Adopt-A-SlothConservationSloth Diaries
This week’s Sloth Diaries is a special post written by The Sloth Institute’s own Sam Trull.
“Can you come to the gas station…someone is meeting me there with an injured sloth.” was all we knew when we went to meet our local wildlife officer and a good samaritan who had apparently found an injured sloth on the side of the highway on his way towards Quepos. Pedro and I grabbed everything we needed to properly handle an aggressive adult sloth (they can get pretty dangerous when they are handled by humans – especially when they are hurt and afraid) and rushed down to the meeting point. As we walked to the side of the good samaritan’s car I noticed the passenger side door ajar. Laying on the floor of the car was a tiny ball of fur. Letting out a mini (but mighty) cry, the ball of fur was alive and terrified! I instantly rushed over with the towel I was carrying and swooped him up, swaddling him in the towel so he would feel safe. After a quick check for injuries, the almost newborn baby three-fingered sloth looked ok. The good samaritan told us more about his story. He had pulled over on the side of the highway for a quick bathroom break when he heard the baby crying. Not knowing what to do, but knowing he had to find help, he called MINAE. But before he left the area he noticed an adult sloth in the trees next to where the baby was found. “Maybe that’s mom..” he told us.
The three of us rushed to the area where the baby was found. Armed with only a photo of the little body laying inches from the highway next to a local bus stop, we finally found the right spot and the exact tree above where the baby had fallen. A quick look up into the forest canopy and Pedro spotted a sloth! The sloth was on the move but immediately after spotting it, we noticed it was a male (male three-fingered sloths have patches of unique fur on their backs called a speculum).
Disappointed, we kept searching and not long after spotted a female three-fingered sloth. Knowing there was a good chance she was mom, we put the baby on a small sapling so that he would cry and that would attract mom down to him. As soon as baby was on the tree, he started crying and immediately mom responded by climbing down towards the cries. We were all SO excited! Mom was coming down!!! This was going to work. We settled a few meters away very quietly, so as not to disturb the reunion but had our cameras ready to record the action. As mom came down we noticed she seemed kind of confused. Instead of going exactly to where the baby was crying she started to come down a vine in the other direction. Not wanting to miss this opportunity as she could quickly head back up the vine, I grabbed the baby and put him directly onto mom. As I handed him to her she reached out and grabbed him towards her chest. They embraced and all seemed well for a few seconds until baby started to fall off of mom again, hanging on by only one foot and crying. As he cried mom pulled his arms and legs out and started looking at him as if to say, “why are you crying?!?” which only made him cry more. They did this back and forth upside wrestle for a few minutes while we watched, shocked and not really knowing what we were witnessing. We’d never seen a reunion be so complicated…usually they are pretty straight forward. Mom takes baby and then climbs up the tree as fast as possible. We started to wonder if something was wrong…As we looked around at each other wondering if we should intervene or just keep watching, mom started to head further down to the ground (RIGHT next to us) with baby dangling upside down off of her back by one foot. She proceeded to go to the bathroom on the ground. As she started to head back up we decided to grab mom and make sure she has milk. Maybe she wasn’t this baby’s mother after all?!? Before they could get too much higher up, we grabbed mom and checked her nipples for milk production. Both mammary glands were producing milk. She had to be the mom! We placed baby directly onto mom’s chest and put his head near her nipple then let them go. After she climbed about 1 meter directly above our heads, baby started to dangling off of her body…crying, yet again and mom started looking at him like he was crazy, yet again. As they hung there upside down, we all discussed what we should do…something was off with both of these sloths. None of their behaviors were normal. But before we reached a conclusion, the little baby fell from mom, bounced off of my head and landed on the ground. Not slowed down at all, baby continued to cry and immediately mom rushed to the ground to get her baby. At this moment we decided to grab both mom and baby and take them back to our lab for further diagnosis.
Unsurprisingly, mom’s exam showed a bacterial infection in her uterus. She had just recently given birth and a complication such as that would be fairly normal. This would explain her odd behavior and also could have been reducing her quality of milk production. We began antibiotic treatment on mom, careful to chose a drug that would not interfere with her milk production and I started to co-parent this baby with her. Every day, about 6 times a day, I would grab the baby off of her and feed him his milk, but then immediately give him back. This way he stayed with her 24/7 but I was able to supplement his milk feedings as needed. Luckily she was the most gentle wild sloth I have ever met. I don’t know if she knew we were trying to help or what, but she never once tried to attack me and always let me easily take her baby and give him back; which is extremely unusual. Every day we also continued to stimulate her milk production manually and also by encouraging the baby to nurse. This way he would continue to learn how to feed from her while also continuing to stimulate her natural milk production. Our goal was always to heal them both, then release them together; therefore it was essential she continued to produce milk. After a couple days, the baby was named “Dumbo” and his mother “Mrs. Jumbo” which was always one of my favorite movies as a child and pretty fitting considering the Disney character Dumbo also gets separated from his mother. Every day, Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo got stronger until finally about a month later she was well enough to completely care for him herself and Dumbo had also become very good at nursing…it was time for their release! Wanting to be sure they would have our help if separated again, we collared Mrs. Jumbo so that we could track them daily. It’s now 4 months later and Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo are still doing well in the wild together. Every day we see them cuddle, scratch together, rest together and forage for food. Just a few weeks ago we were able to weigh them both…Dumbo is getting so big! We couldn’t be more proud of them both and so happy that just like a Disney movie…they got their happily ever after ending.
Do you want to see more videos of Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo? You can visit our YouTube page here!
Did you love the story of Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo? You can symbolically adopt them now and help make more rescues like this possible!
