Skip to main content

Osa Wildlife Sanctuary

New Year's Day 2010, part III

The Osa Wildlife Sanctuary, also known as FundaciĆ³n Santuario Silvestre de Osa, rescues, rehabilitates, and releases orphaned, injured, and displaced wildlife in Costa Rica's southern zone. Carlos explained to us that we could not bring in any food or drink and we had to remove all jewelry, anything that the animals could pull off, even sunglasses - not sure about regular eyeglasses; I'm glad I put in my contact lenses. The monkeys liked shiny objects and were not shy about helping themselves to them, as some previous tourists had unfortunately discovered. You can bring cameras in, of course, just be careful with them. (Also, children under 10 years of age are not allowed.)

Once we stepped off the boat and waded through some water to get to the shore, it was quite muggy and buggy. We met the owner and later his wife. And we met the animals...


showing off

the nocturnal kinkajou

 looking wistful (or sleepy)

now that's a yawn!


collared peccary, or javelina



making mischief


napping sloths

watching the sloth move looks a lot like this still photograph actually!

quite photogenic

The sloth is a rather interesting creature. Its fur is an ecosystem unto itself! It hosts many non-parasitic insects due to the bacteria that grows on it. The bacteria, in turn, serves as a camouflage for this slow-moving arboreal dweller. Another interesting thing about the sloth's fur is that it grows away from the extremities. (In most mammals the fur grows toward the extremities.) This is to provide protection from the elements while the sloth hangs upside-down, which is how it spends most of its time!

The sloth is well-known for its excruciatingly slow movement. (There are two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths, though in fact both have three toes. Two-toed and three-toed actually refers to the number of fingers. ) When in danger, a three-toed sloth (the slower-moving of the two) clocks in at about 13 feet per minute in the trees. On the ground, its maximum speed is 6.5 feet per minute. This kind of movement burns lots of energy. (Oddly enough, the sloth is a competent swimmer - see link to video below.) It maintains an extremely low metabolism and low body temperature in order to conserve the little energy that it receives from its diet of predominantly un-nutritious leaves.

The sloth's claws are adapted to holding onto a tree without exerting any effort on his part. This is a deterrent for its human predators, as it can be shot but will not fall down because its claws are still maintaining its grip of the tree! It is these extremely long and sharp claws that give it its only natural defense. One would think that the sloth would suffer from heavy predation because of its slow disposition, but that's actually not the case. Its bacteria-laden fur enables it to blend in with the trees and its slow movements usually go unnoticed by predators. Virtually the only time it becomes vulnerable is when it comes down to the ground for its approximately weekly, ahem, office work. The sloth will dig a hole - always in the same spot - urinate, defecate, then cover the hole. It is quite a curious thing that a sloth would go to these great, risky lengths when it is so vulnerable on the ground. I remember reading in Tropical Nature that this behavior may be due to the fact that a sloth will usually occupy just one tree (usually a Cecropia), and by doing its business near the base of its tree, it fertilizes the tree that, in turn, provides it with food.


tayra - a type of weasel

And now for a special treat... A baby anteater!

baby anteater!

feeding time

gotta reach those ants!


one of the free-roaming resident spider monkeys


we got to feed her




When we got back on the boat, we ate our sack lunches, that Bosque del Cabo had packed for us, and drank our much needed, cold drinks. Then we jetted back while the boat driver blared his favorite American tunes over the speakers (or what he thought us American tourists would like). All I remember was a song by the Beach Boys. I could've done without the tunes, but it was fun. The driver was digging it.

Best New Year's ever!
* * *
short bbc youtube video of a swimming sloth!
adorable video of a baby sloth!

next post >> Lazy Afternoons at Bosque del Cabo
previous post << Equinas River Mangrove Tour

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chiropterophily: Bat Pollination

I see you! Geoffroy's tailless bat (Anoura Geoffroyi) - photo by Nathan Muchhala Ever since coming across this word, I can't stop saying it: chiropterophily. Chiropterophily, or pollination of plants by bats, is very common in the tropics. Hundreds of tropical plant species are exclusively or at least partly pollinated by nectar-feeding bats. Many tropical flowers are night-blooming, specializing in attracting bats. Bat-flowers are typically white, cream, or pale green in color, making them easier to see in the dark. They usually have a musky, fermented odor - like that of the bat - or sometimes a fruity odor. They have a large, sturdy, open shape with long, bushy anthers so that the bat's head and chest get coated in pollen when it visits. In return for the bat pollinating the flower, the flower provides the nectar that these high-energy flying mammals need.* Tube-lipped nectar bat (Anoura fistulata) - photo by Nathan Muchhala Nectivorous bats have both good eyesight an

Eyeshine in Nocturnal Animals

Peters' Epauletted Fruit Bat (Epomophorus crypturus), Kruger National Park - photo by Peet van Schalkwyk Have you ever noticed how under certain lighting conditions some animal's eyes seem to glow? Animals that are nocturnal hunters - and a few of them that are not - have something called eyeshine . Eyeshine is the light that we see reflected back from the animal's tapetum lucidum (a membrane behind the animal's retina). Light enters the eye, passes through the retina, strikes the reflective membrane, and is reflected back through the eye toward the light source. This phenomenon makes the most of what little light there is at night for these nocturnal creatures. a moth with pink eyeshine Humans can display the red-eye effect in flash photography, but we do not have a tapetum lucidum , and thus, do not have eyeshine. Eyeshine is best observed by wearing a head lamp or holding a flashlight at eye level against your temple because the light is reflected right back into

Bats of Bosque del Cabo

Our first night here we saw bats (not sure of the species) flying around at dusk right outside the back of our bungalow, lots of them! And they would fly very near us! What an experience! bats outside Lapa at dusk * * * Some nighttime views from our bungalow's observation deck... Off to bed... * * * At dawn, you could sit out on the observation deck and observe the bats finding their way back home. What an early morning treat! bats outside Lapa at dawn * * * Bosque del Cabo has (that I currently know of): White-Lined Sac-Winged Bats  ( Saccopteryx bilineata / leptura ) in a cave on the Pacific beach (which I learned after our trip) Spix's Disk-Winged Bats  ( Thyroptera tricolor ) - observed in rolled heliconia leaves Jamaican Fruit-Eating Bats  ( Artibeus jamaicensis ) - observed pollinating the Guapinol or Stinky Toe Tree Tent-Making Bats  ( Uroderma bilobatum )  - note: several bat species roost under leaf tents, including the Caribbean or Honduran White