Monique?
I’d come to see Monique Pool
who runs a sanctuary for animals
that have lost the forest to chainsaws
and excavators.
Simon Reeve, nice to see you. Hi.
Nice to meet you Simon.
Look at the scale
of what you’ve got here.
This whole center is
something you’ve had to fund and build
and in recent years.
Yes, but I have a lot of help.
This is the animal kitchen.
Monique is pointing out,
in this converted shipping container.
Shall I take one or leave it.
Yeah, you can take one. Yeah.
From small, almost accidental beginnings.
Monique has become one of the leading
conservationists in the country,
raising thousands of pounds
in donations to protect wildlife,
particularly for one iconic animal.
The sloth.
Who’s in here?
This Renatus.
It’s an orphan.
Renatus,
look at you there.
And this is Steve.
Steve is a bit bigger, but also orphan.
Over the last decade,
Monique has rescued,
rehabilitated and released
more than 1000 slots.
And this little ball,
is it safe to look up
or am I going to get weed on.
No.
They don’t like to sit in the tree
from above and poo.
They don’t poop from on high.
That I’ve never seen it.
They come along once every week
to poop and pee.
They loose like a third of their weight
when they do that.
That’s a massive poop.
Yes.
That would be like me doing 30 kilograms.
Yes.
What a horrific thought.
Seems to have tickled Monique.
The reputation is they’re a bit dim.
They’re not dim.
They not dim, but they’re just slow.
And that’s because they’re so smart
that they conserve their energy
because the food they eat is
low in nutrition.
And they are,
you know, like one of the oldest
mammals on Earth.
And they’re very South American.
I’m very proud of them.
So what is your plan
for Stephie and the other orphans?
Yeah, the plan for these animals,
Are they going to be released
because they don’t belong in
in these enclosures?
Our goal is really to let them go.
Living in a country with the world’s
highest forest cover,
doesn’t mean that slots are safe here.
So when he’s had a phone call
as lost as being rescued,
it’s in bad shape
and she’s heading back into town
to have a look at it.
Slots live in the coastal
part of the Guayana Shield,
Perhaps,
inevitably,
that’s obviously
where the vast majority
of the human population live.
You see that forest track there?
Yeah, that would be perfect sloth habitat.
If you look at the vines and everything,
they love to hide under it.
This is good for them.
But now we’re out into shrubby farmland.
Yeah,
there will be
maybe small pockets
where they can survive
until the last tree gets cut
and they don’t have anything left.
Suriname’s
economy relies heavily
on mining and logging.
Most of its exported timber
ends up in India and China.
So these are exactly the machines
that do this type of deforestation.
They push the trees.
Oh, I see.
So they
they use the bucket on the front
just to knock trees down.
This machine is so powerful
it will clear 6 to 7 hectares of forest
in one day.
One day?
Yeah.
And with all the animals that are in it,
then the slots are the slowest,
so they stay behind.
Sloths are also endangered
for another reason.
They’re worth a fortune
when sold as exotic pets.
