Your morning adorable: Orphaned baby sloths get an assist from Costa Rica sanctuary

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Talk about specialized -- the Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica rescues and rehabilitates sloths, sloths and only sloths. Back in 1992 neighbors of the sanctuary’s bird-enthusiast founders brought an orphaned baby three-toed sloth to their doorstep. With little information available about caring for sloths, the fine folks of Aviarios made things up as they went along, successfully hand-raising the baby they named Buttercup.

After that, the sloths just kept on coming. So far, Aviarios has hand-raised more than 100 baby sloths and helped many more adult sloths recover from illness and injury at its wonderfully named Slothpital facility. (Since sloths are slow-moving -- so slow-moving that algae even grows on their fur -- it’s not uncommon for them to be injured by cars.) Sloth orphans like the astoundingly cute creatures above get great care at the Slothpital and, thanks to Aviarios, they have great lives to look forward to.

Aviarios offers tours to the public -- and sloth fans can even ‘adopt’ an animal, with their financial contributions funding further care and conservation efforts for Costa Rica’s sloths.

-- Lindsay Barnett

Video: BernieKnightRider via YouTube