Sloth Rehabilitation Center in San Isidro de Heredia — Live Webcam
Toucan Rescue Ranch: A Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica
In the mountains of San Isidro de Heredia, just 30 minutes from San José, a unique wildlife rescue center is located. Toucan Rescue Ranch was originally created to help injured toucans, but over time it has expanded its mission and now dozens of sloths — both two-toed and three-toed — undergo rehabilitation here. The cool, misty climate of the mountainous area creates comfortable conditions for animals that arrive here after injuries, poisonings, or the loss of their parents. The online camera allows you to observe this process in real time — you see what the center's caretakers see every day.
Saving Sloths Together Program: How It All Began
In 2017, the joint project Saving Sloths Together was launched — a collaboration between Toucan Rescue Ranch and The Sloth Institute of Costa Rica. The idea is simple: both organizations combined their expertise to improve the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of sloths. Toucan Rescue Ranch provides medical care and round-the-clock attention, while The Sloth Institute specializes in behavioral research and preparing animals for life in the wild. This division of labor has significantly increased the percentage of successful releases.
Sloth Preschool: The First Stage of Rehabilitation
The center's youngest patients begin their journey in Sloth Preschool. Here, orphaned babies receive intensive care. Caretakers feed them goat's milk from ordinary buckets — and these buckets become a substitute trees for the little ones: they sleep in them, cling to the edges with their long claws, and feel safe. On the webcam, you can often see this very scene — a sloth on a colorful blanket, curled up in a bucket, with eyes closed and paws wrapped around the container.
Age Groups: From Babies to Graduates
Rehabilitation at the center is organized by age groups. After Sloth Preschool, sloths move to Sloth Playground, where they learn to climb branches, forage for food, and interact with their fellow sloths. Each stage brings the animal closer to independent life. Caretakers closely monitor progress: if a sloth moves confidently through the trees and displays typical species behavior, it is ready for the next step.
Medical Care: From Injury to Recovery
Many sloths arrive at the center with severe injuries. Vehicle collisions, electrocution from power lines, and the consequences of illegal keeping as pets — these are the typical diagnoses. The center's veterinarians perform surgeries, prescribe physiotherapy, and monitor patients around the clock. Some sloths spend months here before they are strong enough to move on to the next stage of rehabilitation.
The Final Stage: The Jungles of Sarapiquí
When a sloth completes the full rehabilitation course in San Isidro de Heredia, a relocation awaits. Toucan Rescue Ranch has a second facility — in the dense jungles of Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí on the Caribbean slope. It is there that the animals complete the program: in enclosures adjacent to the real forest, they adapt to natural conditions. When caretakers are confident the sloth is ready, the enclosure is opened — and the animal walks into the jungle. Since 2007, the center has released over 100 sloths back into the wild.
Why San Isidro de Heredia?
The choice of location for the center was no accident. San Isidro de Heredia sits at an altitude where temperatures are lower than on the coast, and the humidity and fog create a microclimate close to the sloths' natural habitat. Proximity to the capital allows for rapid delivery of injured animals from different regions of Costa Rica, and the mountainous terrain protects the area from exhausting heat. For the toucans, which became the ranch's first specialty, these conditions are also ideal.
What You Can See on Camera
The online webcam broadcasts a panoramic view of the sloth rehabilitation center. In the foreground — a sloth sleeping on a colorful blanket with a blue-yellow-green pattern: you can see its paws with long curved claws, a face with closed eyes, and thick fur. In the background — dense tropical vegetation characteristic of Costa Rica's mountain forests. At different times during the broadcast, you can see the process of feeding babies from buckets, staff examining the animals, older sloths playing on the playground, and simply their famous rest — sloths sleep up to 15 hours a day, so the camera rarely shows rapid movement. But that's the charm: you are observing the real life of the center, without staging or fuss.
