Sloths

 Sloths are quite common in Costa Rica, but can be surprisingly difficult to spot. Since they spend so much time nearly motionless it can be tricky to locate them, and the forests are full of termite mounds and clumps of leaves that look very similar to resting sloths. There are 2 species in the country, including the Hoffman's Two-Toed Sloth shown below. These are allegedly the rarer of the two species, but we saw many more of them by far.

 The three-toed sloth (fun fact, all sloths have 3 toes, but the Hoffman's has 2 claws on its arms and old naming conventions die hard) was less common in our sightings and very distinctively different with its face mask, darker fur, and stripes on the back of the male. There are a surprising number of taxonomic differences between the two species, including the very strange exception that Hoffman's have 5-7 neck vertebra while the three-toed has 8-9. Funnily enough, they are the only mammals on Earth (along with the manatee...?) to have more than 7 neck vertebrae. Humans, blue whales, and giraffes? 7 each.

 Other fun facts about sloths:

• they have a symbiotic relationship with both an algae that lives in their fur and a species of moth which spends its entire life cycle with the sloth.
• despite having a low energy-output lifestyle, they only sleep 9-10 hours a day
• they only come down from the trees to defecate in a hole which they dig with their butt and cover afterwards.
• they are ridiculously adorable when they're babies.