Unusual Animals:
• These medium-sized tropical mammals are related to anteaters and armadillos and live in the jungles of Central and South America. Species of sloths differ by the number of claws on their front feet and are simply called the two-toed sloth and the three-toed sloth. Other than that, they look pretty much the same, although the two-toed sloth is slightly bigger, about 27 inches long, weighing about 18.75 lbs. • The sloth’s claws are 3 to 4 inches long and make walking on the ground very difficult. As a result, sloths spend most of their time in the tall trees. They eat and sleep in the trees and mate and give birth in the trees. They do occasionally drop themselves into the water for a swim. • A sloth is a herbivore (plant eater) and more specifically a folivore, a herbivore that eats primarily leaves. Their 12-inch long tongues enable them to collect leaves from distant branches. Because leaves provide very little energy or nutrients and do not digest easily, the sloth’s stomach is very slowacting with several compartments. About 65% of a sloth’s body weight is made up just of the contents of its stomach. It can take a month or more for the digestive process to be completed. • The sloth’s metabolic rate is very low as is its body temperature. It has only about a quarter as much muscle tissue as other animals its size, about 25% of total body weight.
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How much do you know about the sloth? You’ll be wiser about these mammals after examining the facts.
• The sloth’s scientific name is Bradypus, which translates from the Greek for “slow feet.” It’s an apt name, since the sloth is the world’s slowest animal. They have very little energy and move only when necessary and even then, only at a maximum speed of about 6.5 feet per minute. It moves so slowly that algae grows on its fur. This does work to an advantage, however, since the algae’s green color camouflages the animal in the trees, protecting it from predators. Moths, beetles, cockroaches, and fungi also make their home in the sloth’s fur. • A sloth is much more comfortable in the water and can move three times faster in water than on land, while easily performing the breaststroke. • Sloths are not particularly friendly animals and prefer to live alone. Their idea of a social activity is sleeping in a tree with another sloth. • Three-toed sloths have extra neck vertebrae that enable them to turn their neck 270 degrees. • The pygmy three-toed sloth can only be found on the Isla Escude de Veraguas off the coast of Panama. Only 79 of this endangered species remain. • Sloths were brought to the public’s eye when animated versions became movie stars. In 2002, Ice Age was released by 20th Century Fox, a film which featured Sid, a prehistoric sloth who teams up with Manny the Mammoth to survive the Paleolithic ice age. The fifth Ice Age film is set to be released in 2016. Another computer-animated movie The Croods features a prehistoric family in the Pliocene Era who have a pet sloth named Belt.
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