About:
Costa Rica is home to two species of sloth; the two-toed (Choloepus hoffmanni) and  the three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus). They would really be more appropriately described as two and three-fingered, as all sloths have three toes, it is only on their “hands” that they differ in the number of digits.
Normally found sleeping in tree tops during the day, sloths are most active from dusk till dawn. They sleep an average of eighteen hours a day, so it is most common to see them as unmoving furry balls tucked into the crooks of tree branches. Sometimes while relaxing the day away, they hang upside down and scratch, then slowly return to their slightly more upright position to resume their nap. They are well camouflaged, stealthy and usually very still, so they can be hard to spot with out the trained eyes of a naturalist guide.
The Two Species of Sloth:
The general appearance and behavior of the two and three-toed sloths seem very similar at first glance, but the reality is that they are very different both in personality, eating habits and appearance.
The two-toed sloth is larger at maturity, an omnivore, blonder in color and has an entirely different personality than the three-toed sloth. They can be quite feisty if in a bad mood or feel the need to defend themselves. They will puff up their hair to appear larger, hiss and show their teeth and swing their arms in an effort to defend themselves. They have very long claws.
The three-toed sloth is generally more docile and evenly tempered. It is smaller at maturity, a vegetarian and much darker in color (grey) with a black stripe over the eye. The male three-toed sloth has a bald patch on his back that appears to be spotted from a distance.
The Facts:
Both species of sloth have had a bad reputation over the years as being insignificant, dirty, useless animals that carry disease. Absolutely none of these things are true.
They are as important as any other creature to the ecosystem of the rain forest and are beautiful, sensitive, loving creatures that do not carry or pass diseases. These animals live only between 15° north and south of the equator in the rainforest canopies of the Americas.
In the wild, sloths “play host to an entire ecosystem—several types of algae grow in their hair, camouflaging them, and several species of moth and beetles live in their fur, dining on the algae”. (Aviarios del Caribe brochure)
They are highly adapted to living in the treetops by being quite light for their size and having a tenacious grip. They also are amazingly resilient creatures, surviving falls of over 90’ and by having the ability to recover from the most grievous of wounds.
Sloths also have an unfair reputation as being bad mothers because baby sloths are frequently found separated from their mothers.
If a baby sloth falls from the mother, "she will move about the branches trying to hear the baby. But if she doesn't hear its cries - because it could have died from the fall from so high up or because its voice wouldn't carry, or it could have been so badly injured that it would be a liability to her if she took it back to the treetops - she will stop searching. If she can hear her baby cry, or call to her, she will do everything she can to get to it." (Judy Arroyo)
Several sloths every year are found by humans and brought to the Sloth Rescue Center (Aviarios del Caribe) located north of Cahuita. Babies, who have been cared for at the Center, cannot be returned to the wild because they lack the knowledge they would have learned from spending the first year with their mother, including which leaves to eat and how much of each kind is safe to consume at one time.
As with many creatures of the rain forest, the sloth’s habitat is dwindling as development encroaches and fragments what was a cohesive forest.
Read More about the Sloth Rescue Center
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