STUDY AREA
Fieldwork was conducted from February 2010 to May 2012 in
and around a shade-grown cacao farm (1032°N, 8359°W)
located in the Caribbean coastal plain of north-east Costa Rica
(Fig. 1). The climate is wet and warm, with the rainy season typically
starting in mid- to late-April and continuing until January.
The long rainy season is often interrupted by a brief dry period
in August or September (Janzen 1983). While the timing of leaf
growth in this area is complex and variable among species, it
appears greatest during the dry season (M. Z. Peery and J. N.
Pauli, personal observation), as tends to be the case in seasonal
tropical wet forests (Windsor 1990; Schaik, Terborgh & Wright
1993). The study area is c. 4 km2 in size and occurs within an
agricultural landscape containing three general habitat types used
by sloths: the cacao plantation with overstorey trees, tropical forest
occurring in narrow (c. 20 m) riparian buffers and cattle pasture
containing living fence rows and isolated legacy trees
(Fig. 1). The cacao plantation consists of cacao trees 3–4 m in
height planted underneath a diverse, yet sparse overstorey of
native shade trees surrounded by living fence rows. The study
area is bordered immediately to the east and west by banana and
pineapple monocultures that are not used by sloths (Vaughan
et al. 2007).