Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN
This is the moment a terrified sloth moves very fast along power cables to escape noisy humans with brooms and ladders who are trying to save it from electrocuting itself.
The incident was filmed in the neighbourhood of Bucarica in the municipality of Floridablanca in the northern Colombian department of Santander and was later widely circulated on social media.
The footage shows the sloth – which usually moves very slowly – hanging from overhead power cables as a large crowd of people look on from below.
A ladder is positioned next to the sloth and a man with a broom tries to direct the animal to descend it.
However, the scared animal moves away and clings onto the cables until it is eventually pulled off by three men who manage to bring it down to thunderous applause from the crowd of onlookers.
Local firefighter Jose Herrera told local media: “Our units found that the animal had already been rescued by the time we arrived on the scene. We checked it was in good condition and then took it to the botanical garden.”
According to local media, sloths are common in the municipality of Floridablanca and groups of them live wild in the nearby Elo Valenzuela Botanical Garden.
The vet of the sub-direction and environmental control of the Regional Autonomous Corporation for the Defense of the Bucaramanga Plateau (CDMB), Viviana Diaz, said: “The sloth came out hanging from one of the overhead electricity cables and was fleeing in fear because of the number of people and the noise.”
She added: “People were afraid that if it reached the electricity transformer it could electrocute itself and die.”
A biologist for the Botanic Garden Eloy Valenzuela confirmed that the sloth has since been released back into its natural habitat.
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