Who knew sloths were so adorable? I certainly didn't, and I have actually seen sloths in the wild, in Panama. Those were basically big brown motionless furballs way up in the trees, and not at all cute, as opposed to this little guy, Milo, and his friends at the Toucan Rescue Ranch outside San José.
Yesterday was our only unscheduled day, and several of us went to the ranch for a tour. We got to see toucans, monkeys, and other wildlife in addition to the sloths. Some of them had been pets; some were injured by cars or power lines. Because the goal is to return as many of the animals to the wild as possible, human contact needs to be limited, and you can only see the animals who for one reason or another can't be rehabilitated. (One poor spider monkey for example was kept as a pet by an owner who cut off her prehensile tail to keep her from grabbing things with it.)
It takes two years to teach a sloth to live in the wild, and those, like Milo, who fail to graduate will continue to live at the ranch with yummy snacks and blankets to keep them warm for naps.
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