The Sloth Conservation Foundation

06/08/2026

Great News! Orange County, Florida, takes the first step toward restricting exotic wildlife imports for commercial entertainment.

Following months of advocacy after the Sloth World Orlando tragedy, Orange County commissioners voted to begin exploring an ordinance that would restrict the importation of exotic wildlife for commercial entertainment.

This is particularly important because Orlando is one of the world's top tourist destinations. If ultimately adopted, Orange County could become one of the first local governments in the United States to introduce these protections, creating a model that other jurisdictions could follow.

It's only the first step, but it's an important one, and we'll continue working alongside our friends at The Sloth Institute through the Sloth Protection Alliance until stronger and nationwide protections become a reality.

Read the full story, links in bio & stories

06/08/2026

Orange County, Florida, takes the first step toward restricting exotic wildlife imports for commercial entertainment.

Following months of advocacy after the Sloth World Orlando tragedy, Orange County commissioners voted to begin exploring an ordinance that would restrict the importation of exotic wildlife for commercial entertainment.

This is particularly important because Orlando is one of the world's top tourist destinations. If ultimately adopted, Orange County could become one of the first local governments in the United States to introduce these protections, creating a model that other jurisdictions could follow.

It's only the first step, but it's an important one, and we'll continue working alongside our friends at The Sloth Institute through the Sloth Protection Alliance until stronger and nationwide protections become a reality.

Read the full story here:

Orange County has unanimously voted to begin drafting an ordinance that could prohibit the importation of exotic wildlife for commercial entertainment

05/08/2026

A huge win for wildlife in Costa Rica!

Costa Rica has approved a landmark amendment to its Environmental Law requiring wildlife crossings and other mitigation measures to be included in public infrastructure whenever scientific evidence shows they are needed to maintain ecological connectivity.
For the first time, the law requires developers to identify wildlife mortality hotspots, study how infrastructure affects animal movements, and incorporate solutions that help reconnect fragmented habitats. Wildlife conservation is now part of infrastructure planning from the very beginning.

A nationwide meta-analysis compiled more than 19,000 documented wildlife roadkill records collected across Costa Rica between 1996 and 2025. These records help identify where animals are most at risk and where wildlife crossings can have the greatest conservation impact.
And we already know they work. Costa Rica's Wildlife Crossing Monitoring Protocol has documented 59 species using wildlife crossing structures across the country.

Here at The Sloth Conservation Foundation, we've seen the same results firsthand. Through our Connected Gardens Project, we've installed more than 400 canopy bridges across the South Caribbean of Costa Rica. Together with thousands of camera trap images and videos shared by our local community, we've documented sloths, monkeys, kinkajous, squirrels, porcupines, and many other species safely using these crossings. In some cases, wildlife begins using a newly installed bridge within the first 24 hours!

For a country that protects around 5% of the world's biodiversity, this new legislation is an important step toward making development and wildlife conservation work hand in hand.

Help us keep sloths and other arboreal wildlife safely in the canopy, visit our website to support our research and conservation work.
Link in bio and stories!

04/08/2026

Have you ever dreamed of seeing a sloth in the wild? Costa Rica is one of the best places on Earth to do it, and now, for the first time, you can experience it with the people who spend every day studying and protecting them.

Our private sloth tours are officially here!

Join Team Sloth for a private sloth experience designed entirely around you! You might spend a morning tracking and photographing wild sloths alongside our research team, visit the conservation projects helping to protect them, or simply spend time with Team Sloth and get an insight into the work we do every day.

No two itineraries are the same. Your experience will be personally planned around your interests with travel designer, SloCo Trustee and award-winning wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas. Whether you are a photographer, conservation professional, lifelong wildlife lover, or simply someone who really, really loves sloths, this is a rare opportunity to experience Costa Rica through the eyes of the people who know its sloths best.

These tours are perfect for:
• Wildlife enthusiasts and photographers
• Solo travelers, couples, families, or groups of friends
• Anyone who really, really loves sloths

Plan your private sloth tours - Links in bio & stories!

Every tour helps fund our conservation work by planting trees, installing wildlife bridges, and protecting the forests where sloths live. It also creates paid work for local guides and helps make wildlife tourism part of the solution.

03/08/2026

Orange County has an opportunity to act! Please attend and speak during public comment. Decision-makers need to hear that our community supports stronger protections for wildlife and that tragedies like Sloth World should never happen again.

The Sloth World Orlando tragedy exposed serious gaps in Florida's oversight of captive sloths. While dozens of sloths died, Orange County was never informed, and the FWC has since announced it will not pursue criminal charges against the facility's owners.

Now, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners is discussing whether additional local protections are needed to help prevent something like this from happening again.

Although wildlife regulation largely falls under the state, Orange County has authority over local businesses, land use, licensing, public safety, and community welfare. If you live in Orange County, this is your opportunity to ask for stronger local standards that prioritize animal welfare, responsible tourism, and greater accountability.

📍 Orange County Board of County Commissioners Meeting
🗓 Tuesday, August 4
🕘 9:00 AM
📍 Orange County Administration Center
201 S. Rosalind Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801

Together, we can turn this tragedy into lasting change.

03/08/2026

Some dreams take years to build, but every step brings us closer.

In this update, Dr. Becky Cliffe shares the latest progress on the future home of The Sloth Conservation Foundation: SloCo HQ. This space will support research, education, conservation, and the people working every day to protect sloths and their forests.

If you'd like to be part of making this vision a reality, we'd love to welcome you into the Sloth Fellowship. Together, we're building a future where sloths can thrive.🦥🩵