Sunday 16/10/2022 Sloth’s Territory
La Fortuna, Alajuela Province
COSTA RICA
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Sue Davies, Cal Stewart, Kerrie Stewart
This is a privately owned and run sloth sanctuary. It consists of a relatively narrow corridor of remnant rainforest through which a population of sloths can be found. We were very fortunate to have Reuben as our guide today.
Max elevation: 156 m
Total climbing: 44 m
Total descent: -43 m
Average speed: 2.38 km/h
Total time: 02:06:08
After the regulation to stick to the paths and not make too much noise instructions, we headed off for our first sighting just metres from the start. As the only exothermic mammal species sloths spend most of their time high in trees to catch the necessary warmth from the sun. They certainly don’t want to hang out on the cooler, dark forest understory.
We quickly realised the value of taking a guided walk, as each of us thought there was next to no chance of us having spotted the sloth, high in the tree and heavily camouflaged amongst the leaves and shadows. Reuben’s high-powered tripod-mounted sighting scope was invaluable and proved a much clearer view than my 500mm camera lens.
As we moved slowly through the sanctuary we learned that the sloths spend around four days in each tree before moving on, making it possible for the guides to keep track of which trees they we currently in and communicate that information amongst themselves and update any changes via two-way radio. The more sloths that were pointed out to us the more value we saw in having our guide! There was zero chance of us finding most of the sloths we were shown.
On the forest floor, we saw several tiny poison dart frogs about the size of a fingernail. They were easily photographed with a phone camera.
Tiger Rat Snake (Spilotes pullatus)
Just as we had completed our tour and were heading back to the start, another guide pointed out a snake (Spilotes pullouts) high in a tree. It was inspecting a bird’s nest for breakfast. We paused here as it arrived at the nest, finding it empty and started heading back down the tree. This was a very special bonus!
Whilst we were there we saw:
Insects: Emeraldine moth
Amphibians: Strawberry Poison Dart Frog
Reptiles: Tiger Rat Snake
Mammals: Hoffmann’s Two-toed Sloth, Variegated Squirrel
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