Wildlife in Costa Rica, Sloths
Sloths
These beautiful animals are completely neotropical. They move slowly and live high in the canopy, eat leaves and only come down once a week to defecate. In Costa Rica you can find two and three-toed sloths. The three-toed sloths sometimes seem to be grey-greenish because of algae that grow on their fur.
The characteristic of the three-toed sloths is their black eye patches and mouths that appear to be smiling. The larger two-toed variety has white-ringed faces, brown snouts and shaggy coats. Sloths spend almost all their lives hanging upside down in a tree; they sleep, eat, mate and even give birth upside down. This is possible because they have long claws that provide a resisting grip to the branches. Rent a car Costa Rica.
Sloths sleep about fourteen to eighteen hours per day. Algae grow in their hair and this helps them camouflage in the forest canopy. The life expectancy of a sloth is 10-16 years, however in captivity they can live into their mid-thirties.
In Spanish they are known as “perezosos” which just like their name in English, refers to their slow moving nature. Nevertheless these beautiful creatures are not lazy. They are so slow because they have amazingly slow digestive tracts. Most herbivores process food in a few, it may take more than four weeks for a sloth to digest one leaf. For this reason energy is very important and they practice conservation of movement. Even though they move so slowly on land, sloths are fast swimmers.
The three-toed sloth might be difficult to see sometimes because they generally live in dense tree crowns. In Costa Rica, sloths often feed on the leaves of cecropia trees. These trees are less dense, therefore when they are here they are easier to spot. The two-toed sloth is essentially herbivorous, but sometimes supplements its diet with bird eggs, lizards, and insects. Costa Rica Car hire.
In Costa Rica, both types are found throughout the country, except at very high elevations. In wet, lowland forests, three-toed sloths are more common than two-toed. Both can be spotted in the forests of Tortuguero, Puerto Viejo, Manuel Antonio, and the Osa Peninsula, as well as throughout much of the Central Valley.
At the present time The Sloth Rescue Center in Cahuita, locally known as Aviarios del Caribe, is the only sloth sanctuary in the world. Their mission is to rescue sloths that have been orphaned or endangered due to habitat loss, electrocution by power lines, hunting, traffic injuries and human violence. The rescue center also takes part in community outreach programs educating local youth on sloth appreciation and the importance of rainforest ecosystems. To get there you can drive from Puerto Viejo and Cahuita, head north on the main road toward Limon. Drive over the Estrella River Bridge, which is the only two-lane overhead bridge. Follow signs to Aviarios del Caribe. The Sloth Sanctuary is located on the right-hand side of the road. Renting a car in Costa Rica.