Pretty in Pink: Violet
Violet is a patient at the ‘slothpital’ - the Aviarios sloth sanctuary’s dedicated hospital for sick sloths. Here you can see her hugging her twin brother Sebastian and feeling rather pleased with her jazzy bandages. Sloths are Jedi masters of the hug and these two are inseparable. If you want to see more of Violet then watch my sloth sanctuary documentary that airs on Animal Planet on Dec 17th at 8pm EST.
A star is born!
This is baby Sebastian getting rather curious during the filming of my documentary about the Aviarios sloth sanctuary. Sebastian loved the camera and the camera loved him! You will notice he is rather snazzily dressed for a baby sloth. Sebastian had been a bit poorly and so he was wearing specialised sloth pyjamas made out of sports socks to keep him super snuggly. If you want to see more of Sebastian then watch my documentary, ‘Too Cute! Baby Sloths’ when it airs on Animal Planet in the US on Dec 17th at 8pm EST.
Oprah, king of the swingers
I’ve just arrived at the Aviarios sloth sanctuary for the final filming leg of my sloth documentary for Animal Planet and been greeted with quite a surprise. Oprah (seen here enjoying a bit of quality bucket time) has been hiding a secret. It turns out that she is actually a he and so Judy and the gang have renamed him Harpo. Keen slothville fans will notice that Harpo bears an uncanny resemblance to fellow fuzzball Mateo and that’s probably no coincidence. They both hail from the mountainous interior and there are suspicions that Harpo and Mateo may even be part of a distinct sub-species which would probably have to be called Choloepus cutie pie.
The Sunday Sloth: Randy, Mr Loverman
The Aviarios sloth sanctuary is happy to care for any sloth in need but they have to adhere to the one house rule. No sex between inmates. This has been particularly tough for Randy, seen here clinging to a poo pole. Randy was the local wild Lothario sloth who’d rock up looking for some action any time one of the sanctuary’s female sloths went into heat. The fact that he could never reach the sexy sirens didn’t stop him patrolling the grounds in the hope of getting close. One day another male turned up and a fight broke out. A very slow fight which saw Randy fall to the ground and break his arm. This of course may well have been a clever ploy by sneaky Randy to bust into the sanctuary and get closer to the girls. He was rescued and had to have a titanium plate fitted. Now he’s the bionic sloth but sadly still no closer to getting any action with the sanctuary’s lady sloths.
The Sunday sloth: smokin’ hot Shilo
Some sloths are definitely more eccentric than others, and Shilo here definitely errs on the kooky side. When eating his beans, Shilo always adopts this characteristic reclining pose, much like a Greek God, which from the side looks distinctly like he’s savouring a fine cigar. Baby sloths are very hard to sex and upon arrival at the Aviarios sloth sanctuary Shilo was mistaken for a girl. But as you can see from his let-it-all-hang-out lunch pose, he is in fact a little boy. This early mix-up may account for his willfuly non-conformist nature.
The Sunday Sloth: General Squee’s been in the wars
I’ve just returned to the Aviarios sloth sanctuary for some filming and discovered Matteo, the dark lord of cute, in bandages. He had some mysterious scratches on his little paws and had to have them wrapped up to stop him from making them any worse. The usually feisty Matteo is not his regular rambunctious self. He’s off his beans and hasn’t tried to nip anyone in days. I’ve never missed a sloth bite so much. Fingers crossed he makes it.
The Sunday Sloth: Alfie the dwarf
There’s no polite way of saying this but Alfie’s a runt. He’s 2 years old - that’s about 6 in sloth years - and yet he’s still the size of a sloth less than half his age. He loves his food and is a super sneaky bean thief. But for some reason Alfie just doesn’t seem to grow and his fur has remained the texture of baby fur. Until recently he still slept in an incubator at night and had to wear little sloth pyjamas in the winter to keep warm. The only explanation for his tiny size is that little Alfie is actually a dwarf.
The Sunday Sloth: Honey, a seriously classy blonde
It has to be said that some of the sloths at the sanctuary have very poor table manners. They nom nom with their mouths open and frequently fall asleep in their food. But not Honey here. Oh no. Her manners are as fine as if she’d been taught at a Swiss sloth finishing school. Here you see her demonstrating the correct way to hold a bean. Who knew a sloth could be so posh?
The Sunday Sloth: Mr Mom
This week I’d like you to meet Cosmo, seen here being snuggled by tiny newborn orphan Ella. Ella was only a few days old when she arrived at the sanctuary and needed another sloth to cling to. So Judy placed her with Cosmo whose success at fostering babies has earned him the nickname Mr Mom even though he’s still a baby himself. Ella loves Cosmo and when not snoozing she likes to suckle his ear for comfort and always sleeps with her arms wrapped tightly around him. Anyone else fancy a cuddle from Cosmo?
The Sunday Sloth: Buttercup
Ladies and gentlemen, to inspire your Sunday slothfulness I present to you: Buttercup, the Jedi Master of Chill. The Aviarios sloth sanctuary began when an orphaned baby Buttercup was brought to their doorstep twenty years ago, making her the oldest living sloth in captivity. Queen B rules over her slumbering empire from her very own wicker throne. She’s a wise and benevolent leader whose sole decree is that everyone just chill.
The Sunday Sloth: Matteo
If cute could kill the sloths at the Aviarios del Caribe sanctuary would make a formidable army. Their leader, General Squee, would be Matteo - a sloth so cute he should come with a public health warning. But don’t be fooled by his cutie-pie looks, this sloth has attitude. Matteo you see is an urban sloth, rescued from the streets of the capital, San Jose. As a result he’s a bit of a bruiser, a loner sloth who doesn’t like to mix with the other baby sloths at playtime. Instead he prefers the soft but silent company of Mr Moo, a stuffed yellow toy cow.
Sloth gossip
Meet Wookie and Dora. Just hanging out and shooting the breeze before their next snooze. The word in the bucket is that someone’s been stealing beans again. Dora’s not saying anything but Wookie looks guilty as hell.
Did somebody order a bucket of sloth?
Yeah me. A party sized one with plenty of sloth hugs to go round.
Bucket by the way is the sloths favourite way to travel. It’s fast, it’s like flying and it allows them to snooze on the move. Sweeeeet.
Do the poo dance
Sloths have somewhat eccentric bathroom habits, descending once a week to poo at the base of their favourite tree. This little film I made shows chief sloth wrangler at the Aviarios sloth sanctuary Clare doing her best to teach babies Alfie, Cosmo and Wall-E how to do the “poo dance”. It’s not that easy though to potty train a baby sloth. As Clare says, “You can bring a sloth to the poo pole but you can’t make him poo”. Yeah right.
Attack of the baby sloths!
Here’s my cameraman Phil being attacked by Alex the baby Bradypus (three fingered sloth) whilst filming at the Aviarios sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica. Alex’s story is rather tragic. He was rescued from a local family who were keeping him tied up so that they could sell him to tourists to have their photo taken with. But Alex is a fighter and here you see him getting his own back on Phil for filming him without permission. Go Alex!
