On a Costa Rican beach where the jungle meets the sea, the recorded cries of a lost baby sloth recently blasted from a loudspeaker.

Volunteers from the nonprofit Jaguar Rescue Center had hiked Playa Cocles for hours, broadcasting the sounds in hopes of enticing the infant’s mother to reclaim her little one.

Tourists had found the baby lying on the beach the day before, covered in sand and ants, and brought it to the center. A vet check revealed the brown-throated three-toed sloth, the weight of a can of soup, was in a few weeks old and in good condition. But the youngster would not have survived the night alone on the beach. (See unbelievably cute pictures