Rales Around the World: Aviarios del Caribe Sloth Sanctuary

So I have now settled in at the sloth sanctuary, and things have been fantastic. Much to tell, so here we go.

The sloth sanctuary has been around for a couple decades now. Louis and Judy moved down here in 1986 (he is Costa Rican and she is from Alaska)and one day some neighborhood girls brought an injured sloth to them. They took care of the sloth, naming her Buttercup. Soon they had several other sloths coming their way and they began a refuge sight for the animals. Today there are over 120 of them here, both two-toed and three-toed, adults and babies, big and small.

(If you want to know more about this place, go ahead and visit www.slothrescue.org).

So I am one of the many volunteers that has come here over the years to help out with these guys. They're all adorable, especially the babies with their soft fur. I thought I knew a lot of them, but apparently I knew close to nothing. For example, two-toed and three-toed sloths are as closely related to each other as they are to ant eaters. They are entirely different species but fall victims to bad naming many years ago. Yes, they do look similar in many ways, but once you get to know them they're quite different.

We get to know these sloths pretty intimately here at Aviarios. We get up at 5:30 each morning to clean out their cages (pretty easy since they only go to the bathroom once a week) and feed them. We are constantly encouraged to talk to the sloths, but that usually happens during morning "baby time." Claire, the volunteer coordinator here, is in charge of the babies and has us volunteers take them out each day for some climbing and exercising. They are incredibly adorable. Cute and cuddly, sometimes a little too much so with the insanely sharp claws they have. The sometimes bite and sometimes cry but have incredible instinct once only a few weeks old and can hang and climb just about anything.

Later we prepare their food by chopping up a few pots of carrots and camote (local sweet potato) with a little mango thrown in as well. After a short lunch break we feed all the sloths and are done by 3 at the latest. The days go by quickly and the work is pretty straightforward, but spending extra time with the sloths always keeps us around the cages and nursery longer than you'd expect.

Judy and the others who are in charge always try and release a sloth if they can, but young babies and too badly injured sloths have no choice but to stay because they could never survive in the wild. But we provide them all with a great home here at Aviarios where they eat and sleep as much as they like. They sleep up to 18 hours a day, but are much quicker than you'd think. If you're not looking a two-toed will sprint across the cage and be right in your face as you turn around to exit their enclosures. It's happened more than once to me already and it'll give you quite a shock.