Sloth on a wire

We wonder how long it took the sloth to reach this precarious vantage point…

After a few tugs, the firefighter manages to separate the reluctant sloth from the pole.

As the crane begins to lower them back to ground, the firefighter holds the sloth at arms’ length as the sloth grasps onto the air looking for something to hold onto. The National Police of Panama did not state where the sloth was taken afterwards.

Sloths spend up to 15 to 20 hours per day on trees and it can spend 90 per cent of its life hanging upside down. They are considered to be the world’s slowest mammal, and move at an extremely slow speed of 0.15 mph. It would take them about a minute to climb only 6 to 8 feet however, they can move much faster in water.

This is the moment firefighters rescued a sloth that was clinging to a telegraph pole in Panama. The rescue took place in the township of Alcalde Diaz in the Republic of Panama on Wednesday, January 13.

In the video shared by the National Police of Panama, the sloth is seen hanging onto the utility pole as the firefighter tries to pull it away.

Sloths of several varieties can be found in Panama, including the brown-throated three- fingered sloths found on the mainland.