Fun Facts!

A three-toed sloth will descend from the tree bottom-first. A two-toed sloth comes down the trunk head first!

Sloths have an extremely slow metabolism. They sleep half the day, up to 18 hours.

If a sloth has to escape a predator, their top speed is perhaps nine miles per hour using massive amounts of their food reserves to achieve this speed.

Two-toed Sloth

Two Species: (Choloepus didactylus) and Hoffman’s (Choloepus hoffmanni).

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Sloths have short, flat heads and big dark eyes. They have a short snout, long legs and tiny ears. They also have stubby tails, usually 6-7cm long. The two-toed sloth differs from the three-toed sloth by having two long claws on the forelimbs and three claws on the hind limbs. These claws allow them to climb trees and walk on the underside of branches. Their short hair is a tan to grey color but often appears greenish because algae covers the hide, making a perfect camouflage in the forest. They weigh between 9-18 pounds and average a little over two feet in length.

HABITAT

They are arboreal - live in trees - and are found in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. They almost always hang upside down in the trees.

DIET IN THE WILD

They eat fruits, nuts, berries and bark. Occasionally, sloths will eat small rodents, which makes them omnivores.

BEHAVIOR

Sloths are nocturnal and generally solitary. Sometimes they roam in groups of one male with several females. Although generally still for most of the day,they have the ability to rotate their heads almost 360 degrees to observe and eat food.

CONSERVATION EFFORTS

Although they are not considered endangered (only one species of three-toed sloth is on the endangered list), these creatures are being watched due to continued destruction of their habitat, which forces them into ever smaller environmental habitats.

LIFE SPAN

They can live between 15-20 years in the wild and perhaps 30 years in captivity.