Sloths : Slowest animals on the planet, everything you need to know about them

Sloth, arguably one of the most chilled creatures on the planet earth. Let's just say that they are really serious about their motto "Take it nice and slow" thorough out their entire life. Besides this "take it easy" lifestyle, a question arises which is that are they really like what they appear to be or they are much more complex than we think they are?. So "let's just take it easy" and learn about all the information which has been discovered and is available to this date about this interesting animal.

Folivora (Sloth)

General Info

Sloths are medium sized mammals which are generally found in dense tropical forests of central America and South American countries like Brazil and Peru. They have a lifespan of around 16 to 20 years and live most of their life in wandering and hanging on the branches of tress. Although the most approximate population is still unknown to this date, it is estimated that the population of sloths around the world is in between 500 to 3200. They are generally known for their slow movements and navigation techniques in the animal kingdom. They are total of 6 species of sloths and distributed under 2 categories: Two toed sloths and Three toed sloths.

The Two toed sloths category consists 2 species of sloth which are Hoffmann's two-toed sloths and Linnaeus's two-toed sloths. The Three toed sloths category consists of 4 species of sloths which are Brown throated sloths, Pale throated sloths, Maned sloths and Pygmy three sloths.

Sloths:

1) Two-toed Sloths: 

• Hoffmann's two-toed sloths.
•  Linnaeus's two-toed sloths.

2) Three-toed Sloths:

• Brown throated sloths.
• Pale throated sloths.
• Maned sloths. (Endangered)
• Pygmy three-toed sloths. (Endangered)

Among these species, two of them are endangered which are the Pygmy three-toed sloths and the Maned sloths.

Note: By saying "two-toed or three-toed", i am referring to the toe count on two limbs in the front. The  remaining two limbs at the back of every specie of sloth is always three.  

It is said that sloths came into existence about 60 to 64 million years ago. Other species of sloths such as ground sloths came into existence later of about 35 million years ago. The structure of sloths present nowadays are adapted to move mostly on the trees.The two species most similar to today's species of sloth came into existence about 28 million years ago. Not exactly as the only discoverer, but a well known person was involved in the discovery of extinct sloth species, which is Mr. Thomas Jefferson.

Physical Characteristics

Sloths are medium sized mammals with long limbs and hairy body covered with algae. Not only algae but other micro-organisms and macro-organisms also live inside such as mites, mosquitoes, moths and sand flies. They help the sloths to grow more algae on the body and get nutrition in return. The color of their fur due to the presence of algae helps to hide themselves in the jungle. The have poor vision (colored) and hearing, therefore they mostly rely on their sense of smell and touch to analyze their surroundings. 

Weight of sloths can be in between 3.5 Kg to 7.7 Kg (~ 7.7 pounds to 17 pounds ) and can gain a length in between 0.6 to 0.8 meters (~ 2 ft to 2.6 ft) depending upon the different species of sloths. Among the two categories of sloths, the two-toed sloths are slightly bigger than the three-toed sloths. They are not agile at all therefore they can not jump of leap. They can achieve a maximum speed up to 3 meters per minute on ground and around 13 to 13.5 meter per minute in water. Also, they can hold their breathe under water for up to 40 minutes. Also, the front two limbs of sloth are longer then their back limbs which help them to drag their body on the ground since they can not walk.

Behavior and lifestyle

Sloths live the majority of their life on the branches and are remain motionless for almost the entire day on daily bases. They have very slow metabolism therefore they sleep in between 9.5 hours to 18 hours per day. They are shy animals and are usually nocturnal in nature, that means they are more likely to be active during the night the sleep in the daytime. They are mostly vulnerable to the predators when they are on the ground. They only come to the ground to urinate or excrete, other than that they are mostly on the high level unless they accidentally fall from up there. Speaking of accidents, a sloth also don't take baths or clean it's body unless it gets accidentally dropped from the tree straight to the water.

Sloths are omnivore mammals. Their diet consists of small insects, lizards, fruits, tender shoots, leaves etc. The most common is the cecropia leaves which all the sloths eat. Since their metabolism is slow,  they take the help of symbiotic organisms to digest the food (generally leaves) properly. They usually stick to the same tree for a long time as their territories and wander and excrete near their main tree only as they are not much of explorers or migrators.

Reproduction

The brown throated sloths and pale throated sloths wait for s specific season for mating, the reproduction of the pygmy three-toed sloths is still unknown and the rest of the 3 species of sloth do not have a specific season to mate (any time in a year).

In case of two-toed sloths, the females reach sexual maturity at the age of 3 years and the male reaches it in about 4 to 5 years. As for the pale throated sloths, the females reaches sexual maturity in 4 to 5 years while the male reaches it in 3 years (opposite of other sloths except the pygmy three-toed sloths who's reproduction information is still unknown).

Most of the time the female sloth give birth to only one offspring but can mate with another male give birth if the their movement profile is low (they live at he same place for over a year). The female sloths signals the male sloths in the area by screaming and making noises to let the males know that the female is ready for mating. The gestation period of three-toed sloths is 6 months while the gestation period for two-toed sloths is 12 months. They give birth to their babies on trees where the babies stay with their mother for about 6 months.

Facts and summary

• Sloths are medium sized omnivore mammals.

• Their are 6 species of sloths in total.

• They are known for their slow speed and pace.

• Sloths never intentionally take baths.

• They remain motionless for almost 90% in their day.

• They sleep for 9.5 to 18 hours a day.

• They are pretty good swimmers and can swimming is faster as compared to their movement on trees or walking (dragging) on the ground.

• There grip is quite good due to their claws. Sometimes they keep hanging in the trees even after death.

• They can slow their metabolism (which is already slow by default) to allow them to hold their breathe underwater for about 40 minutes.

• Babies of sloths are referred as "cubs".

• The cubs of sloths learn about which food to eat by licking the food from their mother's lips.

• One sloth was recorded to live for almost 49 years before dying.

• They have poor vision and hearing.

• Three-toed sloths can rotate their heads to 270 degrees, giving them 360 degree vision.

• They drag their body on the ground instead of walking.

• Despite of their shy nature, they can harm human with their claws if disturbed, especially the two-toed sloths. They are slightly more aggressive than the three-toed sloths.

• Sloths are not as dumb as they look.

• Their body can take up to 4 weeks to digest the food completely.

• They only poop once a week.

• Their poop is massive in size if compared to their body size. They lose one-third of their weight after taking a dump.

🐻🐼🐲🐱🐰🐹🐺🐮🐭🐷🐪🐫🐖🐗🐎🐍🐌🐆🐇🐅🐄🐃🐂🐀🐁🐕🐔🐓🐩🐞🐝🐜🐛🐥🐓🐒🐑