this weekAnimals with Jobs  February 4, 2005  The Hidden Lives
of Sloths  Symbiosis in slow motion  The author with Buttercup,
a three-toed sloth  There are times—quite a few of them, for
better or worse—when I’m confronted with evidence that something
I’ve believed (or assumed) to be the case for years is simply
wrong. These occasions can be a source of embarrassment, such as
the time a few years ago when a friend pointed out to me that I
always misspelled the word “embarrassed.” Being someone who
takes the use of language seriously, this came as quite a blow
to me. Most of the time, however, I greet epiphanies of mistaken
assumptions with equanimity, if not pleasure. I love to learn,
and most learning requires a certain amount of unlearning.  I
had several such experiences in rapid succession while visiting
a wildlife sanctuary in Costa Rica. Aviarios del Caribe, located
near Cahuita on the Caribbean coast, is a sloth rehabilitation
center. Sloths that are injured or orphaned are brought here and
cared for,