Rebecca was born in 1990 in Preston, England. She received her bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Manchester, and it was during this time that she was first introduced to the world of sloths and conservation. In 2009, she embarked on a 12 month research placement in Costa Rica where she quickly discovered there was a significant lack of knowledge about sloths and the conservation challenges they faced. Despite being the most frequent species admitted to wildlife rescue centers in South and Central America, there was little accurate scientific research, and few people really knew what a sloth was. Rebecca then decided to dedicate her life to better understanding and helping these animals.
She initially struggled to get funding for her work, but as the crowdfunding era took off, she was able to raise $150,000 through an online campaign which enabled her to conduct the longest recorded study into wild sloth ecology (which is still going on today!), and she developed the first protocol for successfully rehabilitating orphaned sloths back into the wild. The media attention from her fundraising campaign quickly turned sloths into pop-culture sensations. This has been a mixed blessing for them: it is good for generating interest in research and conservation but has also triggered a surge in sloth exploitation.
Rebecca then spent the next 6 years living alone in the jungles of Costa Rica, tracking wild sloths and collecting data which would eventually allow her to graduate with a PhD in Bioscience from Swansea University in 2017. She has published numerous papers on sloth ecology, biology, genetics, and physiology, and her research has shown the unique ways sloths are affected by temperature and climate change, as well as how location and urbanization affect genetic diversity.
In 2017 Rebecca founded The Sloth Conservation Foundation (SloCo): a registered charity that is dedicated to saving sloths in the wild through research and conservation initiatives. Today she is based full-time in Costa Rica where she manages all of the foundation’s in-field sloth conservation and research programs. While she continues to publish research, Rebecca also works closely with local communities, landowners, and businesses to create an alliance of people dedicated to wildlife conservation. Through SloCo, they have now reforested over 60 square kilometers, installed 300 wildlife bridges, educated 7000 school children (and more!). In 2020, Rebecca helped the government of Costa Rica to list the sloth as an official national symbol of the country which ensures authorities have the resources to implement measures for sloth protection. SloCo now employs 10 full-time staff members in one of the poorest provinces of Costa Rica and has established itself as the world’s leading authority in sloth conservation and research.
In recognition of her work, she was selected as one of the winners of the prestigious Future For Nature award in 2022, and she used the 50,000 euro prize money to train the first scat detection dog for sloth population monitoring. She is now spearheading on the world's first comprehensive sloth population census.
Rebecca has authored a best-selling book (Life in the Slow Lane), appeared on NBC's Today show and 60 Minutes, and her story has most recently been turned into a children's storybook "The Adventures of Dr. Sloth".