Brown-throated Three-toed with brown-throated horns and Rebecca Cliff, sloth biologist released a sloth in a “sloth backpack” Credits Suzi Eszterhas
Over 14 years ago Rebecca Cliffe (FFN winner 2022) invented the first ever sloth backpack. With these backpacks, they were capable of tracking wild sloths and analyzing their behavior. Through years of perseverance and determination, Rebecca recently published a scientific paper on the findings! Learn more about the study here.
When considering the impact of the effects of climate change and human activity in tropical ecosystems. can sloths adapt to the changing conditions and adjust to changes in their surroundings? As human activities are affecting our natural environment, Rebecca wanted to find out how this impacts the wild slots that live in Costa Rica. Therefore, she focused on understanding the ways that two kinds of sloths, namely the brown-throated and Hoffmann’s two-toed and how they interact in their shared habitat.
Sloths are shy animals, and it is difficult to observe their behavior over prolonged periods. To address this issue, Rebecca developed the sloth backpacks to monitor the behavior of two species of sloths for a period of time ranging from a few days to weeks. She affixes micro data loggers on 9 wild sloths and monitored their behaviors over a period of up to 10 days at a stretch. Technology has advanced dramatically since the beginning of the study. For instance, it’s now possible to collect more than two months of data “back then 10 days was a massive win”, Rebecca said.
Mango the sloth, with her tracking backpack, getting a check-up, credits Mira Meijer
Thanks to the trackers, Rebecca was able to track the location of the sloths and determine which tree they used. Rebecca also monitored the environment conditions, like temperatures and rain. The results showed that both species of sloths were inactive at different times of the day and at night, which means they did not follow the same timetable. Incredibly, there was plenty of variability in the level of activity between sloths, and even within a single sloth over the course of time. It is possible that the sloths are able to have an element of flexibility in their behavior.
The study also examined the effects of environmental conditions on the activity of sloths. Surprisingly, the temperature in the day didn’t directly influence on their activity. However, the brown-throated sloths were most active in the evenings during colder nights and on nights that followed colder days. This suggests that changes in temperature could affect when they’re the most active.
A wild sloth carrying a tracker backpack, credits Mira Meijer
In the end, the study found that the sloths of the same population exhibit different behavior patterns. Rebecca believes this varies allows sloths to make the most of favorable conditions and reduce the chance of being bitten by predators. “I was amazed to observe how many variations there were in the level of activity for sloths, both between and within individuals. I believe that this asynchrony could be a good prevention strategy against predators. The sloths increase their odds of survival through increasing their unpredictableness.”
Understanding the way that sloths react towards their surroundings is crucial to safeguard them, particularly when tropical ecosystems are facing challenges due to the effects of climate change and human activity. Through gaining knowledge about how sloths behave, Rebecca contributes to efforts that aim to preserve these fascinating creatures as well as their habitats. Great work!