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International sloth day

Today is International Sloth Day 🦥

Sloths, as a group, might be said to epitomize the concept of taking life slowly. The six species, found mainly in Central and South America, spend most of their days hanging from trees, moving deliberately to conserve energy—a strategy shaped by a diet of nutrient-poor leaves. Yet, contrary to popular belief, they do not sleep their lives away. Studies of wild sloths, led by Bryson Voirin have found them clocking a mere nine hours of shut-eye daily, far less than the 18-hour siestas observed in captive settings. It appears that even sloths, notorious for lethargy, cannot entirely escape the pressures of the wild.

The rarest and least known sloth is the pygmy three-toed sloth, Bradypus pygmaeus, which is only found on a small Caribbean island off Panama’s coast, Isla Escudo de Veraguas within the Ngäbe-BuglĂ© Comarca. Here, among the mangroves, the world’s smallest sloth navigates a precarious existence–only 500-1500 are thought to live across the island’s 430 hectares. Its fate intertwined with the fate of this secluded sanctuary.

For the pygmy sloth, isolation has bred peculiarities. It is around 40% smaller than its mainland cousins, a testament to the phenomenon known as insular dwarfism, where size shrinks over generations in response to limited resources. Unlike their continental kin, these diminutive creatures have little to fear from predators—human intrusion remains their primary threat. The island’s unsettled status within the Ngäbe-BuglĂ© Comarca offers limited protection against unwelcome visitors.

The road ahead for the pygmy sloth is not without challenges. Even if the latest estimates offer a glimmer of hope, small populations on small islands remain inherently vulnerable. While its fellow islanders—unique species of hummingbirds and bats—also vie for conservation attention, securing great protected status could tip the balance in the pygmy sloth’s favor.

In the meantime, the sloths continue their leisurely way of life, hopefully ignorant of the existential crisis unfolding around them.

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By Rhett Ayers Butler

Rhett Ayers Butler is the Founder and CEO of Mongabay, a non-profit conservation and environmental science platform that delivers news and inspiration from Nature's frontline via a global network of local reporters. He started Mongabay in 1999 with the mission of raising interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife.