Bridging connections between Costa Ricans and the world’s slowest mammal

Slow. Sedentary. Slothful. With a name that’s synonymous with laziness, sloths have quite the reputation. Yet knowledge about their lives is scant. “I realised there wasn’t enough scientific data related to sloths and this impacted our ability to care for them,” Rebecca Cliffe says. The English zoologist is an expert on these mammals, having conducted the longest study of wild sloths on record as part of her PHD studies. Living in Costa Rica and building on her extensive research over the past decade, Cliffe is now protecting the animals by securing their natural habitat.

In 2015, Cliffe began The Sloth Backpack Project, tagging and fitting wild sloths with mini bags that contain trackers. These were designed to monitor their movement, behaviour, and immediate environment, logging data up to 40 times per second. Filling in the gaps about an animal that scientists previously struggled to locate and research in the wild, Cliffe’s studies offered crucial insight into how the animals interact with their environment. As they can’t run or jump, sloths rely on interconnecting branches and trees that are in close proximity to make their way through the canopies. The mammals are therefore sensitive to disturbances in their environment, particularly houses and roads that run through the forest. When they can’t move from tree to tree, sloths will use alternative structures such as power lines to travel, getting electrocuted in the process. 

So why hasn’t anyone prevented sloths from meeting this horrifying outcome? “These guys have a bad reputation,” Cliffe explains. Their intelligence is the butt of jokes, but sloths are no less smart because they’re physically slow. There’s also the fear of zoonotic diseases. According to Cliffe, sloths are seen as carriers of a flesh-eating parasite – a misconception that has been passed down for generations. “Because of that, not many people care to conserve them and they're misunderstood by many,” she says. 

In a bid to save the world's slowest mammal, Cliffe established The Sloth Conservation Foundation. Rather than rescuing or rehabilitating the animals, the organisation leads multiple initiatives to ensure safe journeys for sloths. They’re reforesting Costa Rica by planting sloth-friendly trees, insulating power lines, and building wildlife bridges for sloths to cross roads. Through their Connected Gardens Project, Costa Rican residents receive sloth crossing canopies and rope bridges to link their treetops to neighbouring properties, and are taught what to look out for when sloths pass by. In doing so, they’re piecing together the sloth’s ecosystem, and bolstering conservation through citizen research. “All of these important things are now starting to make a real difference,” Cliffe says.

By encouraging local communities to learn about sloths, her team is empowering people to play a part in protecting them. “They’ve been around for 64 million years, so there’s so much more to discover,” Cliffe says. “Never give up on the sloths because the world would be a much more miserable place without the most peaceful, relaxed animals.”

Footage by The Sloth Conservation Foundation was used in the creation of this film.