Page No: 21 Founder’s Day Issue 2015
SLOTHS Sloths are mammals that have been renowned for their slowness. But we do not really understand and appreciate their magnificence. Sloths are peaceful and adorable animals that are sadly
endangered. However, people have been striving to revive this brilliant race throughout the years. One example of sloth reserves is called Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica . The Sloth Sanctuary provides shelter for trafficked, orphaned or found/homeless sloths. Throughout the years, sloths have been trafficked and sold in black markets in places such as South America. They also have been hunted for fun. It has been estimated that if this abuse continues, sloths may become extinct within the next thirty years. Thus, the Costa Rica Sloth Sanctuary was formed. Luckily, the fabulous race of sloths have been starting to become more known within modern society, and they are regarded as cute animals. Sloths, of all ages, are an extremely hard breed of animals to take care of, let alone pet.
They require utmost attention and care. Also, they need special tools to make sure they adapt to the human environment. For example, when they have a bath, unlike normal pets, they need a special treatments. Firstly, they are washed with water and scrubbed carefully with special soap. Then they are combed, and put into a bathtub filled with mint and other specimen of leaves. They are then scrubbed
with leaves and enriched water (the mint is used to remove body odours). After a thorough washing, they are sent to their playground (consisting of several bars and trees for sloths to hang and climb) where they ‘self drip’ and dry. When they are dried, they become fluffy and cuter! In the Costa Rica Sloth Sanctuary, they feed them Hibiscus leaves as a treat after bathing, which the sloths absolutely love. Sloths have a very complicated diet, because their digestive system runs so slowly. They have a four- part stomach, so they have four sections in their stomach which digest differently. It can even take a whole month to digest a meal, which is about 30 times more than the average human! Their diet, consisting of different types of leaves, is not very nutritious which could be why they move so slowly. Baby sloths, like most other mammals, need milk. However, since sloth milk is hard to provide, the
Costa Rica Sloth Sanctuary uses goat milk instead. But goats milk does not provide as many nutrients as they should be getting from their mother’s milk. Because they do not get the nutrients they need, they are prone to infections and diseases. This is why the utmost care and attention must be given when taken care of. In the wild, sloths have evolved and adapted to their slow nature. Because of their sluggishness, they have adapted to the environment and their fur colour has turned into the colour of the wood that it hangs from. Because of this camouflage and their slowness, predators rarely hunt or even notice sloths. This is one way that sloths survive. Another interesting fact is that sloths have a whole species of algae living in their fur!
Long live the sloths!
For more information: http://www.slothsanctuary.com/
Junsang Park and William Wakely, 8W
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