¡Día de la Pereza! (Day of the Sloth!)

It's all in the toes! The difference between sloths, that is. Well there is also a big difference in number of ribs, but that isn't as noticeable as the toes.

We saw our first sloth in Monteverde the evening we arrived. Probably would have missed it if not for the tourists staring up into the tree. It looked like a big clump of fur. And there wasn't much if any action.

This past weekend we went to La Fortuna on Lake Arenal for an overnight trip. Francisco spotted two sloths in different trees right outside the restaurant where we were having lunch. Cool! Now I know most of you think I'm down here in Costa Rica living this totally exotic life so I kind of hate to admit this - but I spent almost an hour slothwatching on that trip. It's not as easy as it sounds. You have to stand with your neck craned back. Sometimes you're in the road to get the best view and in danger of being hit by taxis. And people make fun of sloths because they are so slow but if I lived that high up in a tree, I don't think I'd be making any fast moves either.

Now these sloths were much more exciting than the first one we saw. And here's why. They were three-toed! That means they're diurnal and much more active during the day than our two-toed Monteverde sloths. Just look at the action in these photos!

And did you know it can take a month for a sloth to digest food? In fact, more than half a sloth's body weight is the food still inside its stomach! And they have no muscles so can't shiver and they can't walk so if they come down out of the tree they have to drag themselves places. That sounds kind of creepy. And they only urinate when it's raining so predators don't catch their scent. Also interesting is that a sloth's hair grows in an opposite direction, from its belly toward its back. That's because normal fur would fluff up, not lie flat, on an upside-down sloth. This smooth fur sheds water while sloths hang upside down in the rainforest.

Francisco told us he's stopped on the road a couple of times to pick up and move sloths that were crossing from one side to the other. Not sure how he knew the correct procedure for that since they have long claws to scratch and also teeth that bite. Click here to see a great video of a sloth crossing. Less than a minute long. They must have edited it down.

So as a result of this exciting trip, I'm thinking of starting a SlothWatcher Club. We'd need a badge or patch of some kind to make us look official. I bet we could use it to get into National Parks at a discount because we're helping the scientists collect data. I'm working on the emblem for a patch now.

But there's more!

After our return from La Fortuna, Hannah and I attended a Christmas Program at the Friends' Meetinghouse (more on that later) and I happened to notice a man walking by with something wrapped up in a little blanket and would you believe it was a baby sloth!

And that's how we met Bennito. This is the second baby sloth he has taken care of. I asked him if there wasn't a rescue center near that could help. He told us that the person who had found the baby sloth had called the rescue center and was advised to call Bennito! In the close-ups below you can see the top of the little bottle that Bennito uses to feed the baby. It stays on a heating pad when Bennito isn't holding it. And he has to get up and do night feedings just like new parents with human babies!

 Also wanted to share this entertaining video clip of another sloth lover -

 And still trying to verify if it's true that sometimes baby sloths mistake their own arm for a tree limb and fall out of the tree because of it.