Ecuador: Police Who Rescued Celebrity Sloth Receive Award

ECUADOR -- The sloth rocketed to fame when photos of the police operation went viral, attracting the attention of global media.

It was the rescue of the year that had the whole world gripped.

A sloth: clinging for dear life to a partition, stranded in the middle of a busy highway.

A traffic police officer: prizing the odd-looking fella off the barrier before taking it into his arms and later releasing him back into the wild. Hollywood material, really.

And now, the story has taken a heartwarming twist.

The police officer, Israel Bustamente, is going to receive official recognition for his valiant endeavour, the Ecuadorean Environment Ministry has announced.

Environment Minister Daniel Ortega said, “No one obligated our colleague who controls traffic to do what he did, it is laudable, we are going to reward him.”

Bustamente and his colleagues can now put the award on their resumés.

On Jan. 22, Bustamente, with his colleagues Hermy Aguayo, Jorge Rodriguez, Luigi Ruiz and Manuel Vera stepped in when they saw the sloth hugging a metal barrier in the middle of a highway in Los Rios.

After the operation, in which the animal was prized off the barrier, the agents confirmed that they returned him to his natural habitat.

The sloth, not used to life in the fast lane, was suddenly rocketed to fame when photos of the daring operation went viral and were reported on by the world’s media.

Back in the forest, he's a happy sloth

Ecuador’s transit police told teleSUR that this was not the first time they had rescued a sloth, and that they had saved other creatures in the past year, including a toucan.

(TeleSurTV - Feb 4, 2016)

Related:

• Comisión de Tránsito del Ecuador Facebook