having to risk their safety by coming to the ground).

Recently we visited Costa Rica’s La Salle Museum of Natural History, located in the capital, San José. With over 65,000 specimens on exhibition, this is one of the most complete collections in Latin America.

I need to start by sharing with you some sad news. If you follow our updates then you might remember a sloth called Cacao – he was one of the new additions to our Urban Sloth Project in January and, as his name suggests, he loved to feast on cacao pods in a local garden in the South Caribbean.

A baby sloth is fully reliant on it’s mother to teach it how to survive in the canopy of the rainforest. They are fragile yet fascinating little creatures, and here you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about baby sloths!

“We believe that human beings are mainly responsible for the extinction of megafauna in South America,” said Luciano Prates and Ivan Perez, CONICET researchers at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Museum of the National University of La Plata, Argentina, and authors of a scientific study on the matter, which is published in the journal Nature communications.

If you are a fan of sloths, you might think that there are two main types, but scientists are starting to realize that there is actually a third type of sloth. One that has the size, strength, and ferocity of a two-fingered sloth, but the physical appearance of a three-fingered sloth.

Argentinian scientists used X-rays on a 13,000-year-old sloth skin and discovered thousands of tiny bones on the inside.

While we talk a lot about transparency as a non-profit organization, we tend to only celebrate the great things that we do. But of course – mistakes happen! We believe that there is more value in sharing these failures rather than simply sweeping them under the rug, and so this month we are excited to introduce you to our first-ever ‘what went wrong‘ feature (scroll down to see Team Sloth’s biggest fails this month!).

This month we want to share with you some exciting updates about one of our favourite sloth conservation initiatives: the ‘Oh My Dog!’ project. 

‘Meat out day’ encourages you to think about your meat consumption. Sloths have evolved over millions of years eating a purely leaf-based diet. Nowadays many people are opting to switch to more plant-based diets, but apart from the obvious ethical reasons, why are people choosing to go meat-free? 

Sloths in the wild only sleep for 8 – 10 hours per day. The myth that sloths sleep all day long has manifested over decades of casual observation and a bad reputation.

Conserving riparian habitat (habitat near rivers, streams and lakes) is a key element in the protection of terrestrial and marine habitats, since these ecosystems are closely connected.

International Women’s Day is a yearly opportunity to celebrate women and their achievements, reflect on the progress made towards female empowerment, and continue to raise awareness to improve the lives of women globally.