SloCo – The Sloth Conservation Foundation

Because this campaign is open indefinitely, I have decided to take this opportunity to fund raise for the future of sloth conservation. I have been living, breathing, and working with sloths for 6 years now, and although I have met many passionate people along the way who are all dedicating their lives to protecting these wonderful animals, I believe that there is something very important missing: unity. 

Every day hundreds of sloths are falling victim to the land development, urbanization, and habitat destruction occurring in South and Central America. From power line electrocutions and dog attacks, to road collisions, habitat loss and human cruelty – it is a long and sad list of threats. Thankfully there are a number of individual groups working tirelessly to protect the sloths through research and/or rehabilitation programs, but I have found there to be a worrying lack of collaboration or sharing of information between parties. This is not to discredit anybody’s hard work, people are simply doing the best they can with what they have available. But there is only so much that can be achieved alone -  just imagine what we could accomplish if we were all to pool our ideas, resources and expertise and work together for the greater benefit of sloths.

For this reason, I am endeavoring to create the Sloth Conservation Foundation (SloCo) – a registered non-profit organisation that will be dedicated to saving sloths in the wild through research and conservation initiatives. We will bring together all people, partners, and institutions working globally with sloths to achieve lasting conservation solutions. The aim of the Sloth Conservation Foundation will not be to rescue or rehabilitate injured animals, but rather to prevent them from needing rescue in the first place. While other groups will perform the necessary triage, we will work on curing the root cause.

Such conservation strategies will include (for example): education programs in local communities; campaigning for underground power lines; planting forest corridors to connect fragmented habitats; construction of wildlife bridges across major roads; tree surveys to ensure that the species needed to support sloths are plentiful enough; and international education programs to reduce poaching for the sloth pet trade and tourist photo opportunities (these animals are often plucked out of the wild and sold to unsuspecting sloth lovers).

Meeting these goals will be a challenge, but as my track record shows, if I believe in something then I will throw my heart and soul into it. I believe that by working together as a united front, we will have the power to secure a brighter future for sloths throughout Central and South America. 

The key missions of the Sloth Conservation Foundation will be:

•To fund and coordinate high quality research into the biology, ecology, genetics, evolution and physiology of all 6 sloth species. 

•To create an accessible database of scientific knowledge. Making all sloth research publications (past and present) available to the people who really need them – the people working in the field – and to break down the results into usable applications for the benefit of sloths.

•To tackle the issues that sloths are facing in the wild by developing and implementing conservation strategies, working from the ground up through education of local communities to lobbying for change at a government level.

•To create a united community of people all working together towards the research, conservation and protection of sloths, facilitating the sharing of information, advice, successes and failures.

All additional donations that we receive on this page will go towards building the Sloth Conservation Foundation. Costs will include creating a website, logo design, drawing up and submitting official non-profit documentation etc. 

Alternatively, if there are any website or graphic designers out there who would be willing to get involved by donating their time – please send me a message with some samples of your work at rebeccacliffe06@gmail.com! I would be delighted to collaborate with you on this project!

Thank you again for your support and I look forward to stepping forwards on this journey with you. 

Original campaign:

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The Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica is the world’s only centre dedicated to the rescue, research and rehabilitation of sloths. We have been rescuing sloths for over 20 years, but in order to continue to safeguard the future of these amazing animals, we desperately need your help. 

My name is Rebecca Cliffe and I am a biologist working at the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica. I am currently studying sloths for my PhD, under the supervision of Professor Rory Wilson at Swansea University.

WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP

Sloths are one of the least studied mammals. Their survival strategy is camouflage, and as a result we know very little about how they live in the wild. Even the most basic information such as their natural diet and habitat preference still remain a mystery. This lack of knowledge makes the development of conservation strategies difficult.

 Over time, we have learned how to treat injured adult sloths, and to date we have successfully reintroduced over 120 animals back into the wild.

It is much more difficult to release hand-raised sloths. In the wild, a baby sloth lives with its mother for at least 12 months, during which time it learns all the essential skills required to survive in the wild. One of the most important lessons to learn is which leaves are safe to eat. Many other mammals learn what is safe to eat through trial and error – if they feel sick after eating a certain food; they will avoid it in the future. A sloths digestion is very slow making this much more difficult. It can take them up to 30 days to digest a single leaf. If a sloth feeds from the same tree species for too long it risks overdosing on that particular toxin – and unfortunately they won’t realize it until it’s too late. We simply do not know enough about their natural diet in order to teach this to the orphaned babies that arrive here. Much more research is required.

The sanctuary currently provides a permanent home for 149 sloths that cannot be returned to the wild for this reason. Due to the high number of injured and orphaned sloths that are constantly brought to us in need of help, it is becoming essential that we find a way to safely return these animals back into the wild.

In order to continue with our research and to develop a release program to return these animals to their natural habitat, we need to raise enough funds to buy the necessary tracking equipment. Ideally, we would like to buy GPS collars that can remotely transmit the sloths’ location, allowing us to continuously monitor the animal’s progress following release. We will be able to ensure that the sloth is moving around as it should and most importantly feeding from the right trees. If not, we will be able to pin-point its location using the GPS collar, and come to its rescue.

Your contribution will also allow us to carry out critical research through the Sloth Backpack Project. This will involve tracking and monitoring the daily activity of wild sloths using specially designed ‘Sloth Backpacks’. These consist of a harness with a VHF radio transmitter, GPS locator and a Daily Diary data logger. This technology basically allows us to see exactly what wild sloths are doing, and where they are doing it. Through the use of these devices, we are aiming to gain a better understanding of the sloths daily behaviour patterns including their diet, habitat preference and reproductive habits. Furthermore, we hope to formulate estimates for important factors such as population densities and ranging patterns.

Using this information will provide us with the necessary scientific knowledge to give the hand-reared sloths the best chance of survival when returned to the wild. 

WHERE YOUR MONEY WILL GO 

100% of the money raised through this fundraiser will go directly towards supporting sloth research and the development of a release program.

Besides the operational costs of carrying out the project, the primary equipment we are aiming to buy includes:

The number of collars and backpacks we will buy depends entirely upon how much money we raise through this fundraiser. 

HOW YOU CAN HELP US 

You can help us to conserve these incredible animals by donating whatever you can – no donation is too small, every dollar is a step closer to reaching our goal.

I passionately believe that your contribution can help to make a huge difference to the conservation of sloths around the world. Together we have the chance to discover more about these amazing animals and help to protect them in the future.

As well as donations, please help us to spread the word and share this page with all of your friends.

FOLLOW OUR PROGRESS

If you would like to keep up to date with the project I will report our progress on the Sloth Sanctuary blog.

You can also follow us on Facebook and twitter.