The Maned Sloth, also known as Bradypus torquatus, indigenous to the Atlantic coastal rainforest of Brazil, are threatened by human interference, hunting activities, deforestation, and habitat loss, as well as climate change that affect their behavior.

Our team of researchers spent three days at La Selva Biological Station and Reserve at the end of August. There, they tried downloading the data from the GPS collar we fitted on Misty, George, and Selvina.

We are entering the next phase of the Urban Sloth Project! The aim of the Urban Sloth Project (USP) is to understand how urbanization and habitat disturbance are affecting the lives of sloths and their ecology.

We did it! Our first in-person event in the US was a total success! Over 100 guests enjoyed an afternoon of live music, sloth stories, and conservation adventures.

In a recently published investigation called “Pre–Younger Dryas megafaunal extirpation at Rancho La Brea linked to fire-driven state shift,” Frank O’Keefe from Marshall University and his research team unfold the factors behind the disappearance of enormous prehistoric creatures in Southern California.

“July was my first serious month of volunteering, as I was still learning in June. I enjoyed feeling more confident in my sloth-tracking abilities and becoming more familiar with the area.

Hello, Sloth community! Here in the South Caribbean, we’re at the peak of the rainy season and carry on the projects with our gum boots! Let’s dive into the news!

Luna made an unexpected entrance into the Urban Sloth Project (USP) in March 2021, accompanied by her first baby, Sol.

I hope this newsletter finds you well! As summer arrives in the Northern Hemisphere and the South enjoys winter days, our little corner of Costa Rica is currently experiencing the rainy season.

The SloCo team visited  La Selva Biological Station and Reserve to place GPS collars on the sloths that live there.

One would think that due to sloths’ famously slow lifestyle, observing them in the wild would not be a hard task. However, their slow lifestyle (a consequence of having the slowest metabolism of any land mammal) has resulted in the evolutionary aim of being nearly undetectable in the trees to avoid predation from Jaguars and Harpy Eagles.

Sloths and Sea Turtles couldn’t be more different animals. One is a furry mammal, and the other is an aquatic reptile. However, these two have more in common than we could think!

We will never forget that stormy day in May 2021 when we found Mango on the ground outside of HQ, tiny and wet, and clearly out of her depth. Jim, our plushie sloth mascot, came to the rescue as Mango’s surrogate mother. Mango clung to Jim and almost immediately fell asleep.

New research published! Are sloths nocturnal? How much time do they spend sleeping, climbing, or resting? We are proud to announce our latest published research about sloth activity patterns! Check out the findings of our team in this article!

Cliffe, R.N., Haupt, R.J., Kennedy, S., Felton, C., Williams, H.J., Avey-Arroyo, J. and Wilson, R., 2023. The behaviour and activity budgets of two sympatric sloths; Bradypus variegatus and Choloepus hoffmanni. PeerJ, 11, p.e15430.

To celebrate Sloth Month in October last year, our friends at JetSloth and Gravity Forms generously donated $10,000 to plant 1000 trees in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica. JetSloth and Gravity Forms are among the most popular tools for creating and managing website forms (including ours!).

Earlier this year, Jenny Berla and her family vacationed in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, where they witnessed an uncommon event – a sloth giving birth on the ground! Sloth births typically occur in trees, making this sighting particularly remarkable.

Recent research has shown that sloths in Costa Rica have bacteria in their fur that produces antibiotics. Could this finding have application in humans?

Today is International Workers’ Day. And what does this have to do with sloths? First, it makes us think about the unfair name of these animals, a form of the word ‘lazy’ in most languages. But even though sloths are not lazy but energy-efficient, it also makes us think about laziness and how in our societies’ overfall, being a little bit idle and slowing down is not permitted. If you have today off, you are probably feeling guilty about it.

April was a busy month in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica; we have updates about Luna, an exciting new auction, bridges, camera trap footage, and more!