Introducing Little Peanut | October 2025
This month, Luiza was seen near the main road, close to Sloth City. Unexpectedly, her collar stopped transmitting a VHF signal, even though the battery was supposed to last another year. Luckily, the mortality signal didn’t activate, which told us she was alive and moving.
However, a surprise awaited. The area around her home range had recently been heavily trimmed by ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad), the national electricity company. These periodic trimmings are done to prevent branches from touching power lines, both to protect wildlife from electrocution and to avoid fallen branches from damaging cables.
However, it was not a light pruning, but a severe cut that removed several of her favorite trees. We feared she might have been injured, relocated, or taken for veterinary care. Thankfully, she was safe, though her habitat had suffered some damage.
Finding Luiza without a signal is no easy task. Anyone familiar with her wandering ways knows this well. But Jose, who has been tracking her for over three years, knows her favorite hangout spots. Within just ten minutes of searching, he found her resting in a beach almond tree, calm and perfectly fine.
When we confirmed it was indeed Luiza, plans began to replace her collar. She was about eight meters high, and as we prepared the equipment, curious onlookers gathered. More than twenty people, drawn in by the sight of not one but two sloths (a male was also nearby).
Dayber and Luiza
Introducing Little Peanut!
Then Jose noticed something extraordinary: a tiny arm clinging to Luiza’s belly. She had a newborn baby, likely less than two weeks old!
This changed everything. A standard capture and data collection would have stressed both mother and infant, so Jose decided to only replace the collar and minimize handling.
Dayber handling Luiza and little Peanut
Just as we wondered how to safely bring her down, Luiza began climbing lower on her own, perhaps startled by the small crowd. It couldn’t have worked out better. Dayber carefully lifted her down using a ladder, Jose quickly replaced the collar in under ten minutes, and both mother and baby were safely released.
Baby Peanut is Luiza’s fourth baby!
The new collar is working perfectly, and we’ll be able to track Luiza and her little one for at least two more years: barring another battery surprise!
Since the collar replacement, Luiza has returned to her old haunts, even revisiting a massive tree she used back in 2022. She clearly remembers her favorite spots. On one recent observation, she was perched 40 meters high, too far up for us to see the baby, even with binoculars.
Four Babies and Counting
Little Peanut is Luiza’s fourth baby since we began monitoring her! As we’ve mentioned in previous updates, Luiza is what we call a clock mother: we can almost predict when she’ll have a new baby, usually in the last months of the year.
Luiza is part of our Eternal Sloths Project, a long-term study on sloth lifespans. But she’s also teaching us so much about sloth motherhood and baby development, and we’re thrilled to have such a super mom in our research!
Thank you once again for your symbolic adoption. Your support allows us to keep tracking wild sloths like Luiza, understanding their behavior, and protecting the trees they rely on. With your help, we’re able to continue long-term research that truly makes a difference for sloth conservation in a changing world!