We've had about three to four sloths living in the trees between the gate of the hotel and our house the past week or two. In the previous few days, four of them gathered in one tree. I took some guests down one morning to see the sloths, as most people that come here can't wait to see one.We were down on the driveway, watching three of them huddled together on a branch, about 50 to 60 feet up in the air. One started making its way our further, and the branch (which was over 50 feet long) started to dip. I cleared everyone away, and sure enough, the branch broke about a minute later and the sloths came crashing down, about 3 feet in front of me.
Keneth and I jumped in and started clearing away the branches (the main branch that snapped was about 6 to 8 inches around, and it snapped off from the base of the tree) to free up the sloths.
Luckily, none of the sloths were hurt. Even though they must have been startled and shocked to be out of their element, they still didn't hurry to get back into the trees. They shuffled along on the ground, before starting to climb up some banana plants and then back into the trees. I was told that it is very unusual to see a group of sloths all huddled together. Usually, they're solitary creatures, unless one is watching a baby.
It may sound cruel, but that was pretty neat to see the sloths up close and personal like that. I could have touched one if I wanted, but didn't want to disturb them anymore than they already were.
4 comments:
What's with the green fur?
sloths don't move a whole lot, and they're not very fast when they do move. . . the green is mold, mildew or some sort of combination of the two. . . they use it for camouflage as well when they're up in the trees. . . a guide told me that a sloth comes down from its tree (on purpose anyway) just once a week to take care of bathroom business. . .
Very cool!
You should add "Sloth Rescue" to your resume!
Sloths are awesome. I have a Ph D in molecular biology and have been doing a comparative analysis of sloth and human DNA. It turns out that humans and sloths actually have 99.8% of the same DNA. In fact, I have seen sloth-like behavior in humans. Shocking but true.
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