Sloth Sanctuary Suriname sequel: the whole story!

Over the past twenty years, we have had many exceptional, sad, remarkable, and sometimes strange rescues. As if organizing a three-day mini-conference around our 20th anniversary was not enough pressure, the uptick in rescues around our anniversary felt like an extra adrenaline rush. The presence of an out-of-country film crew, in my opinion, was the reason for this. Among our volunteers, we have special lingo to describe people who attract sloths. We call such persons sloth magnets. And people who really want to see a sloth, and no sloth to be seen around?? We call those persons sloth coolers. For me, it was the producer who was the sloth magnet. I had just been introduced, and five minutes after they left my office for their hotel, I received the first rescue call. This was 7 days before our anniversary. From that moment on, we received a call every day. Unfortunately, not all had a happy ending. But the one rescue I want to tell you about is Houdini's. The first time we were called about this animal, it was hanging on the gate of a school on the night of the 2^nd of October. When we arrived, the animal had disappeared into a tree in the yard of the school. It was pitch dark and we could not see anything. So we left and did not hear back from the school about this animal as expected the next day.

Then, on the 22^nd of October, we received a call from a school reporting that a sloth was hiding under the roof. As we were in the midst of our anniversary conference, two colleagues left with the cameraman. The producer was already on her way to the airport. With a lot of effort, they crawled under the roof, lured the animal out of its hiding place, and onto a bench. The animal was then brought to the office for an overnight stay with another animal that had been brought in the night before. The next day, when the colleagues went to the office to transfer the animals to our rescue center in Saramacca for release, only one sloth was found. The big bench was found broken on the floor, and the animal was nowhere to be seen. But we had suspicions it might be in the mango tree behind our office.

Then, on the 3^rd of November, when the cameraman was on his way to fly home, I received some pictures from our office neighbor. He had been talking to someone at his gate when he saw an animal looking at him from our fence. He managed to put it in a crate, and when my colleague and I arrived at the office, we put a zip tie on the door. Tied the crate to the burglar bars and thus ensured that this sloth was finally going to the forest to be released. When we told the cameraman the sloth had been found, he texted back: "Surely, you have to name that one Houdini!" Which we of course did.

We want you to know that we are thankful for your support, as expressed in the document attached to this post. For 20 years, our work has been made possible by people like you, who continue to fund our rescue efforts so we can save sloths from unfortunate situations.

• Thank you for supporting our work! (PDF)