Sloth Sanctuary Suriname sequel: the whole story!

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.