Watch as a devoted conservation worker bottle-feeds Hope, an orphaned baby sloth. Sloths are severely threatened in Costa Rica by deforestation, but wildlife sanctuaries are establishing themselves to protect vulnerable little critters like Hope who would otherwise go homeless.

Sloths are saturated with cuteness, so what could be more adorable than an orphanage full of baby sloths? At the Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica abandoned sloth babies find a home where they can be nurtured, cared for, and hopefully released back into the wild.

The Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica began in 1992 when a little girl presented a baby sloth to a hotel owner as a pet. Over the next few years, more baby sloths were delivered, and soon the hotel owner developed a reputation for caring for sloth orphans.

The Sloth Sanctuary is currently staffed by 14 full-time employees. Most sloths living at the Sanctuary will live there for life. Sloths cannot be reintroduced into the wild if they were orphaned too young because they never had the opportunity to develop necessary survival skills for life in a natural setting.


Other sloths, even with therapy and medical attention, are too badly injured to live safely in the wild. The Sloth Sanctuary has, however, released dozens of adult sloths back into the forest successfully.
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