Sanctuary helps Suriname's sloths back to jungle

Remember how we told you in our last Sloth Courier about the arrival of two young three-toed sloths? Andrea was weak and skinny and seemed at a loss about what to do with the leaves we gave her. Luckily for her, Geersi was brought in around the same time and whenever he ate, she would follow his lead. We say ‘he’ and ‘she’, but in fact, there is no knowing if they are male or female until they reach one year of age, when the male will develop an orange mark on his back. Now these two have turned into confident youngsters and have confiscated Monique Pool’s office as their residence. Here, they can reach each corner and closet, leaving us at a loss as to where they are, curled up for a long nap. It is funny, but at the same time very illustrative of our need of a true rehabilitation center, where these animals can be in an outside enclosure with trees and wind and sun to warm up after a cool night, until old and independent enough to fend for themselves in the forest.

We also want to introduce you to Bas who was brought in on May 4th. He is our leading sloth in our second campaign on Global Giving which focuses on our construction and education plans. Bas is a very special and sad case. Look at his smiling face. Look at his fingers. This was him a fews days after his claws had been chopped off by people who thought he would make a nice pet but then decided he was a bore, sleeping the whole day. Every time we would touch him, he would squeal in such distress that it gave us goose bumps. Then you know for once and for all that this is not a smile on his face. His sensitive claws serve as fingers allowing him to grab branches and to climb trees. These fingers will take about 2 years to grow back, however, we will never be able to assess if he has the same feeling in them as before. All that time, he cannot go back into the wild because he cannot hold tight very well and might fall. And for that reason we cannot repeat often enough: "Wild animals belong in the wild!"

Links:

• The Sloth Courier