A member of the Costa Rican Jaguar Rescue Center team was on the beach in May of last year investigating a complaint of an injured animal. Over the sound of the water, he suddenly heard a baby wailing as he prepared to return to the center. At that moment, he noticed the infant sloth lying in the sand.
“He heard the cry and immediately recognized it was a baby sloth (their cry is like a whistle),” Noelia, a staff member at Jaguar Rescue Center, told The Dodo. “He saw the mom on the tree, but she was climbing back to the top. We believe the baby fell from his mom and he cried to attract her, but because of the noise at the beach, she probably didn’t hear him.”
The team at Jaguar Rescue Center checked out the baby sloth to make sure he wasn’t injured from the fall. He seemed OK, just a little weak, so they gave him some fluids and time to rest. They determined he was only a few weeks old based on his size, and quickly began formulating a plan to reunite him with his mom.
They began by recording the newborn sloth’s cries before returning to the beach with a speaker. They played the baby’s scream as they waited for the mother sloth to notice and begin to down the tree. At that time, they returned the infant to the beach for the get-together.
It took almost two hours of waiting at the bottom of the tree with the baby sloth, but finally, his mom was close enough to pull him back into her arms again, and everyone there quickly got emotional watching the sweet reunion.
“When she grabbed him, we [could] tell she missed her baby so much and was grateful to have him back,” Noelia said. “It was an emotional moment for all of us, and we hope this mom and baby [do] stay safe. It melts our hearts every time we can witness the reunion of a mom and her baby.”
The mother sloth was unaware that her youngster had fallen, but due to some quick-thinking rescuers, they have now been reunited and may continue their normal lives.
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