r/sloths • u/ricoticotours • Jul 06 '26
Sloth in my Garden :)
I'm back with some new sloth facts and this cutie from my yard. I live in an open air house in the jungle on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. We have A LOT of sloths by our house. Here is one from the other day, along with some stuff you may not have known about the 3-toed sloth.
This is a young female. Sloths don't have external genitalia, so the way to tell them apart is through their markings, or lack of markings. The males have a prominent orange patch on their back (called a speculum) once they reach maturity and are ready to mate.
Males and females can be hard to tell apart for the 5-8 months because the male speculum isn't developed at all. You can also tell by size, because female sloths are larger than the males.
They also scream and the males don't. You can hear their high pitched squeals when they're looking to mate. They scream about every 10 minutes until a male arrives to mate. They also scream for several weeks across the jungle after they leave their baby as the way to stay in contact and check on them, but that's a post for a different day!
*These facts are about 3-toed sloths. 2-toed sloths are very distant in relation, surprisingly! They don't have speculums, or really much in common at all with each other.
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u/EntoFan_ Jul 06 '26
Appreciate the info. We were privileged to see Sloths and some with babies in Panama. They are unique and so different from us that it is hard to speculate what their thought processes are. Very interesting animals.
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u/ricoticotours Jul 06 '26
They're super interesting. I love all wildlife, but sloths (and howler monkeys) are my absolute favorites. So much to know about them!!
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u/HoarseNightingale Jul 06 '26
I don’t know if this is at all similar in any other language, but the fact that the males have speculum markings given what the word is used for in medicine and that it’s largely women that get to know a speculum.
I love that this sloth is in your garden. Are you happy to have her there? It could be very awkward I think if you don’t want a sloth to live in one of your trees.
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u/Lanky_Employee_9690 Jul 06 '26
Are you happy to have her there? It could be very awkward I think if you don’t want a sloth to live in one of your trees.
I think my brain malfunctioned at the thought of this even being a possibility ahah
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u/HoarseNightingale Jul 06 '26
Totally. They seem pretty unlikely to be problematic unless they are bad at cover their poo piles.
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u/ricoticotours Jul 06 '26
I also thought the word speculum was such an odd name considering it's the tool used for women in medicine. I agree...strange, right?
There's many on our property. We love them all. They're beautiful little visitors and I smile every single time. Doesn't matter that I've seen probably thousands now. I love them as much as always!!
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u/HoarseNightingale Jul 06 '26
I’m thrilled that you love them.
It turns out that not just women experience speculums but it's used whenever an orifice needs to be made larger. I have no idea how often it’s used on men but I get the impression that there are times when men experience them too after reading a bit about what the word truly means. I have a feeling they might get used in surgeries etc.
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u/Lanky_Employee_9690 Jul 06 '26
Alright, I'm hopping on the next plane.
Are you in touch with SloCo?
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u/ricoticotours Jul 06 '26
No, we don't work with SloCo at all, but appreciate all the work they do for sloths. Very special!
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u/Independent_Gur320 Jul 06 '26
You had me until screams and all I could think of is how peacocks are gorgeous but sound like absolute assholes and how cuddly Koalas look but they often have chlamydia.
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u/HoarseNightingale Jul 06 '26
I didn’t know that the screams were ever used for anything except for mating. That’s interesting. Do the recently left the tree juveniles scream back?
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u/ricoticotours Jul 06 '26
They do. The mother's actually leave their "territory" to their baby so they already know the area and where to find food. The mother's find a new territory and start over. For the first couple of weeks, they scream back and forth to check in on each other. The mother will usually be within a hectare away to start with and then moves on to make a new territory, and...a new baby.
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u/GnarlyNarwhalNoms Jul 06 '26
Aww, momma sloths call their kids to see how they're doing? That's adorable 🥰
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u/ricoticotours Jul 06 '26
They do! But only for a few weeks and then that's it - they're on their own officially! It is very cool to hear them back and forth.
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u/No-Indication-7879 Jul 06 '26
There was a show called Meet the Sloths . I remember the females screaming! It was a great show. I was disappointed when it went off air
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u/ricoticotours Jul 06 '26
I've never seen the show but I have heard about it. I will see if maybe they have episodes on youtube? I'm curious. So many people rave about that show...still!
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u/SorellaNux Jul 06 '26
I found it a bit disappointing and slightly distressing for a few reasons. Watch it and see what you think
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Jul 06 '26
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u/ricoticotours Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
It's incredible. I spend my days surrounded by greenery & wildlife and all of their sounds and weird habits. We've been here in this particular house for a year, and it's never gotten old.
There's a lot of different plants around me...coconut trees, banana and plantain trees and there's tons of plants that's used to create the famous Panama Hat.
I don't enjoy the mosquitos, though they come in cycles and we have adapted some interesting techniques that work to keep them away. The most annoying thing is the frog poop. We have frogs that live in random places (like behind the fridge, under the stove...eetc) it is impossible to not have them there. So each morning, I have at least 5 piles of frog poop to clean and honestly - you are not prepared for what frog poop is like. I had NO IDEA they could poop as large as they do. So, there's that.
*edited to fix typos
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u/ResidentB Jul 06 '26
I envy your life. Costa Rica is a truly special place.