Moths and Sloths

Curiconcha Wildlife Reserve, Santa Elena, Costa Rica

We just got back from a night walk. We saw a tarantula in a water pipe. It was as big as my hand and it had orange “knees”. Some mammals we saw were a grey fox, a kinkajou and a skunk. We also saw several clusters of birds called brown jays sleeping. We saw them from beneath so we saw their bellies. They were as big as ducks. From underneath they looked like ducks, too. We also saw bats flitting about in the moonlight around some hummingbird feeders.

We almost saw a sloth. I learned that sloths have sloth “beetles” (though they aren't technically beetles) living on them, but the beetles aren't parasites and they aren't bad. The sloth beetles turn into sloth moths which live around the sloths. Sloths can swim. I wonder what the sloth beetles do when the sloths go under water. I can imagine a swarm of sloth moths flying over the water so you can tell where the sloth is. I wonder if moths and sloths talk to each other.

There are two kinds of sloths in Costa Rica, the two-toed and the three-toed. Three-toed sloths are one of the only wild mammals in the world that you can pick up and hold and they won't bite you. They are very gentle. They live in the lower elevations. The two-toed sloth would bite you more easily. They live in the higher elezvations like Monteverde where we are.

I learned that ant eaters are vicious.

My dad's friend Geoff says that he has picked up tarantulas with his bare hands and that they only bite when they really have to. There are other spiders that would bite you more easily like the brown recluse and black widow. Both occur in Washington.

Today for lunch I cooked 30 tortillas for 10 people. We were doing a cooking class that is part of the Spanish program we are doing.