SaveOurSloths

Great question! Rainy days tend to be the slowest days at the sloth sanctuary – sloths are very unusual in that they don’t have any control over their body temperature! So when it’s cold and rainy (we are in the rainforest so by ‘cold’ I mean like 74°F…) the sloths tend to sleep even more than usual! On these days, there really isn’t a great deal to do!

Sloths might look like they give amazing hugs, but they are wild animals and they don't actually enjoy being hugged that much... they would much rather sit quietly in a tree and watch everything going on below at their own pace!

Mowgli, Tuffy, Wall-E, Velcro and the wonderful Becca are all doing great! Wall-E still loves to go out for daily walks, and Velcro still clings on just like a piece of Velcro…. It would be great to see you back here one day!

I think sloths are already, in some ways, more intelligent than us! They don't stress, they have to worry about having the latest smart phone, they happily eat their greens and won't be upset if they have to share their favorite tree branch with another sloth - how intelligent is that! I doubt they would really want the stress of being our over lords with all of our rushing around... :-)

I began by studying Zoology at the University of Manchester (UK) and if I am honest, I never really thought I would end up living at a sloth sanctuary. One of my professors at university was good friends with Judy (the founder of the Sloth Sanctuary) and he managed to get me on a 12 month research placement out here. Because nothing is really known about sloths and no one else really seems to be studying them in detail, my research project turned into a huge success. The rest is history! I am now back out here running a long-term research project on wild sloths for my PhD with the hope of developing a release program for the sanctuaries hand-reared babies! Unfortunately the sanctuaries volunteer program is ending next month to allow us to focus on the research and release program - but we would love to welcome you here for a tour and you can still meet the sloths :-)