In typical Luiza fashion, she has chosen to stay so high up, and so well hidden, that she has given us almost nothing to report.
It’s not for lack of trying. We’ve tried with drones and binoculars, scanning the canopy for any sign of her. We spotted plenty of monkeys and toucans, and even a few male Bradypus sloths, but the one sloth we really wanted to see stayed out of view, tucked away among the dense lianas. Luiza, once again, outsmarted us.
What we do have is a theory. When we last saw her, she was very close to giving birth and, going by our calculations, she should have had her baby by now. Sloth mothers keep their little ones close, and a tangle of thick vegetation is the perfect camouflage. If she is up there with a newborn, she’s picked the ideal nursery, and she’s not taking visitors.
Luiza staying well hidden in a tangle of vines.
Luiza is simply doing what millions of years of evolution have taught her: the sloths that stay hidden from predators are the ones that survive.
We will keep scanning the treetops, hoping for a glimpse of Luiza and, fingers crossed, a tiny baby.
