Sloth Safely Returned To Trees After Accidentally Taking A 64 Kilometre Truck Trip

The Toucan Rescue Ranch shared some sloth news on IGTV that’s just relevant enough for me to justify posting on Jalopnik so here goes: A female two-toed apparently snuck into a truck’s engine bay and was discovered after a 64 km drive. Said sloth has now been rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

Finally, some news with a happy ending!

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Everyone meet Lola la Trailera. She is an adult two-fingered sloth that hitched a ride with a truck driver for 65 kilometers hugging his truck engine! Yes, you read that right… she was UNDER THE HOOD of a truck! On July 16, Toucan Rescue Ranch got a call about a two-fingered sloth rescue. Luckily, as a routine, the drivers check their vehicle in Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose. When they noticed a tuft of hair, they called us wondering what it was… It was a sloth that traveled for over an hour! Believe it or not, but this is our SECOND sloth rescue like this. Upon arrival, she was tired but extremely aggressive. We did a brief examination and found no burns or injuries from her wild adventure. She was given Pedialyte, wild leaves, and steamed veggies to recuperate and regain some strength. After only 6 days in our clinic, she was ready to go back into the wild! She was transferred to the area she originated. After a slow release… She finally found her way to the canopy of a safe forest! Good luck, Lola la Trailera!

A post shared by Toucan Rescue Ranch (@toucanrescueranch) on Jul 30, 2020 at 2:22pm PDT

TRR is one of Costa Rica’s many animal rehab sanctuaries/zoos. It’s not too far from the country’s capital of San Jose, so I recommend taking a tour if you cruise through the country.

I’ve actually been to this place myself and thoroughly enjoyed meeting its animals (they cater to many creatures in addition to toucans and sloths) though the guide that showed us around in 2018 was adamant that sloths make terrible pets so my dreams of bringing one home were quickly dashed.

Most of the animals you would meet at the Ranch on any given day are there to be rehabilitated and released. It’s the place you call when, say, you see a tuft of sloth fur under the hood of your truck and aren’t sure what to do with the stowaway.

It looks like this sloth, which rescuers dubbed “Lola la Trailera,” wasn’t injured during its drive and was able to be released back into the wild after a few days of rest and snacks. Why it climbed up in there… who knows. Sloths aren’t known for having a great sense of anything, so it probably just wanted to go “up” to get off the ground and the truck engine was the closest option. The road trip was probably pretty scary though–I’m sure whatever speed a typical Costa Rican truck cruises at feels like warp nine compared to a sloth’s usual saunter of about 0 km/h.

(That speed spec is actually for the slightly smaller three-toed sloths, I couldn’t find a top speed claim for two-toed but I can’t imagine it’s much higher.)

Anyway, if you’re looking for more slothlopnik check out the sloth car I designed some Saturday last year.