News and Stories

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden has been partnering with The Sloth Institute of Costa Rica (TSI) for several years now. As a keeper working with our sloths, I never imagined that I could play any actual part of conservation with the animals’ wild counterparts! The Zoo’s primary support for TSI initially was raising money through its Behind the Scenes tours. Each tour that we offer has a conservation initiative attached to it. The sloth tours and feedings are held throughout the week and proceeds from the tour go directly to TSI. As our relationship grew with TSI so did our support.

The Sloth Institute is a non-profit whose main focus is on the rescue, recovery, rehabilitation, and release of orphaned and injured sloths.  In 2017, TSI began putting up sloth speedways (ropes) to connect trees where the canopy no longer had any coverage. For sloths, they need to be able to reach from one branch to another in order to navigate the rainforest. They are not animals who can walk or go to the ground to move about, they must be able to climb from tree to tree.  If they do go to the ground they are very vulnerable since they must drag their bodies along the ground and they are prone to getting hit by cars on busy roads. Another issue is if there are power lines in the area and no other trees, then sloths will try to climb the poles which cause a lot of electrocutions. So, when the canopy itself is not covered and trees do not connect then sloths cannot move around to find food, mates, or security. This is where TSI comes in. Their main mission was to bridge these gaps with the sloth speedways to give more ability for the sloths to move around the forest more freely.

Once these speedways were installed, the next issue was trying to figure out IF the sloths were using the speedways and if so WHICH of these speedways were they using and why. This is where we met with TSI and found out their biggest need, cameras! The Cincinnati Zoo and TSI decided to purchase 20 solar powered, waterproof, Wi-Fi cameras to put into traps at the ends of the ropes. Patrick Cole, one of our researchers with AmeriCorps, took on the project lead. He created the study and came up with ways to collect data to try to figure out the reasoning behind which speedways were successful and not.

Before he could do his research we had to get the cameras to Costa Rica, get them installed, and take the raw data of the trees and the ropes. This is where I was invited to travel with Patrick Cole and Bailey Cadena to work on Patrick’s research project and to install the cameras on the speedways. Sam and Pedro from TSI were absolutely amazing and taught us so much about wild sloths and the amazing work that they are doing in Costa Rica. While we ran into some snags getting the cameras installed, mainly Wi-Fi issues, we were able to collect the majority of the specifications and raw data for Patrick and at least figure out where to install the 20 cameras that we had  taken. We spent a week out in the heat and humidity, climbing through bushes, up and down hills, and around so many plants that I could never identify. It was such a great opportunity for me to see actual research in action and to feel like I was able to be a part of conservation in real time. All of the sweat and tiredness was completely worth it.

Since our April 2024 visit to Costa Rica, Patrick was able to comb through hundreds of hours of camera footage to see not only sloths, but capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, opossums, porcupines, tamanduas, and even birds using the various speedways. TSI has been progressing as well. They have built a nursery where they are planting hundreds of trees to be able to repopulate parts of the forest where there are broken canopies to provide more trees for the sloths to move around and to eat. The trees they are focusing on are the ones that sloths are definitely known to eat and hang out in most of the time. TSI has also installed speedways in a new location of Costa Rica, making it 3 areas they now have speedways up in. They have also continued working with the electrical companies of Costa Rica to help insulate more power lines to prevent electrocutions as well as training them properly on what to do when there is a sloth on a power line. This is to prevent injury not only to the sloth, but also to themselves. The added bonus is that their work with the electrical companies has had TSI assisting them in installing speedways across the roads.  And most importantly, TSI has started building their own hospital so they can more easily help rescue and rehabilitate injured and orphaned sloths for rerelease into the rainforest.

My supportive role with TSI has continued with the sloth tours that we offer. My whole team is involved in the tours and it’s our way of being able to give back to sloth conservation. I have also worked on grant money to help TSI continue to grow, install more speedways, have accessibility to those speedways, and make sure sloths are getting what they need to continue to survive in Costa Rica.