Rebecca Cliffe (born May 15, 1990) is a British zoologist, award winning conservationist,^[1] and one of the leading experts on sloth biology and ecology.^[2][3] She is the Founder and Executive Director of The Sloth Conservation Foundation and author of the book Sloths: Life in the Slow Lane.^[4][5]

Cliffe was born in 1990 in Preston, England. Cliffe received her bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Manchester. She later went on to obtain a PhD in Bioscience (specializing in sloths) from Swansea University.^[6] As part of her PhD research, she conducted the longest recorded study on wild sloth ecology (The Sloth Backpack Project^[7]).^[8][9]

She has published various studies on the ecology, biology, and physiology of sloths which have provided new insights about these poorly understood species.^{[10][11][12][13]} Due to her in-depth research and first-hand observations in the field she is considered to be an expert on sloths and their behavior.^{[14][15][16][17]}

She was featured in the Discovery Channel series “Meet the Sloths.”^[18][19] She also was a part of the documentary "72 Dangerous Animals: Latin America” and featured in Animal Planet’s “Too Cute! Baby Sloths.”^[20][21]

In 2017, Cliffe founded The Sloth Conservation Foundation a registered non-profit organisation that is dedicated to saving sloths in the wild and has served as Executive Director since its inception.^[22] She continues to publish research on the biology, ecology and physiology of sloths.^{[23][24][25][26][27]} In 2022 she was selected as one of the winners of the prestigious Future For Nature award,^[1] and she used the prize money to train the first scat detection dog for sloth population monitoring^[28].^[29]

In 2023, Cliffe's work with The Sloth Conservation Foundation was featured on NBC's Today show ^[30] and 60 Minutes.^[31] Her story has also been turned into a childrens storybook "The Adventures of Dr. Sloth" by award-winning wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas. ^[32]

In 2023, Cliffe married wildlife cameraman Alex (Lex) Jones whom she met while filming sloths for Disney's "A Real Bug's Life" series.^[33]