Costa Rica Fayla Tours Aligns Wildlife Tours With New Sloth Research Press Services

Where to See Sloths in Costa Rica: Guanacaste's Best Guided Tours

Provincia de Guanacaste, Costa Rica - August 26, 2026 / Liberia Airport Transfers & Tours Guanacaste Fayla /

GUANACASTE, COSTA RICA, Aug. 26, 2026 - Costa Rica Fayla Tours, a private Guanacaste airport shuttle service and tour operator based at Guanacaste Airport (LIR) in Liberia, confirmed this week that its wildlife excursions will continue running in small, private groups following the publication of new peer-reviewed research on noise-related stress in two-toed sloths and renewed international advocacy for stronger sloth protections.

Behaviors in Wild Sloths

Peer-Reviewed Study Links Noise to Sloth Stress

A study published in the journal Animal Welfare by Cambridge University Press examined two-toed sloths housed in a walk-through enclosure and found that noise exposure increased restlessness and led to longer periods of hiding, behavior the researchers linked to a stress response. Sound levels during the observation periods reached above 120 decibels at points, a range the study's authors associated with measurable changes in the sloths' movement and foraging patterns.

The enclosure setup mirrored conditions common in high-traffic tourist areas, where visitor noise and reverberation build up quickly around an animal with few visible ways to signal distress. Sloths tend to freeze rather than flee when startled, which researchers note makes it difficult to recognize when an animal is under stress.

International Advocacy Adds a Second Data Point

The Cambridge finding follows separate advocacy from World Animal Protection, which pressed for stronger legal protections for sloths at the CITES Conference of the Parties in late 2025. The organization pointed to evidence that crowding and noise around sloths correlate with signs of distress, including increased restlessness in male sloths and longer hiding periods among females, a pattern consistent with the Cambridge-published research.

Small-Group Tours Already Reflect the Findings

Guanacaste's dry forest reserves, including the area around the Miravalles volcano foothills, are among the most consistent sloth-viewing locations in the province, and tour operators there have long managed group size as a practical matter of visibility as well as animal welfare. Costa Rica Fayla Tours has run its sloth-focused excursions with a cap on group size rather than a large-coach format since long before the current research was published, according to the company.

"Every group stays small enough that a guide can slow down the moment a sloth is spotted, instead of pushing forward to keep a crowd moving," said Christian Roberto, Media Contact at Costa Rica Fayla Tours. "Keeping tours quiet was already part of how the team worked, and the new research gives a clear reason why that matters."

Guides say the smaller format also affects how long a group can stay with a single sighting, since a large tour has to move on quickly while a smaller one can wait at a distance while a sloth keeps feeding undisturbed.

Airport Transfers Extend the Same Approach

The company also provides Guanacaste airport transportation for travelers connecting to hotels near the region's wildlife reserves, including properties along the route covered by Guanacaste airport transfers to Westin Playa Conchal. Because transfers and tours run through the same private, small-group model, visitors booking airport transfers from Guanacaste in Costa Rica can add a same-week wildlife excursion without switching to a shared shuttle or rental vehicle between the airport and a hotel.

Guests arriving on international flights typically book the transfer first, then confirm a tour once hotel check-in times are set. That sequence has put the Costa Rican Guanacaste airport shuttle services and the wildlife tours into the same booking conversation for many repeat visitors. Feedback collected through the airport shuttle bookings has also pointed to smaller groups as a recurring reason travelers choose private tours over larger shared excursions, particularly for wildlife-focused trips where a quiet approach affects whether a sloth is seen at all.

Return trips booked through the same Costa Rican airport shuttle in Guanacaste follow the identical private, small-group format used for the outbound transfer.

Costa Rica covers roughly 51,100 square kilometers but holds close to 5 percent of the world's biodiversity, a density that has made small-group wildlife viewing a growing part of the region's tourism identity rather than a niche offering.

Airport transfers from Guanacaste now regularly connect directly into same-day or same-week wildlife bookings for that reason, according to the company. The same Guanacaste airport transportation in Costa Rica used for sloth tours also covers broader hotel transfers across the region, and Guanacaste airport transfers to Westin Playa Conchal remain among the routes most often paired with a sloth-focused excursion.

Three Toed Sloths

About Costa Rica Fayla Tours

Costa Rica Fayla Tours is a private transportation and tour operator based in Sardinal de Carrillo, Guanacaste, near Guanacaste Airport (LIR). The company provides private airport transfers to hotels across the region, including Westin Playa Conchal, JW Marriott Costa Elena, and Reserva Conchal properties, along with small-group wildlife, adventure, and water tours guided by bilingual chauffeurs rather than shared shuttle operators. Costa Rican Guanacaste airport shuttle services let passengers add any of these tours to an existing transfer booking without a separate reservation system. The company holds a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for its transfer and tour service and pays local drivers and guides directly rather than through third-party dispatch.