Sloth ReportBy Andrew Shapiro

Photo taken by National Geographic

2 Sloth Report

The Two-Toed Sloth:The sloth is the world’s slowest mammal, so sedentary that algae grows on its furry coat. The plant gives it a greenish tint that is use-ful camouflage in the trees of its Central and South American rain forest home.

Sloths are identified by the number of long, prominent claws that they have on each front foot. There are both two-toed and three-toed sloths.

All sloths are built for life in the treetops. They spend nearly all of their time aloft, hanging from branches with a powerful grip aided by their long claws. (Dead sloths have been known to retain their grip and remain suspended in the air.) Sloths even sleep in trees, and they sleep a lot—some 15 to 20 hours every day. Even when awake they often remain motionless, and two-toed sloths are generally silent. At night they eat leaves, shoots, and fruit from the trees and get almost all of their water from juicy plants.

Sloths mate and give birth while hanging in the trees. Young two-toed sloths are often seen cling-ing to their mothers; they travel by hanging onto them for the first five weeks of their lives.

On land, sloths’ weak hind legs provide no power and their long claws are a hindrance. They must dig into the earth with their front

claws and use their strong front legs to pull themselves along, dragging their bellies across the ground. If caught on land, these animals have no chance to evade predators, such as big cats, and must try to defend themselves by clawing and biting.

Though they couldn’t be clumsier on land, sloths are surprisingly good swimmers. They sometimes fall directly from rain forest trees into rivers and stroke efficiently with their long arms.

Two-toed sloths are slightly larger than their three-toed rela-tives. They are able to survive in captivity, while three-toed sloths are not.

(National Geographic, 2016)

Sloth

Photo by Mother Nature Network

Photo by Readers Digest

Sloth Report 3

Sloth

Photo by National Geographic

Photo by AdlerScience

The Two-Toed Sloth:The sloth is the world’s slowest mammal, so sedentary that algae grows on its furry coat. The plant gives it a green-ish tint that is useful camouflage in the trees of its Central and South American rain forest home.

Sloths are identified by the number of long, prominent claws that they have on each front foot. There are both two-toed and three-toed sloths.

All sloths are built for life in the treetops. They spend nearly all of their time aloft, hanging from branches with a powerful grip aided by their long claws. (Dead sloths have been known to retain their grip and remain suspended in the air.) Sloths even sleep in trees, and they sleep a lot—some 15 to 20 hours every day. Even when awake they often remain motionless, and two-toed sloths are generally silent. At night they eat leaves, shoots, and fruit from the trees and get almost all of their water from juicy plants.

Sloths mate and give birth while hanging in the trees. Young two-toed sloths are often seen clinging to their moth-ers; they travel by hanging onto them for the first five weeks of their lives.

On land, sloths’ weak hind legs provide no power and their long claws are a hindrance. They must dig into the earth with their front claws and use their strong front legs to pull themselves along, dragging their bellies across the ground. If caught on land, these animals have no chance to evade predators, such as big cats, and must try to defend themselves by clawing and biting.

Though they couldn’t be clumsier on land, sloths are surprisingly good swimmers. They sometimes fall directly from rain forest trees into rivers and stroke efficiently with their long arms.

Two-toed sloths are slightly larger than their three-toed relatives. They are able to survive in captivity, while three-toed sloths are not.

(National Geographic, 2016)

4 Sloth Report

Sloths are tree dwelling mammals that pass their time sleeping and eating. The sloth happily eats both plants and insects, and oc-casionally small reptiles and birds.The sloth is indigenous to the jungles of central and south America, with the general opinion being that the sloth cannot survive out-side of this specific habitat.

The average sloth tends to be around 50 - 60cm long with a short tail of around 7cm in length. The body temperature of the sloth is usually around 30 to 34 degrees celsius (86 to 93 de-grees fahrenheit). There are two main species of sloth, the two-toed sloth and the three-toed sloth.

It is thought that until recent times, larger ground sloths inhabited the jungle floor of both North and South America. As with many animal species around the world, the ground sloth is thought to have become ex-tinct around the same time that human settlers went to these parts of the world.

Although sloths have an omnivorous diet and eat both plants and animals, the majority of the sloth’s diet is made of leaves. Leaves con-

tain very little energy and nutrition so the sloth has adapted to have a large and complex digestive system in order for the leaves to pass through the sloth effectively.

Sloths have long, sharp claws which they use to get good grip when they are climb-ing trees or hanging from

branches. The sloth is a slow moving animal, and their long claws are the only form of defence that the sloth has. Sloths attack predators or threats by swiping at them with their claws out. Sloths are prey upon by jaguars, large birds of prey, snakes and humans.

Sloths are thought to be dis-tantly related to animals like anteaters and armadillos. All three belong to a groups of mammals that are thought to have first evolved around 60 million years ago.

Sloths are solitary animals and only come together to mate. Sloths are known to have a load call, which is thought to increase in fre-quency during the mating season. After a gestation period of between 4 and 5 months, the female sloth gives birth to a single baby sloth.

(A-Z Animals.com, 2016)

Sloth

Picture by National Geographic

Image by National Geographic

Sloth Report 5

Sloths are tree dwelling mammals that pass their time sleeping and eating. The sloth happily eats both plants and insects, and oc-casionally small reptiles and birds.The sloth is indigenous to the jungles of central and south America, with the general opinion being that the sloth cannot survive out-side of this specific habitat.

The average sloth tends to be around 50 - 60cm long with a short tail of around 7cm in length. The body temperature of the sloth is usually around 30 to 34 degrees celsius (86 to 93 de-grees fahrenheit). There are two main species of sloth, the two-toed sloth and the three-toed sloth.

It is thought that until recent times, larger ground sloths inhabited the jungle floor of both North and South America. As with many animal species around the world, the ground sloth is thought to have become ex-tinct around the same time that human settlers went to these parts of the world.

Although sloths have an omnivorous diet and eat both plants and animals, the majority of the sloth’s diet is made of leaves. Leaves con-

tain very little energy and nutrition so the sloth has adapted to have a large and complex digestive system in order for the leaves to pass through the sloth effectively.

Sloths have long, sharp claws which they use to get good grip when they are climb-ing trees or hanging from

branches. The sloth is a slow moving animal, and their long claws are the only form of defence that the sloth has. Sloths attack predators or threats by swiping at them with their claws out. Sloths are prey upon by jaguars, large birds of prey, snakes and humans.

Sloths are thought to be dis-tantly related to animals like anteaters and armadillos. All three belong to a groups of mammals that are thought to have first evolved around 60 million years ago.

Sloths are solitary animals and only come together to mate. Sloths are known to have a load call, which is thought to increase in fre-quency during the mating season. After a gestation period of between 4 and 5 months, the female sloth gives birth to a single baby sloth.

(A-Z Animals.com, 2016)

Sloth

Image by LiveScience

Picture by Mental Floss

Sloths are COOL!

6 Sloth Report

1. National Geographic- http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/two-toed-sloth/,C 2016 2. A-Z Animals-http://a-z-animals.com/animals/sloth/,C 2016Pictures: 3. SlothLocation: National Geographic http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ani-mals/sloth/#sloth-beach-upside-down.jpg, C 2016 4. UpsidedownSlothPic: National Geo-graphic-http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/sloth/#sloth-beach-upside-down.jpg, C 2016 5. TitleSloth: National Geograph-ic- http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/sloths-conservation-ani-mals-endangered-costa-rica/, C 2016 6. SlothInCup: Readers Digest- http://www.rd.com/culture/cute-sloth-pictures/, C 2016 7. HangingBabySloth: Mental_Floss- http://www.rd.com/culture/cute-sloth-pic-tures/, C 2016 8. SlothEatingCarrot: Daily Mail- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti-cle-1326604/, C 2016

Sloth

Photo by Daily Mail

Photo by National Geographic

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