Sloths

What are sloths?

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• Sloths are mammals from Central and South America.
• They are slow moving tropical animals that hang upside down from the branches of trees using its long limbs and hooked claws.
• They are herbivores and their favourite food is the hibiscus flower.
• There are two types of sloths; two-toed and three-toed sloths.

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• Sloths are mammals from Central and South America.
• They are slow moving tropical animals that hang upside down from the branches of trees using its long limbs and hooked claws.
• They are herbivores.
• There are two types of sloths; two-toed and three-toed sloths.

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• Sloths are one of the slowest animals in the world.
• They usually sleep 15-20 hours a day.
• Their laziness is due to metabolic adaptations for conserving energy.
• Although they are really slow, sloths are very quick when they're being chased.
• Sloths are also amazing swimmers. They swim 3 times faster than they can walk.
• They can hold their breath for 40 minutes underwater.

Families

Sloths are very solitary creatures. They only gather to make a family.

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• Female sloths let males know they're ready to have a family by letting out a scream.
• Males will fight for her by hanging on branches by their feet and pawing at eachother.
• Sloths only have one baby at a time. Two-toed sloths stay pregnant for 11.5 months whereas three-toed sloths stay pregnant for 5-6 months.

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• Sloths usually give birth hanging upside-down from their tree.
• After birth, the baby sloth will cling to its mother's stomach for many weeks.
• They will stay by their mother's side for 4 years after this.

What do they eat?

Sloths are herbivores.

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• They love to eat flowers, plants and vegetables.
• Their favourite food is the hibiscus flower.
• Another reason for why sloths are very slow is because they don't get much energy from eating leaves and plants.

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• They have a four-part stomach which digests leaves slowly with bacteria.
• It can take up to one month for food to digest in their stomach.
• Tough leaves are very hard to digest.
• It can take up to one month for food to digest in their stomach.

Survival

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• Sloth's bodies are 25% muscle which means they cannot shiver to warm themselves up when they're in cold weather.
• If a female is too cold, she can't digest food.
• If their young is still nursing from the mother, she may starve to death.

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• Although sloths use their claws for grabbing onto things, they are mainly for self-defence.
• Sloths can turn their heads 270 degrees, making it easy to see predators.
• Sloths are very clumsy creatures. Sometimes they will grab their arm instead of a branch and fall to their death.

Facts

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• Sloths are about the size of a medium dog.
• Thousands of years ago, sloths could grow to the size of an elephant.
• Wild sloths sleep as much as humans.
• They only leave their tree to take a swim.

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• Sloths are good habitats for other organisms.
• Moths, beetles, cockroaches, fungi and algae can live in a sloth's fur.
• Algae makes them camouflage into their surroundings.
• Wild sloths are nocturnal.

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• They live for about 40 years.
• The fastest they usually move is 3 feet/min.
• Sloths can keep their grip on a tree after they've died.

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