Sloth Sanctuary Suriname sequel: the whole story!

Sloths come and go. Some sloths are special, 19November was special. She blessed us with a baby every single year since her release in 2017. And then last year she joined the Constellation of Sloth, and is looking down upon us. One more bright star .

So did one of her children stay around? The first one was called Madelin, the second 9July and the last one was June. We hope they did. And we wonder if the new baby we first saw on the 4^th of March was maybe a grandchild of 19November. Wouldn’t that be wonderful. Only by studying the pictures of her offspring closely will we be able to determine if the mother is Madelin. The most likely candidate at 4 years old. And probably like her mother, not worried about the humans in the big building. We just wanted to bring you this news and also ask you to join us in celebrating 20 years of GlobalGiving.

Since 2005, Green Heritage Fund Suriname has rescued over 1000 sloths, anteaters and armadillos from difficult situations, and in 2015 our founder, Monique Pool, was nominated as CNN Hero for her conservation work—but we wouldn’t have been able to do this alone!

On Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 11 a.m. to noon ET, join us to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our partner @GlobalGiving, a nonprofit which has been helping us to move all Surinamers to make wise decisions for the sustainable use of our natural resources since 2015—and supporting community-led change around the world since 2002.

From intimate portraits of local changemakers to live performances by international art groups, this event will celebrate the contributions of community leaders across the globe—and that includes you!

Register today!

Although I report every three months, looking back at the two past years leaves me feeling a blur. Momo and Mimi were released early in the year. In any typical year, we have around 150 rescues in total. However, this may vary due to climatic changes and other anomalies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, we only responded to 107 rescue reports. For the first time, we rescued a very healthy and fast armadillo. We are not used to this because most other Xenarthrans are not that fast.  For that reason, we have no sharp picture of the release because the animal was gone before we could photograph it. Unfortunately, 2021 was a painful year for me because we lost 19November early in the year, and at the end of the year, we lost our anteater Poppie, who had been doing so well. A severe infection caused by botflies ultimately became fatal for our sweet anteater friend. 

We learned in 2021 from Frits van Troon, the foremost plant and tree specialist of Suriname, that our forest is, in his opinion, a thousand years old. He remarked that he had never seen such giant Maripa palms (Attalea maripa). As similar privately-owned forests surround us, we can say that the center provides a safe habitat for the animals we release even though we have seen the predator of the sloths near our center, the mighty Harpy Eagle. 

In 2021 we experienced a very wet year and increased winds. Parts of the city flooded more than once. The swamp forest surrounding the center was again well hydrated like a swamp forest should be. But tops of trees broke off as a result of these strong winds. Trees often fall across the road, thus blocking access to our center. Trees also fell in the forest behind our center, one damaging the fence of the anteater enclosure. As a result, the giant anteater baby, Jupo, we had to walk, made its way into the forest. Two sections of the fence have to be replaced. Removing the tree took time, as we had to find someone skilled in doing this type of work. In addition, the weather was so bad that it was not always possible to work. And it was a period of lockdown during the third wave. 

The pandemic impacted our work. Especially during lockdown times, we could not ride out because we had no exemption. In several cases, we were able to do rescues with the help of the fire brigade and a security company. In the period of weekend lockdowns, we could not release animals during the weekend, and sometimes several animals stayed at my house during the weekend. Our usual engagement work with communities was also impacted by the pandemic and the restrictions imposed by the government. We also met less with government officials. And finishing the enclosures or repairing them was also hampered. Maintenance around the center is backlogged because of the pandemic as well.

The good news is that things appear to normalize, and we are looking forward to what 2022 will bring—starting the new year with volunteers helping to work on the backlogged maintenance.