A couple of weeks ago, we went up into the monte to re-start our water-level survey (the previous day, the tank had broken after a fall, and we had to post-pone until I could fix it). We were about to cross a small creek, when the two young men I was working with noticed this:
That is a sloth. It must have fallen from up high, landed between the two trees and gotten good and stuck. It was not moving and appeared to be dead. But my cohorts and I decided we had to be sure, so they got a couple of large sticks and started poking.
Eventually, they knocked him loose and he thudded to the ground. He was not exactly the picture of health. We figured he probably wouldn´t make it, but at least he could drink from the creek and maybe make a recovery.
When we passed back down there again a few hours later, he had climbed back up into another nearby tree and appeared to be very much among the living.
The next day, the two boys, who are also members of my Panama Verde group, were happy to tell the story with some gentle prodding from me. All in a day´s work.
The two animal rescuers, at the water reserve tanks, with the water level.
What good Karma you and your friends have brought on yourselves. Was it really a sloth, or someone else?
ReplyDeleteIts amazing these things aren't extinct. They move painfully slowly, and this is the second distressed blog post you have written.
ReplyDeleteconnie, wasn't it you who told me the story once about a book where a sloth fell on someone who was sleeping under a tree and it killed them and then we subsequently argued for half an hour about how a sloth couldn't kill someone because it was too slow . . . ? im terribly excited that you actually encountered one!!
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