All Creatures Great and Small

Psalm 104:24 says, “O LORD, what a variety of things you have made!  In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of Your creatures.” 

I suppose anywhere one lives, there are “creatures” of different sizes and shapes. But here in Costa Rica I have had the opportunity to get to know some of the “most unusual” of God’s creatures.  (At least unusual for me!)

Last week, Stephen and I spent three days exploring the east coast of Costa Rica.  On the way there, we decided to take a more adventurous route to explore the countryside and we came back home using the more direct route. 

The Caribbean side of this country is not developed as much as the Pacific side.  The towns are quaint (other than the port city of Limon).  The roadside towns are made up of tiny shops and hole-in-the-wall eateries.  There are no large hotels along the eastern coast and not much beach either. 

Nestled in a small burg called Chauita is a sloth sanctuary.  This has been on my bucket list since we arrived in Costa Rica over two years ago.  I have seen a few sloths in the wild, but at a distance, hidden amidst tall rainforest trees.  Generally, I had to observe these sloths through a guide’s telescope.  That was thrilling enough but I was not prepared for the experience we had at this sloth sanctuary. 

The sloth sanctuary was undoubtedly the highlight of our trip.  We stayed the first night at the sanctuary to be ready for our early morning three-hour tour.  We were awakened around 4:00 AM by a loud roar that got louder and louder, then faded and went on for about an hour. 

I kept thinking that sloths weren’t that loud and then remembered that howler monkeys lived in the jungle surrounding us.  Google confirmed what we were hearing, and I also learned that howler monkeys are the loudest creatures on earth. Their howling can carry up to 3 kilometers! 

It sounded to me like the abominable snowman’s roar on the Matterhorn bobsleds at Disneyland. I expected to see a 40-foot King Kong emerge from the jungle into the clearing by our room!

After breakfast we were escorted into two different rooms where we were within inches of these precious creatures!  There are two toed and three toed sloths.  They are quite different animals, but live similarly in the trees. 

The sanctuary is a refuge for approximately 150 sloths.  Some have been rescued from being injured by dogs or other animals.  Others have been abandoned by their mothers.  The goal is to get the sloths back into the wild. But some, like baby sloths, will never be able to return to the wild. Apparently, if a mother sloth does not teach a baby sloth how to live in the wild in the first year of its life, they can never learn.  

We spent another hour in the Intensive Care Unit where we got even closer to the babies, but we were not allowed to touch them.  We watched them eat, learned why sloths don’t last as personal pets, and all the ways God has made these strange and beautiful creatures to be able to survive the rainforest. 

The proceeds from the small “hotel” where we stayed, donations, and the cost of the tour keep the sanctuary funded.  Some research has been done on these amazing animals, but there is still a lot that is unknown. 

For instance, they haven’t been able to find out what is in the mama sloth’s milk because she only produces what the baby needs at feeding time.  The baby’s sucking makes the mama produce milk.  As a result, at the sanctuary, they give the babies goat’s milk because it seems to be digested better than other kinds of milk. 

We have been taught that the word “slothful” means lazy, idle, unwilling to work.  However, we learned at the sloth sanctuary that the sloth is not lazy.  They are just conserving energy.  They can actually move quickly if the need arises.

I was amazed at God’s design of these beautiful creatures. For example, sloths have hair that grows from the middle front around to the back, unlike other animals that have hair that grows from the spine around to the front.  The sloth hangs upside-down so the rain follows the way the hair grows and runs right off the sloth’s fur. 

In addition, sloths know what leaves to eat and what season to eat those leaves. Some leaves are toxic for sloths at different times of the year and are edible at other times in the year. Somehow, sloths know the right season to eat each leaf.  

 All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.