Why are sloths so slow? That’s the big question one of our students travelled to Costa Rica to investigate as part of her research placement year. As part of their learning experience at The University of Manchester, undergraduate students get some outstanding opportunities for volunteering, industrial placement, and study time abroad. Over the past year Rebecca Cliffe has been working and conducting valuable research at Aviarios, a sloth sanctuary on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. This fantastic international research opportunity has provided a really superb learning experience, enabling her to personally investigate the remarkable evolution, ecology, and bizarre biology of the world’s slowest mammal. These animals really are incredible, and Rebecca’s study has uncovered some fascinating new insights into these little-known tropical mammals.
On the 13th October, Rebecca will be presenting a special talk all about sloths and sharing the exciting research work she has been conducting whilst in Costa Rica. Everyone is welcome to attend the talk, which will be held in the Kanaris Theatre at The Manchester Museum between 2.30 – 3.30pm. So, if you are a Manchester University staff member or student, you might want to let your friends and colleagues know about this event, and if you are not associated with the University you are also extremely welcome to attend. The talk will start at 2.30 prompt and is there is no charge whatsoever.
Why not come along and find out more about these amazing creatures, and get a unique insight into some of the latest research, and problems faced when studying an animal which hides so many secrets…
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Agh. Sorry I missed this. Will be sure to keep an eye out for future talks!
Wow thanks for a great talk Becky – superb mix of fascinating history, biology and hot new data very professionally delivered. I do hope some students might consider volunteering at the sanctuary (please give my love to my adopted sloth Cheyenne if so!) Oh and if they have philanpthropic relatives here’s the website address so they can adopt a sloth too!!http://www.slothrescue.org/
This talk was so good! Sloths are so interesting and amazing, who’d have thought it?! I love Sloths! Thanks Becky for providing me with various Slothy facts to impress my house mates with endlessly! Would love to go to the Sloth sanctuary and see them for myself x
I enjoyed this very much and certainly learned a lot I didn’t know about sloths! My PASS group attended this talk as well and I’ve heard only positive commentary about it. Well done and congratulations on your whole project Becky!
Plus, for a zoology student, attending talks like these are a great way to spend the gaps between lectures
Keep up the good work
Really enjoyed this
hurrah for sloths. great talk.
This talk was fantastic, and really useful in helping me to find out about the sorts of things you do on a placement year. Thanks very much, would be great if there’s more similar talks to come!
I’d just like to say that I found this talk an absolute pleasure to attend. Becky was truly inspiring and her enthusiasm for sloths and her research was infectious! I’m a member of Xaali’s PASS group and would love to get the opportunity to see similar talks in the future. Thanks for taking us along, Xaali (and Alicia). And of course, huge thanks to Becky!
I loved the talk! It was great and as I am hoping to do an Industrial Placement year it gave me a lot of insight as to what sort of work is done. The sloth pictures were so cute too
Good job and I wish you all the best for your future work Rebecca 
A very informative and engaging talk, a pleasure to listen to and it has provided me with a slightly more optimistic perspective to the potential possibilities of placements. Thanks to Becky, and hopefully more talks to come!
A really interetsing and informative talk into an insight of what ive found out to be a remarkable and fascinating species and would really as a zoology student really liek to see more similar talks on in the future
I’m really glad you all enjoyed the talk, if anyone has any questions about sloths or any of the work at the sanctuary feel free to drop me an email at rebecca.cliffe@student.manchester.ac.uk. I did attempt to write a blog while I was out there, so if you ae interested in how the year went then you can check it out at http://www.beckycliffe.blogspot.com
Thanks for coming to listen and keep up the sloth love!