The Adventures of Dr. Sloth: Rebecca Cliffe and Her Quest to Protect Sloths
THE ADVENTURES OF DR SLOTH REBECCA CLIFFE AND HER QUEST TO PROTECT SLOTHS WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY SUZI ESZTERHAS Millbrook Press Minneapolis
INTRODUCTION Meet Dr Sloth In my job as a wildlife photographer I get to work with some amazing scientists around the world On a trip to Costa Rica I was lucky enough to meet Dr Rebecca Cliffe and now I’m very happy to introduce her to you Most people call Dr Cliffe either Becky or Dr Sloth In the course of my trip I spent many days with her in the jungle observing the sloths high above us in the tree canopy Together we even got to see a three-toed sloth mother and newborn baby The tiny baby stuck to her mother like glue The mother crawled across the forest floor right in front of us which was incredible to see Sloth Fact A sloth baby is born with sharp teeth for eating leaves claws for climbing and eyes wide open The baby stays with its mother until it is one year old See a baby sloth up close https qrs lernerbooks com babysloth
This is a wild sloth that humans named Esmerelda I was so lucky to find her with her tiny baby who was less than a week old Becky loves sloths more than anyone I know While the sloths we were observing rested in the trees she told me that there’s still a lot that humans don’t know about them Sloths are shy animals with very mysterious lives in the wild that scientists are only just starting to learn about and understand Becky explained During that trip Becky and I became fast friends She told me about her dreams of working in sloth conservation Of course as a scientist Becky wanted to continue to learn more about sloths but she also wanted to find new ways to keep them safe So we hatched a plan to continue working together so that I could photograph her journey to become the world’s leading sloth conservationist Sloths move very slowly and spend a large part of their day resting The hardest part about watching them is staying awake Clearly Becky bottom who snapped this selfie is better at this than I am 5
