Clinging to a New Home | Nat Geo Photo of the Day
TL;DR
A brown-throated sloth clings to a barbed wire fence in Costa Rica, highlighting habitat fragmentation that forces these mammals to cross roads, causing traffic jams and symbolizing their struggle to survive in altered environments.
Clinging to a New Home
A brown-throated sloth clings to a barbed wire fence post in El Tanque, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. As their habitats become increasingly fragmented, these slow and discreet mammals are forced more and more often to cross open ground and roads to survive. After this one caused a traffic jam while crossing a busy road, photographer Emmanuel Tardy followed it. "The moment is etched in my memory," he says, "watching this sloth moving slowly across land that was no longer truly its own."
Emmanuel Tardy, National Geographic Image Collection