Sloth Conservation in Costa Rica

October is Slothtober – a month to celebrate adorable sloths and to raise awareness of some of the problems they face and what’s being done to solve them and how you can help with solutions!  And World Sloth Day is on 20th October! 

The 2026 theme for Slothtober and International Sloth Day is Keep Sloths Wild. During the month, the Sloth Conservation Foundation will show how scientific research, forest restoration, community conservation, canopy bridges and advocacy work can all help protect sloths now and in the future.

You can find out about the various projects the Foundation undertakes to help sloths, such as:

• Connected Gardens, which unites small properties into continuous biological corridors that sloths can move along easily. I love this idea. We've done what we can to make our garden as wildlife friendly as possible, and it's wonderful to imagine this happening elsewhere, even if my garden is tiny compared to that in the Connected Gardens project

• The Urban Sloth Project looks at the impacts of habitat disturbance and rainforest urbanisation on wild sloths. What an important project. We know that human development is encroaching badly on wildlife habitat, so it's important to look closely at what is happening and the effects that's having.

• The Great Sloth Census collects data to help shape national Red List assessments. Enter a waggy tail and very keen nose! The Foundation has a scat-detection dog (woof woof) to lend a paw with this first ever sloth census.

• Community and Education - it really matters as it's important to get local people onside and give them the skills and knowledge they need to identify challenges in their communities relating to sloth conservation.

• Sloth Science and Research - this is all about really getting to know sloths better, looking at every access of sloth behaviour, biology and ecology. The Foundation funds, co-ordinates and publishes high quality research. Information is vital if we are to help sloths survive and thrive in the wild.

The Sloth Protection Alliance is a coalition led by The Sloth Conservation Foundation (SloCo) and The Sloth Institute (TSI). Their goal is to keep sloths wild. It is advocating for a permanent ban on wild sloth imports, stronger sloth welfare protections, an end to hands-on sloth encounters, and a new sensitive species classification, as well as ensuring public reporting and accountability when animals die commercial facilities.

Wild sloths are being captured from the rainforest and shipped to the US for the commercial sloth trade. It's estimated that 80 to 90% die during this process - before they even reach the US. More than 50 sloths died, recently, their deaths being linked to Sloth World Orlando. Enter the Sloth Protection Alliance to change this. And they have a petition you can sign to help here.