I think I'm love! No, I'm not talking about a girl down here, rather a species of super shaggy ancient animals that share close links with the armadillo and anteater. I'm talking about sloths and I feel the need to defend these creatures that have received a bad rap throughout history. In almost every language, the name of this animal is synonymous with "lazy," "sleep," "dirty," or a combination therein. They've fallen prey to the same judgement that has labeled the manatee as the "sea cow," but at least that rather awkward looking animal has a proper name. Those who named the sloth didn't seem to get past their relaxed demeanor.
They can't help it! They just have slow metabolisms. If I'm supposed to refer to fat humans as "big boned" or "metabolically challenged" why isn't there an alternative to calling these majestic creatures lazy bums!? And just look at them . . . i mean really, can't we just call them "irresistibly cute and cuddly tree teddy bears?" Okay so maybe that's a little to drawn out for a name and plus they're not in the bear family so that won't work, though I swear George Lucas must have had these guys in mind while creating some of the creatures in Star Wars. Then again, when the three-toed sloths are full-grown I swear they look like super hairy hippies! Oh I want to take one home soooooo bad; damn US customs!
Oh and in regard to the "dirty" label, get this, they are actually one of the view animals without a body odor! So hah, not dirty, just cuddly! Anyways, I could go on and on about my adoration for these super sweet animated fur balls, but I'll cut it off here. Oh, I suppose I ought to mention this post comes after a visit to the Aviaros Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica asked for personally by me this past weekend while our group was on the Caribbean coast. Props to them for providing me the chance to melt in front of cute orphaned baby sloths shown in the following photographic evidence:
No comments:
Post a Comment