All in a Volunteer's Day

Some details on the Sloth Sanctuary and volunteer duties.

• There are currently 145 juvenile and adult sloths that the volunteers attend to (although we get time with the babies and infants, they are primarily cared for by staff). 
• There are 6 Sections of cages, with an average of 24 sloths per Section. 
• Each cage has from 1 to 4 sloths in it. 
• There are currently 12 volunteers; over our two week stay, the number of volunteers will range from 3 to 15. 
• Each section is assigned 1-3 volunteers, and you "get to know your sloths".

The volunteer experience is very routine and fairly relaxed -- there is lots of time to get everything accomplished. There are 4 specified times that things have to be done.

• 6-7 am - Breakfast: Go in each cage (say hello) and sweep up (hair, dander, debris, left over food) the elevated platform, and wipe it down with a vinegar and water solution. Collect the plate from last night's dinner, and mark down on the sloth's personal data sheet if they ate all their dinner (and what they didn't eat). Also mark down if they urinated or defecated; if they  defecated, let the staff know if it's not normal (i.e., not in pellet form). Sort the berrohs (greens) and beans that were prepped the previous day into 145 approximately equal piles (no one wants to be accidentally shorted and we don't want waste to spoil). Distribute the breakfast to the sloths. Most sloths like you to feed them their first couple pieces of food. Yes, they're spoiled. All the plates from the previous day need to be washed.  
• 9-10 am - Baby time: Each volunteer gets about 30 minutes with a baby or juvenile. During this time, you play on the jungle gym and go for an exploratory sensory walk.
• 11-12 am - Dinner and Breakfast Prep: The vegetables for dinner (carrots, camote, chayote and beans) have to be cleaned and peeled. The berrohs (greens) and beans for tomorrow's breakfast have to be sorted (to remove bad ones) and checked (for bugs). 
• 2-3 pm - Dinner: Each cage is checked to see if the morning berrohs (greens) and beans were eaten, and the sloth sheets are marked accordingly. The staff at the sanctuary will have cooked the veggies we just cleaned, and the volunteers portion the four vegetables onto 145 plates. Again, we don't want to accidentally short any sloth and we don't want to have waste. Then, the dinner is served, usually a combination of by-hand and by-plate :)

As Aimee has noted, the rest of the day is spent as you like. Eating, relaxing, and spending more time socializing with the sloths usually occupies most of it.