Sanctuary helps Suriname's sloths back to jungle

In the past months we have been busy working on renovating not only enclosures for the animals, but also on the sleeping quarters of the staff at the rehabilitation center. As the permanent workers were both on a holiday, we decided to paint their sleeping quarters which were still in the dark brown color of the primer paint. The walls of the shipping containers were also difficult to clean because of the coarse primer layer, and the already small rooms were also seemingly smaller because of this dark color. Adding a layer of white paint to these walls, made them optically bigger. The white paint was reflecting the light of the lamps, creating more light in the rooms making it easier to read and see better in the rooms. After all, if we want to have happy animals, we have to ensure that the people caring for them are also happy. In this manner we wanted to show also how much we appreciate the hard work of the center staff who are caring 24/7 for the animals in our care, but also for the animals living in the forest surrounding us.

And this brings us to a special story about our three-fingered sloth friend 19November and her baby 9July. At the end of September, while the center staff was preparing to go to bed after a long day, Yvonne suddenly heard something in the forest. It was already around midnight, but she heard the call of a baby sloth. Intuitively, Yvonne felt it had to be 9July. Together with Patrick she ventured out into the forest in the dark and after searching for a while they found a baby sloth on the ground. 9July had fallen off her mother. Yvonne and Patrick brought the baby to the center, kept it warm, gave it food and for our records also weighed it. While she reported to us about this, all of us were worried. What had happened? Where was 19November? Did we want to care for a three-month old baby? Or had we rather that her mother was fine and took 9July back. For those of you who know us, the answer was a definite “we want her to be back with her mom!”

The next morning, Yvonne went back into the forest around our center and started looking for 19November and was calling her. Let me remind you, this was a sloth that had lived in my house in the city for 5 years, and she knew who we are, at least we like to think that. And lo and behold, 19November was aware of us, and started to climb down. While doing so, maybe as she was also anxious about her baby, as she had almost reached the ground, she grabbed on to a liana that was not strong and came falling to the ground. Fortunately, it was not a fall from very high. Yvonne picked her up and gave 9July back to her mother. And off they went into the trees again.

We have seen them regularly together since. And my impression is that 19November is even staying closer to the center. Maybe she knows that we will help her, if her baby is in trouble again.

With Thanksgiving around the corner, we wish to thank YOU for the support you give to us. As a result of your donations we can provide good care for our animals and for the staff taking care of them 24/7. We hope we can count on your support on Giving Tuesday, on the 3rd of December.

PROGRESS Report

Indeed, we looked back at our reports from the past years and from this same period, and we do see progress. Two years ago around this time, we had just moved from my house in the city to the forest center. First without energy, but then our solar system came on, and Ostrich and Jinkoe then could be housed in their incubator at night at the center. One year later they were roaming the trees and our center now is home to many of our wards, although you need binoculars to spot them. We do not like to keep them in enclosures for too long.

19November

And so we reported last year about our friend 19 November and her baby. And this year again, we can proudly say, she is doing really well. We suspect that on the 9^thof July she had her second baby in her new home. And it is such a pleasure to see the two of them roaming the trees around the center. In my opinion she deliberately comes to trees close to our building to show off her baby 9July as we named her. Yvonne, our animal caretaker, and her twin sister, and one other volunteer Annelies, all celebrate their birthday on the 9^thof July, so as we assumed the baby was born on this day, we decided to name it 9July. As can be seen from the pictures with this report, the baby is growing well and climbing from the front to the back of her mom, hanging on for dear life.

Rescues and Releases

As if word got out that we are back on the road with our rescue vehicle, animals again are lining up to be rescued. One special story was from an animal that was crossing the road not far from our center, was picked up by a family, who started to quarrel about who should have it. Then the woman who had first seen it, said to the other family members,
"I saw it first, I am going to bring it to town to sell."
So, she saved the sloth from a more obscure fate and brought it to the Zoo. The animal was then reported to us. I called this lady, and asked her about the details of the animal, was it crossing the road from the river to the forest, or from the forest to the riverside. She told me from the forest to the river. So I called my friends from Apartments Bloemendaal that I had a special sloth, that had been crossing the road towards the river, so I wanted to bring him to the location where he had wanted to go to. Our Bloemendaal friends, were pleased to bring him across in their boat. So this sloth, made a big detour to cross the road all the way to the city and back, to be brought to the river where he had been going to in the first place.  And we released him right there!

So there are always stories of hope. And we keep spreading this hope thanks to your kind support.