We’re back with our staple event for International Sloth month, the fifth anniversary of the Sloth Ironman Games starting October 20 on International Sloth Day! All sloth everything. Poetic, right? We agree.

If you haven’t heard of the Games before, let us break it down for you: 

At the Toucan Rescue Ranch, our mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release wildlife in Costa Rica. The rehabilitation part includes enrichment activities for both residents and releasable animals, so they can grow strong and develop the skills they were born to have. When it comes to sloths, their natural behaviors and fame made for a perfect event to film their skills in a competition form, and the rest was history. Now, every year people gather from all over the world to support our work in sloth conservation and help their favorite sloth athlete (let’s just refer to this as slothlete moving forward) reach eternal glory!

The Official Rules:

The Games are broadcasted for free and completely online. You can follow on our social media such as IGTV, YouTube, and Facebook to watch all events: the 1-Meter Dash; Strong Sloth Challenge; Poop-Off Challenge, and the Hibiscus Eat-Off. The slothletes win points depending on their position in the event. 

• 125-points for 1st place
• 100-points for 2nd place
• 75-points for 3rd place
• 50-points for 4th place
• 0 points for disqualification

How to support your favorite slothlete?

The fastest sloth wins per event. They accumulate points by their athletic skills but also by fan’s votes. To vote for your favorite sloth you must make a minimum donation of $5.00 on the official page of the Games on Mightycause. Each dollar counts as a point, and when you donate you must dedicate or comment who you’re supporting for it to count. We’ll be adding these points to the scoreboard so you can keep track of who’s winning overall. 

Voting starts on October 20 and closes on October 25 at 12:00 PM (Costa Rica time).

How do your donations help the sloths and Toucan Rescue Ranch?

The Toucan Rescue Ranch and The Sloth Institute Costa Rica came together to form Saving Sloths Together in 2017. By combining each organization’s skills, we’ve been able to improve the process to save orphan sloths and get them back in the trees.

These orphans are usually rescued from incidents like electrocution from power lines, car accidents, dog attacks, and human encroachment such as deforestation and illegal pet trade. With this program, we’ve been able to take action and rescue as many sloths as possible and done it successfully. Usually, releasing captive-raised sloths back into the wild is a difficult task, but with our combined efforts and expertise, we’ve been able to prove that sloths can belong #backinthetrees!

Due to Covid-19, sadly we’ve had to close the ranch for visitors, and that’s taken a huge blow on our finances to help more animals. All your donations will be put towards the sloth’s release back into the wild, their food, medical care, emergency transportation, enrichment as well as helping the rescue and release of other wildlife we have at the ranch.

The Games Schedule:

The Game Schedule (starting at 1:00 PM Costa Rica time):

• Oct 20: Sloth Athlete Reveal 
• Oct 21: 1-Meter Dash
• Oct 22: Hibiscus Eat-Off
• Oct 23: Strong Sloth Competition  
• Oct 24: Poop-Off Challenge 
• Oct 25: Championship Ceremony LIVE on Facebook & YouTube

We’re extremely excited that this is our fifth year in a row, which wouldn’t have been possible without your support. This is a great milestone for us at the Toucan Rescue Ranch, and to celebrate we’ve got some exciting surprises for our loyal fans! 

Join us on October 20 for the Sloth Athlete Reveal and get ready to be amazed! See you there!

Purchase a LIMITED edition 2020 Sloth Ironman Games Shirt!