Sloth

SPECIES

All six species of sloth live in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. Of the six species there are two types: two-toed and three-toed sloths.

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Three-toed sloths are called Bradypus (slowfooted), two-toed are Choloepus (lame-footed).

There are four species of three-toed sloth: maned, pale-throated, brown-throated and pygmy.

There are two existing species of two-toed sloth: Linnaeus's two-toed sloth found in northern South America and Hoffmann's two-toed sloth which inhabits tropical forests in eastern Honduras as well as northern South America.

The two-toed sloth is a member of the Megalonychidae, which also contains the extinct genus Megalonyx jeffersonii. The species of giant sloth, which was endemic to North America until around 11,000 years ago measured about 3 m (9.8 ft) and weighed up to 1,000 kilograms.

The giant sloth Megalonyx jeffersonii is named after Thomas Jefferson, who delivered a paper on his study of its fossil bones in 1797.

Giant 17 feet sloths (Megatheriidae) once roamed the earth alongside humans. At more than five tons in weight, 6 meters in length, and able to reach as high as 17 feet (5.2 m), it was taller than an African bush elephant bull. They became extinct about 11,000 years ago.

M. americanum giant sloth. By Nobu Tamura

BEHAVIOR 

The sloth is so named because of its very low metabolism and deliberate movements, sloth being related to the word slow.

When moving at top speed sloths manage about 13ft (4 meters) per minute. It takes a sloth a whole month to travel one mile on the ground.

They swim much faster. When there is a forest flood, sloths are surprisingly good swimmers.

A sloth can hold its breath for up to 40 minutes. four times longer than a dolphin.

Their diet is vegetarian. Sloths mostly survive on the leaves of the trees that they hang out in. Some types of sloth have also been known to eat small insects, reptiles and birds when eating as leaves doesn’t give them enough energy.

Sloths have a very slow digestive system and need only the toilet about once a week. The three-toed sloth climbs down its tree in order to do this; the two-toed sloth doesn't bother climbing down.

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Half of all sloth deaths occur on their once a week trip to the ground to dig a hole and defecate.

Sloths can lose up to one-third of their body weight from one defecation.

Sloths in the wild sleep for about nine hours a day but they much of the rest of the time they are still resting.

They sleep curled up with their head placed between the arms and the feet drawn close together, or hanging upside down with the help of their hook-like claws.

Sloths enjoy sunbathing and bask near the tops of trees to get warm.

When threatened by a predator, a sloth is liable to slash out with its claws. In this way, a sloth has been known to disembowel a jaguar.

ANATOMY 

Sloths have small rounded heads, rudimentary tails, and prolonged forelimbs. Each foot has long curved claws adapted to clinging upside down from trees.

Their internal organs like the heart, spleen and liver are arranged to accommodate living upside down.

Sloths have four-inch long protruding finger bones, which help them grasp onto trees, even in their sleep.
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The grip of a sloth is so strong when they die they sometimes remain hanging on trees.

The three-toed sloth is able to rotate its head 270 degrees in either direction thanks to the fact that it has extra vertebrae in its spine.

The fur is greyish brown,  but, at times they look grey-green in color because they move so slowly that tiny camouflaging algae grow all over their coats.

Three-toed-sloth. By Stefan Laube (Tauchgurke) 

Sloths grow algae on their fur which acts as a tiny ecosystem for other insects and moths. Researchers have found up to 150 living things on a single sloth. There is a species of moth that has only ever been found living on a sloth.

Two-toed sloths are larger than three-toed sloths but are generally more active.

Both two-toed and three-toed sloths have three toes on their hind legs. It's the number of toes on their front limbs that differ.

Sloths have a very slow digestive system and they take between two weeks and a month to digest a single meal.

Sloths, although slow in almost all aspects of life, mate in just 5 seconds.

FUN SLOTH FACTS

A newborn three-toed sloth is about equally likely to be male as female but the birth ratio of two-toed sloths is about 11 females to one male.

The world's only sloth sanctuary is in Costa Rica, where about 500 sloths have been rescued.

When London Zoo sloth Marilyn had a baby in 2015, his sharp claws led to him being called Edward, after movie character Edward Scissorhands.

Source Daily Express