Sloths

What is a sloth's favorite ice cream? I don't know what. A slow cone. Children's Hour. Kids are the radio. It's a great day, cause I'm feeling fine So clap your hands like this Ah, feeling fresh to death, nice day outside I'm taking extra steps, why if you pick my outfit? Now I'ma rep this step, cause I'm drawn to her side like a net just got So um, what's next? Is anyone's

guess? Top down, we too blessed to be stressed Eight hours of sleep, feeling refreshed I'm ready to play like let out for recess Now we just maxin', feel speed All thanks to rapping, the skills displayed And best of all We hard and sing it, we save the game like a memory card Dawg, feed up, I'ma hit G up And show em this beat, D and 3 done G'd up And sing your beat up for a little collab Foot on the gas, see you at the pad I got a feeling it's gon'

be a good day Oh yes, a good day to have a good time Just clap your hands like this I got a feeling it's gon' be a good day It's a great It's like this. That's me, cause love is free And that's a real good day for Mr. G So what's

up, I gotta save the world Now go and spend a little love around the hood Let's go! I got a feeling it's gonna be a good day Oh yes, a good day to have a good time Just clap your hands like this I got a feeling it's gonna be a great day Oh yes, a great day cause I'm feeling fine So clap your hands like this money in the dresser man I tell you it don't get no better Just gotta be there, don't stop when it's dark Good feelings, good vibes, good people, good times.

That was Mega Ran from his brand new kid CD called Buddy's Magic Toy Box. And that song had G-Love and special sauce on it with Good Day. It is a good day on the Children's Hour. I'm Katie Stone, delighted to be here with so many great kids at the Outpost Performance Space and on Zoom. Who do we have with us today? Hi, it is Corpid. Hello, it's Cade. Hi, it's Kodiak. Hi, it's Kybeer. Hi, it's LucasD. Hi, it's Joe. Hi, it's Nina. Hi, it's Amaya. Hi,

it's Thorfinn. Hi, it's Nathaniel. Hi, it's Jude. Hello, it's Amadeus. Well, thanks so much for being here, everyone. Today's show is one we shouldn't rush into given the topic. We're going to be discussing sloths, those ad- adorable furry smiley creatures that you think of maybe in cartoons or in the trees dangling around. We're speaking with Georgeann Irvine from the San Diego Zoo. She's an author and has a new book about Tornero, one of the sloths

that lives there. We're going to hear a review of her book and we're also going to talk with Sam Troll. She's from the Sloth Institute. which is all the way down in Costa Rica. And we're going to speak with her about all the things that make sloths, sloths. There's a lot to learn about sloths. And this episode comes with the Learn Along Guide. They're digital now. They meet and cite national education standards. Find it at childrenshour.org. Look for sloths.

This is Claudia Robin Gunn, right here on the Children's Hour.

Lazing around, up here in the trees, so far off the ground I eat green leaves, and I chew them slow I don't get dizzy upside down, you know I'm thinking my way through a million things My brain works so fast I get giddy So I may look like I'm doing nothing at all But really I'm actually quite busy I have three toes Some sloths have two On humans you'd call them fingers I have a very long tongue Long claws Green fur It gets covered in algae I

don't mind if it's tasty And I'm thinking my way through a trillion things My brain works so fast I get giddy So I may look like I'm doing nothing at all But really I'm actually quite busy The olden days we were much bigger We were called Megatherium Giant sloth, as large as an elephant

Can you even imagine? Now I'm thinking my way through gazillions of things My brain works so fast I get giddy and I may look like I'm doing nothing at all But really I'm actually quite busy Just lazing around Up here in the trees So far off the ground I'm in slow thinking my way through a trillion things I'm in slow thinking my way through a million things I'm in slow don't tell me I don't look busy Today on The Children's Hour, we're going to learn about sloths. And sloths are a creature

that make us think a lot about how they move. They're slow. They mostly hang out all day. The word sloth even comes from Middle English as a way of calling somebody lazy. But sloths were not always these slow tree creatures that we know today. In Paleolithic times, from about three million to just 11,000 years ago, sloths used to live right here in New Mexico when they were the size of hippopotamuses. And since then, they've evolved into the little furry

creatures we know and love today. Our first guest on the show is Georgianne Irvine. She's director of publishing at the San Diego Zoo and author of its Hope and Inspiration Those are true stories about real animals living at the zoo. The newest is about Tornaro the sloth. Let's start from the very, very beginning. What makes a sloth a sloth? A sloth is a mammal, and it is related distantly to anteaters and armadillos, but it spends most of its time

up in the trees. And you've got the... two-toed sloth and some scientists call them two-fingered sloth and the three-toed sloth and they weigh about 20 pounds so they do not weigh as much as an elephant and they live in the rainforests of Central and South America. The particular sloth that I've written about, Tornera, lives in the Amazon in Brazil and like I said they do almost everything upside down. They also can swim, which is my favorite sloth fact,

but they've got long curved claws. So the two-toed sloth has two claws on its top paws, but it's got three on the bottom. The three-toed sloth has three top claws and three bottom claws. and they're different. The three-toed sloth actually has a small tail and the two-toed sloth does not. So they look similar, but they really are pretty, they even have different behaviors. The three-toed sloth, you might notice, if you look at a picture, has a mask under

its eyes and the two-toed sloth does not have that. They have a very slow metabolism. And like I said, they eat leaves. And so it takes a long time for all of their food to digest. So they evolve that way. And because they live up in the trees, they don't need to move really quickly. I think in my readings, scientists aren't absolutely sure why they move so slow, but there are lots of theories. And one is that they live up in the treetops and it's pretty

hard to move quickly up in the treetops. and they don't need to and they move slowly to get their food. How does the sloth survive for all this time when it has very little way to depend itself on predators? Keep in mind the sloth has very sharp claws. So if something is trying to pull it, it can hang on really tight and they're very strong. They're really high in the trees. So a jaguar can climb a tree, but if a sloth is higher in the thinner part

of the branches, it probably cannot get up. that high. However, if it were at the very top of the tree and it had a baby on its back or belly and a harpy eagle could swoop in and grab the baby with its talons. The problem with most sloth species and many animal species is truly loss of habitat. That is the biggest challenge and roads, homes being built in the forest, being isolated in a tract of forest and the next forest is 20 miles away, genetic

diversity is a challenge as well. So in a healthy forest, that's not gonna be a problem that they're, some of them are eaten by predators, but it's a bigger problem that their habitat is being destroyed. And they also sometimes get electrocuted. So when you're living in a neighborhood, even if there are trees and you're adapting, it is possible that they climb up and they can get electrocuted too. So it's really. human encroachment on their habitat

that is their biggest issue on survival. That's Georgeann Irvine. She's director of publishing at the San Diego zoo and her latest book is teaching Tornero. We've got a review coming up in just a little bit. Thank you so much for being with us on the children's hour. We've learned a lot. Thank you. It was a pleasure. Lazy Slav. Lazy sloth, swaying in the trees. Lazy sloth, no worries. Lazy sloth munching on green leaves. Lazy sloth, no worries.

Crazy Slav Covered in algae Lazy sloth, no worries Lazy sloth, cuddling with daddy Lazy sloth, no worries Peace. Swannin' the trees, lazy slug, no worries lazy slum Mommy, lazy slug, no worries Easy slow Lazy slum, lazy slum Easy slow

Slow, silly sloth Moving slowly Claws open up Claws slowly shut Why are you so slow? So slow Slow, slow, Slow, silly sloth Lying on the ground Slowly stretching Stretch so slowly So slow I don't Slow Silly Sloth is Dancin' Beats from Kid Beats Dancin' in the Rainforest, and Lazy Sloth was Mr. Nature's Music Garden from Let's Go on an Adventure. In the background we're hearing

Brent Lewis. You're listening to the Children's Hour today, we're learning about sloths. George Ann Irvine's book, Teaching Torn Arrow, gets reviewed by Joe on our kids group coming right up after the break. And we are headed down to Costa Rica to talk with some scientists working directly with sloths up in the tree canopy. Today's episode comes with a learn-a-long guide. It's digital now, and you can find it at childrenshour.org. Look for sloths. And oh, by the way, So many

cute pictures of slots are posted there too. Stick with us, we've got a lot more. You're listening to the Children's Hour, Kids Public Radio. We'll be right back. The Children's Hour is produced by the Children's Hour Incorporated, a New Mexico-based educational nonprofit that is supported by listeners just like you. You can learn how you can help make Kids Public

Radio at childrenshour.org. The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science supports the Children's Hour and is proud to unveil a new hall featuring hundreds of never-before-seen fossils. Learn more at nmna Hello, my name is Jerfistopher and I will be reviewing Teaching Tornado by Georgian Irvine published by Blue Sneaker Press. Teaching Tornado is a non-fiction book about an adorable sloth named Tornado who works as an ambassador at the San Diego Zoo. The book explores his life

as a young sloth as well as the many adventures he's had up to this point. It also describes how his trainers taught him to become a good ambassador and how to love being around people. I loved all the photos which were very cute and fun. They really help make the story intriguing. I give this book four out of five chilies. The book is recommended for kids ages six to 10. The book is called Teaching to an Arrow by Georgian Irvine published by Blue Sneaker Press. This

is Joe Christopher from The Children's Song. Many thanks to Joe for that book review. Up next, this is Don't Splash Marty with the Sloth Song. Lost your cool deep, running fuzzy way back in Q. Just chillin' off some odds so the villain stays safe, little friend, now Whoa, whoa, whoa Oh, sorry little buddy. Do you need some time to catch up? Eee! Man, I need more sloth in my heart Whoa, whoa, whoa Hey, yo, dude. Do you like sloth? You

I love sports! Stars are cool, they burn, doesn't rain, but they do! You slowly crawl down your tree And my best ride is to my you're listening to the Children's Hour, we're talking about sloths today. And as Georgeann Irvine from the San Diego Zoo told us, there's a lot of problems facing sloths today. They're vulnerable to deforestation, injuries, and even illness. And we wanted to talk with somebody

who actually helps sloths recover when they're suffering. That's called rehabilitation. Sam Trahl is the co-founder and director of the Sloth Institute that's in Manuel Antonio Costa Rica. Welcome to the Children's Hour, Sam. Tell us what the Sloth Institute does. One of the main things that the Sloth Institute does, or at least I would say the most time-consuming

and expensive, is the actual rescue, rehab, and release of sloths. And when we first started the Sloth Institute 10 years ago, our very first research project and the big goal was to figure out how to release hand-raised orphan sloths because at the time it wasn't actually being done in Costa Rica. It was thought to not be possible because the theory was that hand-raised

orphan sloths didn't know how to survive in the wild. But after I raised My first set of hand raised sloths, I knew there was no way I was leaving them in a cage for the rest of their lives, but I wanted to make sure and do it in a very careful scientific way so it could be replicated by ourselves and by other rescue centers. And also, so we would be there for every step of the way in case the sloth needed any help. So that's what we started our tracking

program. And we track sloths using little collars with batteries that go around their neck. They're very non-invasive. We make sure they're very small, less than 2% of their body weight. And that's how we were able to create the first and the best successful protocol for how to release hand raised sloths. And then at the same time, we're simultaneously studying the behavioral ecology of wild sloths to make sure that they are in fact doing well in the wild.

And then to tackle long term issues with sloths, habitat destruction is the biggest threat that they face. So we work with landowners to help them better trim their trees or try to convince them not to trim the tree if it's a really important tree. is a tree that they have to trim. We work with them to make it not so horrible for the animals. And then we also put up rope bridges throughout the forest to try to prevent sloths and other animals from even getting to the

roads to begin with. We call those sloth speedways. And then we have multiple different research projects that we do to study the behavioral ecology, the wild health of sloths, so all different things like that. How many species of sloth do we know about? Currently there are seven species of sloths recognized by science. So two two-fingered species and then five three-fingered species. They actually just recently discovered another species in Brazil like a few months

ago. So this is like a newer thing. It used to be six, now it's seven. So the two different types of sloths are separate genuses. The two different types of sloths have been evolving separately for at least 40 million years making them the most extreme example of convergent evolution in mammals. their closest ancestor that they ever had that was similar is at least 40 million years ago, whereas our closest ancestor with chimps, for example, is four to six million

years ago. So we're way more closely related to chimps than the two different kinds of sloths are to each other. And I think that that's really cool. Since sloths mostly hide in the trees, how do we know how big the global population is? It depends. So for example, the most critically endangered sloths, like the pygmy sloth, which is only found on one little island off the coast of Panama. They think that there's only a few hundred of those guys, but they're only

found on the island. And so it's easier to assess them because you only have to look on that one island. As far as like in the country of Costa Rica, there's not really a good ballpark figure. We have a ballpark figure for Manlo Antonio of probably around 3,500 sloths, so like 3,000-ish of both kinds, like together. but then also the density of the sloths vary. So there's a lot of them really like to be near the beach. So male Antonio has a higher density.

As soon as you start going inland and higher up in the mountains, that density goes way down. That's one reason it's really important to protect biodiversity hotspots. And then of course, I'm specifically talking about sloth hotspots. And with emerging diseases, for example, if you look at koalas in Australia, 10 years ago, nobody was worried koalas were gonna go extinct, but now they are. And it's a combination of wildfires a seriously infectious disease.

So even if a species isn't considered technically endangered, that doesn't mean they're not still in danger and sloths definitely fall under that category because they're not only susceptible to all the same things all other terrestrial animals are with climate change, but they're also susceptible to diseases, to habitat destruction. So it's important to save sloths now. That's Sam Trahl from the Sloth Institute in Manuel Antonio Costa Rica. We've got more questions

for her in just a moment. You're listening to The Children's Hour. A sloth in a tree Playing up in the leaves I don't move all that fast Like to make the day last I've got friends all around On the trees, on the ground Waving up air to me I smile for them to see so fast around me Monkeys swing from tree to tree, they've got so much energy I wonder where they are too, I wish I could catch up to you Monkeys swing from tree to tree, they've got so much energy Won't the world just turn down for me?

I've been upside down here I'll spend all day up here If I climb from this tree It'll take all day for me I like to be alone Hanging round eating leaves Life is so good it seems It's the life made of dreams And the world moves so fast around me Woo! Monkeys swing by everywhere, Swingin' in, swingin' there everywhere, I wonder where they are off to, I wish I could catch up to you, Chew on my leaf as I watch them swing, They've got so much energy.

Moment the world just slowed down for me That's Mr. T and friends right here on the Children's Hour with the sloth song that is just called Sloth. It's actually an anthem of sorts for the Sloth Institute. There are guests today on the show. We're with Sam Troll, who's joining us from Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. Sam, your organization does rehabilitation with sloths. Why do sloths end up needing rehabilitation?

That- can vary around the country as well. One of the most common reasons we see injured sloths in Melontanio is electrocution, especially with adult two-fingered sloths. Yeah, I had read about that, that there's just bad transmission lines in Costa Rica that aren't insulated. And so the sloths just touch a transmission line in electrical wire and they get electrocuted. What else do you get? Orphans. is another huge one. And with orphans, the reason why they're

orphaned is very varied and sometimes we don't know. But electrocution is for sure, I would say the number one issue along with habitat destruction. Those two obviously go hand in hand. But the thing with habitat destruction is that there can be all these secondary losses. So with electrocution is very obvious. This animal was burned. But with habitat loss, it can be something as simple as one tree was taken out of. the home range of a recently weaned

sloth. That weaned sloth is very small when mom weans them, which means she stops giving milk and leaves the baby on its own. Mother sloths will leave their babies in the natal home range, so it's at all the places where she showed them where they could find food. So when one tree is taken out of that habitat, they all of a sudden don't have enough food to grow up and to survive. So they can slowly get sick from being skinny. and having a weakened

immune system and things like that. So that is caused by human encroachment in their environment, but it's not obvious. It'll just come in as like a skinny sick sloth. And so every time we rescue a sloth, we can never say that it definitely isn't connected to human encroachment in some way. It most likely is. Also dog attacks is a big problem. How do you figure out what care a sick sloth needs? So the first thing we do is we do a health check exam that includes

taking measurements, like the weight of the sloth, the quality of their skin. We check their eyes, their ears, their nose, basically like a full, full examination of how healthy the sloth is. And then based on what they've been through, then we start a treatment plan. So for orphans, they go into our sloth school system. They start being raised based on what

age they come in at. So newborns start at elementary school. And then if it's an older sloth, like let's say one that was already weaned by its mom, but you know, it lost a tree in its natal home range and so it's not doing so well. But it's already weaned so those guys can go straight into high school, for example, and it doesn't take quite as long to get them fully graduated

and back into the wild and free. With injured sloths, depending on how critical they are, like you know, if they're on IV fluids versus being able to be hand-fed, sometimes our vet needs to do surgery. A lot of times, unfortunately, electrocutions will immediately kill and completely fry one of their limbs, which the only thing you can do in that situation is remove the affected limb because ultimately the sloth would die. But luckily, sloths are as sensitive as

they can be. They also can be very, very strong and can survive incredible trauma. So we... have a pretty good success rate even with all of these horrible injuries that we see. So you've got this great process for helping the animals, but I would imagine it takes different

amounts of time to rehabilitate a sloth. How long can that take? So sometimes sloths when they're dispersing, so they've gone through their natal home range, they've gotten to the dispersal way, and so then that's when they leave the natal range to go find somewhere else for them to permanently live. Most mammals have some sort of dispersal or animals in general

so that they don't accidentally inbreed with their relatives. Oh wait, their natal home is their birth home area and then dispersing you mean spreading out like they move out as young adults kind of like humans. But when a sloth does this it's the most dangerous time in their life because they're going into a period of food uncertainty and also in a human encroached

environment just general safety uncertainty. So when that happens, we get called out, we rescue the sloth, and we notice that they're really dehydrated, really tired, and they have a bunch of ticks. And when that happens, we give them a few spa days because their immune system is really depressed at that point. They're very hungry. But after like three or four days

with us, they're ready to go. They just need like a good meal, maybe help getting the ticks off, and then we find them a really nice place to live when we take them to a much better forest than where they were found. So that's the best case scenario. The longest amount of time we have sloths with us would be two-fingered orphans because they take two years to fully finish growing up and be released with us if they come in as a newborn. So, and three fingers

take about a year. In the wild with their mothers, it takes about half the time that it does with us. So a three-fingered mom spends about a year with gestation and then post-birth time with the baby. Two fingers, it's much longer. So gestation for two fingers is 10 to 11 months, even longer than us. And then they're with their mom for a whole year after they're born. So there's a lot of maternal investment with sloths and their moms. So for sure, the orphans are

with us the longest. Or somebody who's severely electrocuted, that can take maybe like six months for, or broken limb, that takes a really long time to heal as well. Oh, ouch, poor sloths. We're talking with Sam Trahl from the Sloth Institute in Manuel Antonio Costa Rica, and you're listening to the Children's Hour. In the background, it's the Sunny Sloths song by Monster Rally from Flowering Jungle. You're listening to the Children's Hour. We're learning

about sloths today on the show. You can learn along with us and learn even more or bring the Children's Hour into the classroom. This episode comes with a Learn Along Guide. It meets and cites national education standards and you can find it at childrenshour.org. Look for this episode, Sloths. Let us know what you think of the show while you're at our homepage. We'd love to hear from you. We've got more with Sam Troll from the Sloth Institute in Costa

Rica coming up right after this break. You're listening to the Children's Hour Kids Public Radio. We'll be right back. Thanks to the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque, New Mexico for hosting the Children's Hour. Support for the Children's Hour is provided by United Way of North Central New Mexico. Support provided by New Mexico Arts, a division of New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Support provided by

the City of Albuquerque and the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund. Bernalillo County is a proud supporter of The Children's Hour. Many thanks to the users at tokenibus.org who direct funds to The Children's Hour every week. This episode of The Children's Hour had special support from Sandia National Laboratories. Here's what I would be I would be a sleepy sloth Hanging from a tree I would yawn and I would dream the hours away If I were an animal If I were an animal for the day

Animal for the day is Penny Pom from Believe in Your Magic. That's a little clip from it. You're listening to the Children's Hour. I'm Katie Stone. We're on the line with Sam Troll from the Sloth Institute located in Manuel Antonio Costa Rica. Sam, how do you feed all the sloths in your care? One of our team members, the large chunk of his day is collecting leaves for the sloths every single day because it takes a lot of time to kind of to collect enough food to

feed these guys and they're very picky eaters so you can't just collect anything. And then we also try to collect a well-rounded diet so we don't collect the same leaf every day and there's a whole science behind feeding these guys and that's certainly I think one of the big pieces of why our program is so successful is what we feed them. I liken them to Goldilocks

because the leaf can't be too young and it can't be too old it has to be just right. and you can't give them the same leaf too many days in a row or they stop liking it and they want something different. And sloths would rather starve themselves than eat something they don't want to eat. Like they don't just eat because they're starving and hungry. Like it has to be the right thing. Like some of the leaf species that they like, for example, are some things

that we know. So like two-fingered sloths, they like the leaves from mango trees. They like the leaves from bee chalmond trees. They like the leaves from water apple trees. Three-fingered sloths are really well known for eating this one type of tree. It's Sacropia, but here the local name is Guarumo. But for three-fingered sloths, you cannot feed them anything that's

purchased from a grocery store. Like everything has to be collected from the wild. With two-fingered sloths, they will eat some vegetables if needed, but that's not really the best thing for their diet. So we only supplement their diet with veggies a little bit just to make sure that they have all the right calories and things. Two-fingered sloths are slightly omnivorous. So they can have... some animal matter, like in the wild, they'll actually collect and eat

bugs, like moths and things like that, and they can eat eggs. But the vast majority of their diets leaves. How long can a healthy sloth live? We don't really know exactly how long they can live. In captivity, there's been some two-fingered sloths that have lived into their 50s, but three-fingered don't do well in captivity at all, so no one really knows how long they can live. And they have a 31% slower metabolism than two-fingered sloths. meaning there's a

decent chance they could live even longer than two-fingered sloths. But of course, in the wild, they have to deal with predators, disease, especially in a human encroached environment. So no one really knows exactly how long sloths can live in the wild, but for sure, multiple decades at least. Are sloths social with each other? They are pretty much solitary, but they will interact, of course, with each other when they come across each other. They will. get

into arguments sometimes. The two-fingered males especially are extremely territorial and will fight each other and their fights can look pretty scary. And pretty much the goal of a sloth fight is to get the other sloth out of the tree that you're in. So they swat and they bite each other's hands and feet and they just want the sloth to let go, the other sloth to let go and get out of the tree. But three-fingereds are much better at living in close proximity

to one another. They don't necessarily hang out or touch or anything like that, but it's not uncommon to see a group of three-fingereds in the same tree. So like multiple females are usually good in the same tree together, but males again are very territorial. So multiple males you wouldn't normally see, but we've definitely seen like a group of females and one male hanging out in a tree together. And hanging out is just means resting within a few meters of each other,

but that's about as social as they get. But when you think about Slaus and their strategy for survival in the forest, They can't really risk being too social because social animals are usually louder animals. Being gregarious comes with making noise. And sloths survive in the forest by being invisible and being quiet. More with Sam Trell from the Sloth Institute based in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica in just a moment. You're listening to The Children's

Hour. Super slow sloth Hanging upside down Living in the trees I like to party We are super slow sloths Hangin' upside down Hanging upside down, living in the trees We like to party We are super slow slugs Hanging upside down, living in the trees We like to party We are super slow slugs Hanging upside down, living in the trees We like to party We are super slow slugs Hanging upside down, living in the trees We like to party We are super slow sloths Hanging

upside down, living in the trees We like to party That's super slow sloth by Hugo FM right here on the Children's Hour. Sam Troll is with us from the Sloth Institute in Manuel Antonio Costa Rica. They are a sloth rescue organization that does so much more. And Amadeus has a question for you. What inspired you to become a sloth

expert? My background is all in primatology. My graduate work is in primatology. And I first came to Costa Rica with the intention to work with spider monkeys because I love spider monkeys, they're really great. And I was volunteering at a rescue center and they handed me a baby sloth. And they literally said, don't get attached, but do whatever you need to do to keep the sloth alive because they always die. And I was like, okay. And I'd raised baby primates before

lemurs and various monkey species. So I just... treated the sloth like a baby primate, not with the type of milk. Luckily I knew that, for example, they drink goat milk, but everything else I pretty much had to figure out. And so that baby sloth survived. And then the next one, and then the next one, and then the next one. And I knew that I was not going to leave them in captivity for forever. That's not why I woke up every two hours for two years raising

them. And so the sloth institute was really bored out of the need to figure out how to release hand raised orphan sloths. But of course we've grown from there. And There's still so much more to learn and so many different ways that sloths need to be saved and different ways that sloths really need a champion because their conservation is definitely not assured yet. We're just about to end our time together with you, Sam Troll. Thanks so much for being

on The Children's Hour. But before we go, for all of us listening across the world, what can we do to support sloths in our own communities? I think one of the biggest things that anybody can do from anywhere that they live is focus on being a responsible sloth tourist because one of the big problems that sloths face all over the world and that includes in the US at a lot of different captive facilities is sloths are extremely popular and people want

to be close to them. They want to touch them, they want to take pictures with them. They think that because they love sloths, they need to have these close encounters with them but in actuality... that is a huge, huge problem for wild sloths. Sloths are literally being taken from the wild, purchased from the wild and brought to the US to be sold to lots of little tiny private facilities where they'll offer like, hold and feed this baby sloth or

take a picture with this baby sloth. So it's really, really important that tourists, even in the US, do their research about where they're seeing sloths in captivity. So like big zoos, like San Diego Zoo, for example, is a great place to go and see all kinds of animals because you know they're going to be well cared for and you know that they're accredited. Basically any place that lets you get too close to the sloth probably does not have the sloth's best

interest in mind and has probably purchased that sloth from the wild. And then when you go to visit sloths in places like Costa Rica, you also have to be careful with rescue centers, places that pretend to be rescue centers, but really they're just trying to collect animals to have people come and see so they can make money. So it's just, sloths are really being

exploited for their cuteness and their popularity. And so it's just really important to be really careful and cognizant as someone who loves sloths that you're not paying for participating in activities that actually hurt them. That was Sam Trahl from the Sloth Institute. She spoke with us from Manuel Antonio Costa Rica. We've got a link to their website and pictures of these adorable sloths that they take care of at childrenshour.org. Look for this episode, Sloths. There you'll also find

a Learn Along Guide that meets and cites national education standards. It's digital now, so you don't need to print anything unless you want to. Check it out at childrenshour.org slash sloths. It's over. Moving slowly, killing softly The sloth is an animal, knows how to chill Moving slowly, berries clonely The sloth is an animal, hanging out in a tree Moving slowly, killing softly flowers and leaves and eggs. You better run, you better beg. When the bees come.

A sloth is an animal, knows how to chill Moving slowly, very slowly A sloth is an animal, hanging out in a tree Moving slowly, killing softly A sloth is an animal, knows how to chill Moving slowly, very slowly A sloth is an animal, hanging out in a tree Moving slowly, killing softly He needs to find his way From the tree down the meadow Because his pleasure can't stay But he butting, needs to give it away Great drivers day, them hungry tans fray They might

be kept, they might flex, they fun to display Ring the alarm! This is not the day As long as an animal knows how to chill, Whoop is slowly burning slowly. As long as an animal hanging out in a tree, Whoop is slowly killing softly. As long as an animal knows how to chill, Whoop is slowly burning slowly. As long as an animal hanging out in a tree, Whoop is slowly killing softly. Hang Out in Trees is the name of that band and that's their sloth song. You're listening to

The Children's Hour, I'm Katie Stone. You can learn more about sloths and see such cute pictures and lots more at ChildrensHour.org. Look for this episode, Sloths. Giant Paleolithic Megasloths came up in our conversation recently about fossils. That was with La Brea Tar Pits, and there they have found the Paleolithic sloths totally preserved. There have also been sloth footprints found at White Sands National Monument, and there's a story behind that where teenagers are chasing

a giant ground sloth. You can learn more about that in our brief history of the American Southwest for Kids series that's in episode one. You can find all of this at childrenshour.org or reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you. We're going to go out with one more. This is John Long from John Long's Lost and Found with the mean old root and ground sloth. And remember they've been extinct for nearly 11,000 years. Thanks for listening to the Children's Hour.

We hope you enjoyed learning about sloths. We'll catch you next time. Me no ruin ground's lost Coming out late at night In old Loon Grounds law bay Coming out Better Let me know when ground floor Hey, guy, long shovel clawed. to the shop. Got long shovel claws, babe Also with Keith and Sean Now I'm gonna tell you Don't come out in the daylight. Bombs and- You've got to be on your watch. You better be on your watch. Because he's prowling and he's hunting. Minar and ground sloth.

Children's Hour is produced by The Children's Hour Incorporated, a New Mexico non-profit. You can find photos, links, learn-along guides, and more about us at ChildrensHour.org. Many thanks to George N. Irvine from the San Diego Zoo and Sam Trull from the Sloth Institute. Our Learn Along Guide was written by Lorraine Archibald and our senior producer is Christina Stella. We had production help on today's show from Daniel Lentz. Find our podcast wherever

you listen to podcasts or go to our patreon.com slash the Children's Hour. Or ask your smart speaker to play the Children's Hour podcast. We post our photos and more on Instagram and Facebook. Find us at TCH Radio. Our theme music was written by C.K. Barlow. The Children's Hour is distributed by Native Voice One, the Native American Radio Network. Thanks for listening to the Children's H- Kids Public Radio.