When sloth scientist Rebecca Cliffe was studying zoology at Manchester University in England, the opportunity came up to spend 12 months on a research experience in a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica. As the position was very competitive, Rebecca decided to learn everything she could about sloths to prepare herself for the interview – and she got the job.
After spending a few years in Costa Rica, Rebecca decided to start the Sloth Conservation Foundation (SloCo) in 2017. She’s been working with sloths for 14 years now, and her non-profit has been growing over the years.
Why did you decide to start the Sloth Conservation Foundation?
When I was doing research on sloths through a rescue center, I noticed how many sloths were arriving at the center and the awful things that were happening to them. I also noticed that nobody was working directly with them in the wild – there were a lot of people doing rescue and rehabilitation work, but in terms of scientific research, no one knew much about them. It was the same in terms of conservation in the wild, nothing was really happening here either. I got really inspired by this and felt that I could help, so that’s why I never really left after that first year. For about 5 years, I self-funded my research and based myself out there. Then I graduated with my PhD, and I knew I could take two directions: either go into academia, which is a more predictable future, or try to build a non-profit and see if I could make a difference. I felt the latter was the next step I had to take, although it was riskier.
Can you tell us something about sloths?
Absolutely! There are six different species of sloths, but they’re split into two different types: the two-fingered sloth and the three-fingered sloth. These are very distantly related and don’t have that much in common, so when we’re talking about sloths, we’re talking about two very different animals.
Sloths are the slowest moving animals on the planet. Everything they do is about conserving energy and remaining hidden so that predators don’t see them because they can’t run away. They spend their entire lives living upside down in the rainforest canopies of South and Central America.
They’re so good at camouflage that it’s almost become a double-edged sword for them. Because they’re so well hidden, predators can’t see them, but scientists and conservationists that are trying to help them can’t see them either. It’s therefore very difficult to research sloths, and a lot of information that’s out there about them is incorrect as well.
One of the important things we don’t know is how many there are. This is important to know in terms of conservation and ensuring healthy populations for the future. One of the biggest problems with that is that four out of the six species of sloths have been listed as the least concern on the IUCN red list, which should be changed into ‘deficient’ as we don’t have accurate numbers.
What we want to do is to start the first-ever population count and surveys. But, we can’t do it as human beings because we can’t find the sloths. That’s why we just trained our two first sloth detection dogs to detect sloths’ feces so that we can accurately start to build up how many of them are living in these different areas. We’re going to start counting them in particular areas and we will combine this with visual surveys and thermal images to build up all the data. It’s ambitious but exciting!
What problems are the sloth populations facing in their daily lives?
The problem we deal with primarily in countries like Costa Rica and Brazil is the general urbanization of the rainforest. Sloths rely heavily on the trees connecting with each other because they can’t run or jump. They need to move from tree to tree by using the branches. As soon as you start having any level of development in the forest, sloths are the first ones that start to suffer because they have to try to find alternative ways to move around. They try to climb on the power lines and get electrocuted, for example, or they try to cross roads and get hit by cars. Another problem is that, when they move around on the ground, they get attacked by dogs and they don’t have any defense mechanism against that.
Another growing problem is poaching for the pet trade and tourists taking sloth selfies. It’s a big problem that people put selfies with sloths on social media because then everyone else sees it and thinks it’s okay. Then, everyone wants to do it and it gets normalized. This is very dangerous as it’s not normal and we shouldn’t be snuggling wild animals.
The goal of SloCo is to develop sustainable ways in which humans and sloths coexist. How do you do that?
It’s all about helping locals and giving them the tools, knowledge, and resources they need in order to coexist with sloths. We work in very economically-deprived areas with a lot of families below the poverty line. There’s a low literacy rate too, so if people have to choose between saving the sloths and feeding their families, then they will choose to feed their families.
We do many different things, but one of the most important ones is getting everyone who owns property and land to make it as environmentally friendly as possible while still being able to develop it for the reason they need it. We do this thing called ‘The Connective Garden Project’ and we do it for free. People just have to be willing to accept our help. We’ll plant trees and give people advice on which trees are good to cut if they need to – these are the trees that are easy to grow back. We also educate school children through the local school system and have a castration project for dogs and free dog training services, which are sponsored by the Future for Nature Foundation.
You have a lot of different projects going on. Can you tell us something about these?
One of my favorite projects is part of the connective gardens – it’s called the Sloth Crossing Project. Essentially, each sloth crossing-wildlife bridge is a rope strung up between two trees and it helps wildlife move around in urban areas. These bridges are relatively cheap and they’re easy to make; we put up hundreds of them and people can sponsor one. When they do, we put the bridge up for them and put a sign on it that says who sponsored it. We also put a camera strap on the bridge and monitor what animals use it. The sponsor will then get the footage in their mailboxes and we use this information for future purposes.
Sloths look pretty cute, we can imagine that there are tourist places where you can hold sloths and take pictures with them. Can you tell us what the impact on a sloth is?
It’s very well known that sloths don’t like physical contact with humans. They get very scared and stressed out because they’re not very social. When they’re put into situations like this, it often kills them. So, if an organization allows you to hold or touch sloths, it’s a red flag.
There are two different things. First, there are organizations and individuals where you can hold a sloth and have a picture with them in exchange for money. These sloths are taken out of the wild to use for a picture until they die, and then, they’re replaced. People make up all sorts of convincing stories as to why the sloths are in their houses. They will tell you they rescued it and will put it back in the wild once the time is right, for example.
The second one is zoos. Some zoos will allow you to come into the enclosure with the sloths and feed them, which is generally okay. However, if a zoo allows people to touch and hold sloths, that zoo doesn’t have the animal’s best interest in mind and they’re not doing it for the right reasons.
Where should we go to see sloths in the wild in an ethical way?
You really have to know where to look because sloths live in very particular areas. In Portoviejo, for example, it’s not uncommon to see sloths sitting by the side of the swimming pool or climbing on the roof of a house. This local town is a beautiful example of co-existence because the people really love them here and they protect them as well.
What can we do to help SloCo?
You can help us by raising awareness or by volunteering remotely and translating our educational material into different languages so that it can reach more people. We also offer fun fundraising packages like adopting a sloth or sponsoring a wildlife bridge.
Do you want to learn more about sloths, adopt a sloth, or sponsor a wildlife bridge? Check SloCo out the links below.
Website: https://slothconservation.org/
Instagram: @SlothConservation
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