ConservationReleased SlothsSloth Diaries
We recently received a call about an injured sloth sleeping in a tree. The photos showed that the sloth had been electrocuted, but the wounds didn’t look fresh. When we arrived the sloth had already moved away and we weren’t able to grab him. People had told us that they had seen this sloth for a few weeks already with the electrocution wounds. We thought how on earth could that be possible? How could an electrocuted sloth survive on its own for so long?
We left our contact information and a couple days later, we received a call. The sloth was back! Team sloth rushed over to rescue him and was able to get him in a kennel quickly.
Upon examination we noticed that the sloth was healing amazingly well on his own! The wounds were on a significant portion of his back, but were not infected. There were areas that were still quite open and some scabs needed to finish healing. Although he was thin, his immune system did an incredible job.
After cleaning his wounds and administering medication, we checked to see if he had a microchip. Interestingly, the microchip scan came back positive! We knew this sloth!
We had rescued Mr Valentine almost exactly a year ago before on Valentine’s Day. He had been electrocuted then as well, healed in a few weeks and then was released. Even though we released him far away, he found his way back and was electrocuted a second time in almost exactly the same spot! Luckily, his wounds both times were not as severe as they can be, but he was still quite the survivor. His story is bittersweet.
Sad that he was electrocuted twice…sad that the habitat in Manuel Antonio is so degraded and that a sloth can be electrocuted twice. But, the story still has a happy ending.
Mr Valentine survived, again, and showed us another example of the amazing abilities of sloth spatial memory. This time we released Mr Valentine deep in the National Park…hopefully far enough away from the electric wires.
