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Sebastian
"This is baby Sebastian getting rather curious during the filming of my sloth sanctuary documentary," Cooke writes on her Slothville website. "Sebastian loved the camera and the camera loved him! You...
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Too Cute
Baby sloths are completely irresistible. Perhaps it's because their faces are shaped in a permanent smile. Or maybe it's because they love to hug -- stuffed animals, trees, other sloths, people. It...
View ArticleCameraman Attack
The sloths were more than passive participants in the film-making. This baby sloth's orange hue is the result of being bathed in a concoction made from achiote, a shrub whose seeds are used for food...
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Mira
This tiny three-fingered sloth is named Mira. She is especially small, and her caretakers suspect she may be a dwarf sloth, as she doesn't seem to grow.
View ArticleRandy
"The sloth sanctuary is happy to care for any sloth in need but they have to adhere to the one house rule. No sex between inmates," Cooke writes on her Slothville website. "This has been particularly...
View ArticleViolet
"Violet is a patient at the ‘slothpital’ -- the sanctuary’s dedicated hospital for sick sloths," Cooke writes on her Slothville website. "Here you can see her hugging her twin brother Sebastian and...
View ArticleButtercup
Buttercup was the first sloth at the sanctuary. She is treated like a daughter by sanctuary founder Judy Avey-Arroyo, who has spent 20 years rescuing and caring for orphaned and injured sloths.
View ArticlePicture Pose
A three-fingered sloth poses for the film title sequence of "Too Cute! Baby Sloths," which airs on Animal Planet, Saturday, Dec. 17 at 8 p.m. ET.
View ArticleBrazilian diamond weevil
Something like a gem-studded overcoat, the diamond weevil’s jet-black wings are covered by pits filled with sparkling, rainbow-colored scales. Researchers have poked and prodded these “diamonds” since...
View Articlediamond-weevil-scatterograms
Taste the Rainbow With a scatterogram in hand, a physicist can determine a crystal structure, as in the previous slide. Depending on the angle, a diamond weevil’s tiny scales reflect blue-green light...
View Articlediamond-weevil-rainbow-scale-structure-bodo-wilts
Scatterogram Analysis For highly regular and repeating photonic crystals, shining a very small but intense point of light can betray their superstructure. A glass pipette (black bar, left) holds a...
View ArticleDiamond weevil rainbow scale pits
Rainbow Pits Under an optical microscope, each one of dozens of pits lining a diamond weevil’s wings is crammed with a few hundred teardrop-shaped scales. The scales are made of chitin, a biological...
View ArticleDiamond weevil scale waffle structure
Photonic Waffle The details of the diamond weevil’s photonic crystal structure becomes more evident under the increasingly powerful gaze of a scanning electron microscope. In this image, we are viewing...
View ArticleDiamond weevil scale under scanning electron microscope
Ridges and Valleys A scanning electron microscope shows hints of a repeating crystal structure, primarily striations or ridges. For decades researchers who plopped a diamond weevil under their...
View ArticleDiamond weevil rainbow scale
Multicolor Teardrops Further optical magnification shows how each scale is divided into sections of iridescent colors. Wilts said that, as the angle of light changes, so do the colors bouncing of the...
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