Community Chat

[feline groovy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EY8xzRhUPY

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[ECBG]

How sweet!  So glad that wonderful woman happened by!

[feline groovy]

details:

On a Costa Rican beach where the jungle meets the sea, the recorded cries of a lost baby sloth recently blasted from a loudspeaker.

Volunteers from the nonprofit Jaguar Rescue Center had hiked Playa Cocles for hours, broadcasting the sounds in hopes of enticing the infant’s mother to reclaim her little one.

Tourists had found the baby lying on the beach the day before, covered in sand and ants, and brought it to the center. A vet check revealed the brown-throated three-toed sloth, the weight of a can of soup, was in a few weeks old and in good condition. But the youngster would not have survived the night alone on the beach. 

A visual search for the mother proved fruitless. Knowing that sloth moms recognize their babies' cries, the center's founder and resident biologist Encar Garcia recorded the orphan’s vocalizations on her smartphone, transferred the files to a portable speaker, and sent a team back into the wild the next day.

Around 5 p.m., the volunteers noticed a curious adult sloth descending a tree.

“The volunteers were very excited and said, ‘We got one that’s climbing down, and looking around like crazy,'" says Garcia, who wrapped the baby in a towel and raced to the scene with veterinarian Fernando Alegre.

He lifted the animal up to the waiting sloth, which immediately accepted the baby. The two then shared a nuzzling embrace that brought the rescuers to tears, Garcia says.

Garcia says that broadcasting sloth baby cries is a tried-and-true technique that has worked before.

“One time I had the baby for eight days,” she says. “Eventually we were able to find the mother.”

In 2017, her rescue center took in 150 orphaned or injured sloths; so far in 2018, there's been at least a hundred. Raising a baby three-toed sloth is a special challenge, in part because the leaves they like to eat are difficult to get, she notes.

But the benefits are worth it. Even after 17 years on the job, Garcia is still moved by the tender scene she witnessed on the beach that day.

“For me,” she says, “it was like the first rescue all over again.”

[Enufstuff]

How sweet is that? It is wonderful that a caring person found the baby.

[lovesallanimals]

That was so  beautiful and heartwarming, thank you for posting this.  I am crying tears of joy.  

[ValuSkr]

It's nice the mother sloth is getting a second chance.  I don't know what happened, but, hopefully, her baby doesn't get separated again.  

[rms1954]

OMG ... so sweet.  They are such an odd looking animal.  She actually looks like she is smiling!!!!  Thank you for posting this.  

[phoenixbrd]

Adorable...they are lucky the mom was still around after the baby was taken to the vet and a recording was made.  This event took a lot of time to happen...poor mom and baby had to wait for the reunion.  But the end result is priceless....

Thank you @feline groovy for this heart warming video👍🏼

[luvzchiz]

@feline groovy   How beautiful.  Love how the momma looked back at the human, as if to say thank you.  

Hmm, there's something in my eye.  

[godi]

How adorable. Thanks for sharing.