Plot to kidnap Panamanian Pygmy Sloths foiled (for now)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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The Pygmy Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus) lives only on tiny Escudo de Veraguas island off the Caribbean coast of Panama. There may be only a few hundred of these animals, about 2/3 the size of a regular sloth, on this 1,000 acre island. The island is nearly uninhabited except for a few indigenous families who live there seasonally.

Last week a team working for the Dallas World Aquarium, a private zoo owned by a Texas billionaire, captured 8 sloths on the island and attempted to fly 6 of them to the US from the local airport in Bocas del Toro town. (The others were destined for another private zoo in Panama.) The excuse was that they intended to establish a “contingency population” just in case anything happened to the sloths on the island. However, three-toed sloths survive very poorly in captivity and have never bred there. While there are sometimes good reasons to establish captive populations, they need to be done as part of a species management plan. This group was going forward in great secrecy, without consulting other scientists who had been studying the sloths on the island for year. They had obtained official permits from Panama’s natural resources agency, ANAM, but no one can explain how or why they were granted.

The people of Bocas town heard that the sloths were being kept at a hotel in town and started asking questions. When the DWA team tried to load them on the billionaire’s private jet, a near riot broke out. The crowd prevented the plane from taking off. The sloths were eventually taken off and returned to their island home.

Although they are safe for now, everyone expects these guys to make another try.

Here’s more on the story. I’ve been involved in much of the correspondence on the case, since I’ve worked on the island, and am quoted in the article.

Attempt to export nearly-extinct pygmy sloths sets off international incident in Panama

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Wow - thank you so much for sharing this story, and fascinating and good to hear how the Bocas folks took action. We saw a number of sloths while in Panama - they are enchanting. Any idea why the billionaire is so set on getting some? Just to have something rare to show his buddies? Oy.

ETA: and I look forwarding to reading your participation :wink:

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The check cleared.

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To be clear, when I say “private zoo” I mean it is privately owned. It is open to the public at a charge of $21 for adults and $13 for children.

The owner wants something rare for his collection to be sure, but such a cute animal would also undoubtedly boost admissions. As shown in the article I linked to, the DWA holds weddings at the zoo in which people are allowed to hold sloths as props. This is of course completely inappropriate if their goal is conservation.

Another angle to this is that there are plans in the works (not by this guy) to build a luxury resort and casino on the island. So establishing a captive population of sloths might be used as an excuse to claim they are mitigating potential damage to the environment by the project.

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There are theories, of course.:wink:

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This is maddening, and it presents a truly disturbing image of USians—at least those of us with large quantities of cash. I’m glad these sloths have such a determined and able band of defenders.

Any speculation as to why they were planning a stop at Roatan before they returned to Texas?

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I really don’t know. Maybe they had another shipment for the Aquarium, since Roatan is well known for its reefs.

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Here’s the Dallas World Aquarium’s side of it.

No one disputes that they had permits. (As the article says, these can be easy to get in Panama.) The problem is that they did absolutely no consultation with the scientists who have actually been studying the sloths for years. Everybody was taken by complete surprise. They apparently contacted at least some people in an indigenous village on the mainland, but made no effort to inform any other local groups or consult with any conservation organizations working in Panama. They claim that they have gone so far “as to fund rangers who patrol the island in boats provided by the aquarium.” If so, this is the first that anyone else who’s been working on the island has heard of it.

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very fishy :mad:

the video at that link (sloth swimming) is worth watching, thanks for posting it.

with, what, only 200 left and their habitat being cut down, sounds like they are not in good shape. what a shame!

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There’s actually probably more than 200, they’re just hard to see when they’re in taller forest outside the mangroves. They’ve survived fine for the past 9,000 years since the island was isolated from the mainland. Some of the forest is being cut, but not large areas yet. That will change if there is any major development on the island. Preventing that is the best way to save the sloths, not taking them into captivity.

There are actually four different endemic species on this tiny island, including a giant hummingbird (50% bigger than its mainland relative), a bat, and a salamander. There are probably more once the island fauna and flora. has been studied in more depth.

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Yes, everyone at the airport knows it is one bushel of cash per animal, per official. They were not going to let that plane leave until they at least had a wheelbarrow full of bills for the “runway taxiing permit”.

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That video features my friend and colleague Bryson Voirin, who is currently studying the pygmy sloths and who is mentioned and quoted in the link in the OP. On my last trip to Escudo I went with Bryson, who was putting radio collars on the sloths to figure out which habitats they use.

The island is quite beautiful, as you can see in the video.

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Instead of removing 6 sloth and shipping them off, the people should have instead bought the island or portions of it and set them aside as a wildlife sanctuary. Set up a small theater with maps, pictures and multi-media stuff from the island so the wildlife are neither removed nor exterminated by their habitat being cut down and developed over. Much better publicity overall.

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The island already is a protected area. (It’s a “Protected Landscape,” a relatively weak level of protection.) It’s pretty remote: two hours by fast boat from the nearest significant town, which is Bocas del Toro. However, like many protected areas in Panama there is zero protection on the ground. There is no ranger station or other facilities, and no rangers or other staff who visit regularly. To get there you have to hire a boat in Bocas town, and if you want to stay more than a few hours you have to camp or borrow a hut from one of the locals.

The local indigenous group, the Ngobe, regard the island as part of their Comarca, or homeland. (This is an administrative unit equivalent to a province in Panama, but with a lot of internal autonomy by the indigenous people.) I think technically it may belong to the province of Bocas del Toro, however.

Theoretically land on Panama’s offshore islands cannot be bought or sold, unless the title originated before the creation of Panama in 1903. There has been controversy lately because some Costa Rican developer has claimed to have purchased some land on the island, and is proposing a luxury resort and casino, which would be an utter disaster for the conservation of the sloth and other wildlife on the island.

Only a handful of Ngobe live on the island most of the year. When I’ve been out there there have generally been only 8-10 people including kids. However, during the fishing season from September to November hundreds of Ngobe go out there an stay in shacks on the coast. The Ngobe mostly go there to fish, and there are only a few small plots to grow corn, rice, beans, and cassava. However, some forest is being cut for this small plots, wood to build houses, and maybe firewood.

The people from DWA apparently had the cooperation and approval of at least some people from one of the indigenous villages on the mainland. However, as far as I can tell there hasn’t been any attempt to discuss this with the Comarca government in general, and I am pretty sure the Ngobe would reject it.

An aerial view of the whole island.

A view of the coast.

Huts on the island.

A photo of the cove where we camped the last time I went to the island.

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I can understand why a megalomaniac billionaire might want one of those. They are very cute.

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Pity that – as the OP says – three-toed sloths don’t do at all well in captivity, and have never bred there. It would be better for the survival of various species, if they were more able to make the best of a “captive” job, and get going reproducing in that situation; but perhaps it is, for some animals – at whatever level of consciousness – like the US state’s motto, “live free, or die”.

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To paraphrase Mr Burns:
“See my wash cloth?
Pygmy Sloth!”

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I thought for a moment, that you meant Robert Burns – reckonably, one of his lesser-known poems – but then realised that a more modern, and fictional, character of that name was being referred to.