So it has been an eventful but brilliant week since last time! To start with, Judy managed to break both bones in her arm in an attempt to catch a sloth that fell out of a huuuge tree at the sanctuary... the sloth survived fine but unfortunatley her arm didn't! Although it almost certainly would have died if it wasn't for her - She really is the saviour of the sloth's !!!
On a brighter note, we finally made it tothe beach. It's about a 2 min drive away from here and is beautiful - miles of desered black sand and jungle! We have been several times this week and stayed there into the evening sea kayaking and dancing to a bit of reggae reggae - actual paradise ! Although unfortunatley this means the number of sand fly bites on my legs has tripled to about 300 per leg ... it's a raging fire of itchiness right now!
Anyway apart from the odd evening at the beach we haven't had much free time. We are still having a bit of trouble attaching the daily diaries to the sloth's - we have had to scrap the tape idea for the 2-fingered and resort to the harness plan. We tried this first on one of the favourites here called Millie but had a HUGE panic after returning from the beach one night to find her lying motionless, eyes open and tongue out - she genuinely looked dead. But not to worry, apparently she sleeps like that all the time !! Anyway we have now put it on another one called Maddie. Shes amazingly friendly while licking my hand but as soon as I move it away she gets a little grumpy. So unfortunatley we had to use a tranquiliser to prevent being slowlyyyyy savaged! But she's fine now and giving us some good data :) Also, Sid-Wiggy who has been in a sulk for about a week after we first taped a device to him has finally forgiven us and is back to his normal self - i.e. forcing a cuddle from you by grabbing on and not letting go ! Anyway all is generally going well and hopefully the harness plan will work a treat!
Well I am off for a morning of sloth-watching, I will update more soon and add some pictures when I get round to it xx
My name is Rebecca Cliffe and I am a PhD student researching sloths at the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica. I spend my days chasing wild sloths through the rainforest for the Sloth Backpack Project and trying to develop a release program to give hand-reared orphans a second chance at a life in the wild.
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