The sloth raised a hand before curling it.
Ziplining is a great adventure sport, enjoyed by people all across the world. But a boy’s ziplining fun was obstructed by a sloth on the wire.
The undated video going viral on social media shows the boy zooming through the zipline with a guide smoothly in a forest in Costa Rica. But his gliding adventure came to an abrupt end when he slammed into the sloth head first.
Things that happen when you take a Canopy Tour in Costa Rica 🦥🇨🇷 pic.twitter.com/AEJU0QCtyv
— Gmo_cr (@Gmo_CR) March 14, 2022
“I just clocked it straight in the face,” the boy is heard saying in the video. The guide replies, “Don’t worry, don’t worry. It’s a sloth.”
The world’s slowest-moving animal was lazily hanging on the wire and raised a hand before curling it. According to Sloth Conservation Foundation, sloths raise their hands in a curl in a waving gesture to exhibit stress.
The boy and his guide were amused to find the creature there but watched it move ahead at a slow pace. The 44-second video ends, but doesn’t show how the sloth moved away from the zipline.
The entire incident happened inside the Go Adventure Arenal Park. Its owner Flavio Leiton Ramos told The Daily Mail that it’s unclear how the sloth climbed over to the wire and directly into the path of the oncoming adventurers but it happened quickly.
“Seven people went on that cable and there was no sloth on it, and within 30 seconds a sloth got on the cable,” he said.
Ramos added that it took slow-moving sloth 15 minutes to vacate the wire and allow the zipliners to finish their course.
Social media, meanwhile, poked fun at the situation. “He’ll be in his mid 20s by the time they get down,” a user with handle bothpartieslovePACs posted on Reddit.
Sloths are tree-dwelling animals and are found in the rainforests of Central and South America. They also sleep for 15 to 20 hours a day.