For two decades, Judy Avery Arroyo, has been helping Costa Rica’s local sloth population. Arroyo is the founder of a sanctuary that has rescued, and rehabilitated hundreds of the world’s slowest mammals.
Sloths call the jungles of Costa Rica home, but the animals are under pressure from urban development including electrical cabling strung up through its habitats and deforestation in the country.
Many of the sanctuary's sloths are unable to be released into the wild due to permanent damage such as finger amputation, severe electrocutions and other serious trauma.
Sloths are the world's slowest-moving mammals and are found across parts of Central and South America. There are six-known species across the continent and the Costa Rican sanctuary is home to the Bradypus and Choleopus species. According to the World Wildlife Fund, many species of the sloth are at risk of extinction.