A baby three-toed sloth became separated from his mother on a beach in Costa Rica, but thanks to the quick actions of the Jaguar Rescue Center staff in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, the two were reunited.
Rescue workers found the baby’s mother climbing toward the forest canopy and took advantage of the time to get the baby checked by a vet. After receiving a clean bill of health, they used a clever method to reunite the pair—recording the baby’s cries and playing them near the tree to grab the mother’s attention.
As soon as she realized her baby was nearby, the mother slowly made her way down to reclaim him.
“We recorded the cry of the baby and played it near the tree to get the mom’s attention. We waited patiently until the mom came down for the baby,” the rescue center shared on Instagram. “The JRC created this method a few years ago, and we use it every time to reunite mom and baby sloths. It melts our hearts every time we can witness the reunion.”
Sloths are known for their incredibly slow movements, which are due to their sluggish digestive systems—the slowest of any mammal. Since digesting a single meal can take weeks, they conserve energy by keeping their activity levels to a minimum. In other words, sloths live in a constant state of food coma.
If this heartwarming reunion made your day, you might also enjoy watching a daddy sloth meet his baby for the first time!