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Discussion on: I am one of the world’s leading experts on sloths and the founder of The Sloth Conservation Foundation, ask me anything!

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Mac Siri

Hello! Stranded on a desert island 😱!? Can you tell us more about that?

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Sloth Conservation

We were on an expedition to the isolated and uninhabited island of Isla Escudo de Veraguas in Panama to document the swimming pygmy sloths. We had a successful trip, and just as we were about to make our journey home, a huge tropical storm rolled in and left us trapped without any supplies, food or shelter. We had to ration water, catch lobster and cook it on a fire, and sleep in an open speedboat in the ocean because it wasn’t safe for us to sleep on the beach, as there were deadly snakes and biting flies. We were on the island for three days. We eventually managed to travel back to the mainland in a little boat when the storm lifted and it was safe to make the crossing. It is a notoriously dangerous journey even when the sea is calm, so doing it in the wake of a tropical storm was probably one of the scariest things I have ever done!