We love sloths. We fell in love with them on our trip to Costa Rica. Their laid back attitude and their sweet smile make them so precious! So when I found an actual sloth sanctuary in the United States, we knew we had to visit! The Zoological Wildlife Conservation Center was an incredible animal adventure! Now if you’re looking for a place to bring your children to look at the animals for entertainment, this is not the place for you. But if you genuinely care about animals and want to learn more about their care and conservation, then definitely check this place out. They deal with rare, delicate, and endangered species, and we were lucky enough to get to meet several of them on our visit.
The Sloths
First we got to meet the sloths! Sloths love to hang upside down, and are such docile creatures! We had the opportunity to feed them treats while learning all about them and their conservation.
The Wolves
Although the sloths were the main event, we also got to spend some time with the wolves at the facility. From the alpha male, to the wolf pups, the interaction with them was amazing. Anticipating this encounter was intimidating, but once we met the wolves, it was definitely awesome and not scary at all.
Animal Interactions
After playing with the wolves, we had the chance to interact with and learn about multiple other animals. From a baby binterong, to a malaysian fishing cat, a baby civet, and penguins, the experience was beyond amazing! We even got to cuddle with a baby lynx!
We got the opportunity to feed two different species of lemur, the ring-tailed, and the black and white ruffed. I just love their little hands. It was fun watching them take the food, and run around and play. Lemurs definitely have a lot of energy! One even jumped off it’s platform onto my head and back up!
The Sleepover
That evening, it was time for our sloth sleepover. That’s right, Steve and I were going to spend the night with the sloths! I was so excited for this once in a lifetime experience! We literally slept in the same room as the sloths. A LOT of sloths. Nothing was separating us from them, and we could interact with them all night if we wanted! We were in a private room, just us and the sloths. I was in awe. It was amazing getting to spend an entire night with these fascinating creatures!
A tent cot was set up for us to sleep in, with the recommendation of zipping it completely closed, or running the risk of waking up with a new cuddle buddy.
Because of the environment sloths require, the room was very hot and humid, so sleep was pretty much out of the question. But really, with an opportunity like this, who wants to sleep anyway? So we stayed up most of the night and soaked it all in. The owner left food with us to feed the sloths at our leisure throughout the night.
We had an amazing time observing their behaviors as they interacted with each other and us during the night. Sloths have the reputation of being extremely slow, but I was amazed how well they could get around. I was sitting in a chair and saw one start to crawl towards me, I looked down for a second, and I swear, when I looked back up it was already under my chair reaching for the food bowl! I called them little sloth ninjas. They were pretty stealth!
They really loved their treats too. It was hilarious seeing them all hanging upside down and reaching out with their long arms for the food. They would even hook their claws around my wrist and pull my hand toward them to get the food quicker.
We survived the night and got to see the sun rise to the sound of all the animals waking up.
More Critters!
The next morning after our sloth sleepover, we had the rare experience of having “breakfast” with some of the other critters! Seriously, who ever gets to bottle feed a baby kangaroo breakfast with the help of a monkey?
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After breakfast, and to our surprise, the baby snow leopards were brought out to play, and we got the incredible once in a lifetime experience of bottle feeding them!
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Our amazing visit was now at an end. I was still in awe at everything we got to experience. We really are animal lovers, and it was awesome getting to learn about all of these incredible animals, and the efforts being made for their conservation. Unfortunately, many animal habitats are in danger of being destroyed due to human population and building, such as the rainforests where sloths live. If you are able, I encourage you to help conserve these animals and their environments by educating yourselves and donating to an organization that is making efforts to save these animals. And if you visit animals in the wild, make sure you are not disturbing them or their habitat.
We hope you enjoyed this article! If you wish to learn more about the Zoological Wildlife Conservation Center, click here: www.chasing-tail.com.
