Photo by Juan Arredondo juanarre | A young man offers a baby three-toed sloth for sale to passersby on a highway in Altos de Polonia, in northwestern Colombia. The town is one of several hotspots in the region for the illegal sloth trade. Baby sloths are poached and trafficked for $100 to $200, a trade that peaks during the year-end holiday season. Before the pandemic, writer natashaldaly and I set out in northern Colombia to track down a sloth cartel, as part of National Geographic's continuing coverage of wildlife trade and tourism. We'd learned about Isaac Bedoya, who police believe trafficked 10,000 baby sloths before he was arrested. We met poachers and followed them as they searched for sloths in territory largely controlled by armed groups, in order to document how this trade operates. Follow the link in the bio for our full story on sloth trafficking in Colombia. Follow juanarre and natashaldaly for related stories. #sloths #colombia #southamerica