ConservationSloth Diaries
Deforestation Kills sloths daily in Costa Rica
For all of the reasons that we receive sloths, deforestation is at the root of every displaced or injured sloth. Trees are cut down to make way for homes, business and roads. With the gaps in the forest connected by electric wires, sloths climb on those wires to get from one tree to another and get electrocuted. With homes now in their forests, dogs brought by people wander into the forest and attack sloths. If a car doesn’t see a sloth soon enough, they become a victim to traffic accidents. All of these dangers are a daily reality for the sloths that live in Costa Rica and especially in our area, Manuel Antonio.
He was trapped in a concrete jungle...
Recently we rescued a sloth who found himself in a neighborhood “concrete jungle”. He was clearly hungry and in search of food, because by the time we arrived to rescue him, he was clinging to a tiny green sapling that was growing out of the roof of an apartment building. Opportunistically he started eating that sapling because he wasn’t sure where his next meal would be found.
I have seen a lot of horribly sad things including massive trauma inflicted on sloths and other wildlife because of human encroachment into the jungle. But watching this sloth clinging to this tiny sapling and desperately eating from it, might be the saddest thing I have ever seen. Luckily he wasn’t hurt, or in pain in that very moment. But it was still horribly sad because of what that image represents. Sloths, just like all wild animals, never give up on trying to survive. When their habitat changes, they change with it and they search for ways to live within their new reality. Sadly, for sloths living in an urban environment, there is only but so much they can do to adapt.
They will never stop being injured and they will always need our help.
