Tender Continues Exploring | November 2025
This month, it has been really hard to get our eyes on Tender. He has been away from the familiar ground of Tasty Waves, and wandered into a nearby property. When this happens, it can make our tracking really hard due to access issues, and in an increasingly urbanised jungle, this has become quite common. Most of these private properties remain jungly and lush, but there is definitely an issue with microfragmentation, where some trees are selectively felled.
Can you spot Tender’s collar antenna?
These private properties make up a big part of our sloths’ territories, which is why it is so important to make people aware, and get them on board with protecting the jungle on their land for sloths and other animals.
Neighbour visit
Right next to Tasty Waves, there is Caribeans, a specialty Cafe, that also hosts another sloth we’re monitoring for the Urban Sloth Project: Pistachio.
In the August update, we played with the idea that maybe Pistachio could be Tender’s father, but as explained then, it’s not possible to know without proper genetic tests.
Pistachio
Pistachio surprised us this month with a rare and rather unexpected move! He wandered from his usual home near the Caribeans restaurant over to Tasty Waves, where Tender lives.
Pistachio has never been known to cross that fence before, so seeing him exploring new ground (and even using some of Tender’s favorite trees) was a fascinating change in his routine.
Sloths are surprisingly territorial. Each individual has a well-defined area of the forest they know intimately, often less than a few hectares in size. Within this range, they memorize the exact layout of trees and the safest canopy routes, a mental map that helps them conserve energy and avoid danger. Because of this, they rarely cross into a neighbor’s territory unless pushed by necessity, such as searching for food, mates, or new trees when their own area changes.
So Pistachio’s little adventure might tell us something, perhaps shifting resources, a search for Tender, or simply curiosity. Whatever the reason, it’s a fascinating glimpse into how dynamic and adaptable sloths can really be!