I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported our original campaign to fund essential research into sloth genetics - we hit our $5000 target within 12 days! Because we still have 6 weeks left before the campaign ends, 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 above our initial $5000 goal 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.
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After launching this campaign just 15 days ago, I am delighted to announce that we have smashed our fundraising target of $5000! THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed to help us reach this point – the genetic analysis can now 100% go ahead and it really is going to make a huge difference. I have broken the good news to Dr. Sonia Consuegra (the geneticist at Swansea University who will be running the analysis) and she has already begun preparing to order the necessary laboratory chemicals. I will keep you updated as the project progresses – we should be starting to see some results within the next few months!
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ORIGINAL CAMPAIGN
Last year we ran a successful Indiegogo campaign to fund our research into the genetic diversity of wild sloth populations in Costa Rica. In particular, we are interested in finding out why so many wild sloths are being born with birth defects (including missing / malformed limbs and partial or full albinism). We suspect that these deformities are the direct result of either extensive habitat fragmentation, or the excessive use of pesticides for agriculture. However, before we can develop any targeted conservation strategies, we have to fully understand the root cause of the problem - and that means completing the necessary genetic research. Following the success of our previous campaign, we were able to collect hair samples from over 300 wild sloths, but we are now lacking the final injection of funds to complete the laboratory analysis.