SLOTH

Sloths are a group of arboreal Neotropical

xenarthran mammals, constituting the
suborder Folivora. Noted for their slowness of
movement, they spend most of their lives
hanging upside down in the trees of the tropical rainforests of South America and Central
America. They are considered to be most closely related to anteaters, together making up
the xenarthran order Pilosa.

There are six extant sloth species in two genera – Bradypus (three–toed sloths)
and Choloepus (two–toed sloths). Despite this traditional naming, all sloths actually have
three toes on each rear limb, although two-toed sloths have only two digits on each
forelimb. The two groups of sloths are from different, distantly related families, and are
thought to have evolved their morphology via parallel evolution from terrestrial
ancestors. Besides the extant species, many species of ground sloths ranging up to the
size of elephants (like Megatherium) inhabited both North and South America during the
Pleistocene Epoch. However, they became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event
around 12,000 years ago, together with largest bodied animals in the New World. The
extinction correlates in time with the arrival of humans, but climate change has also been
suggested to have contributed. Members of an endemic radiation of Caribbean sloths
formerly lived in the Greater Antilles. They included both ground and arboreal forms
which became extinct after humans settled the archipelago in the mid-Holocene, around
6,000 years ago.

Sloths are so named because of their very low metabolism and deliberate
movements. Sloth, related to slow, literally means "laziness," and their common names in
several other languages (e.g. French paresseux) also mean "lazy" or similar. Their
slowness permits their low-energy diet of leaves and avoids detection by predatory hawks
and cats that hunt by sight. Sloths are almost helpless on the ground, but are able to
swim. The shaggy coat has grooved hair that is host to symbiotic green algae which
camouflage the animal in the trees and provide it nutrients. The algae also nourish sloth
moths, some species of which exist solely on sloths.
Morphology and anatomy

Sloths can be 60 to 80 cm (24 to 31 in) long and, depending on the species, weigh
from 3.6 to 7.7 kg (7.9 to 17.0 lb). Two-toed sloths are slightly larger. Sloths have long
limbs and rounded heads with tiny ears. Three-toed sloths also have stubby tails about 5
to 6 cm (2.0 to 2.4 in) long.

Sloths are unusual among mammals in not having seven cervical vertebrae. Two-
toed sloths have five to seven, while three-toed sloths have eight or nine. The other
mammals not having seven are the manatees, with six.

Physiology

Sloths have colour vision, but have poor visual acuity. They also have poor
hearing. Thus, they rely on their sense of smell and touch to find food.

Sloths have very low metabolic rates (less than half of that expected for a
mammal of their size), and low body temperatures: 30 to 34 °C (86 to 93 °F) when active,
and still lower when resting. Sloths are heterothermic, meaning their body temperature
may vary according to the environment, normally ranging from 25 to 35 °C (77 to 95 °F),
but able to drop to as low as 20 °C (68 °F), inducing torpor.

The outer hairs of sloth fur grow in a direction opposite from that of other
mammals. In most mammals, hairs grow toward the extremities, but because sloths spend
so much time with their limbs above their bodies, their hairs grow away from the
extremities to provide protection from the elements while they hang upside down. In
most conditions, the fur hosts symbiotic algae, which provide camouflage from predatory
jaguars, ocelots, and harpy eagles. Because of the algae, sloth fur is a small ecosystem of
its own, hosting many species of commensal and parasitic arthropods. There are a large
number of arthropods associated with sloths. These include biting and blood-sucking flies
such as mosquitoes and sandflies, triatomine bugs, lice, ticks and mites. Sloths have a
highly specific community of commensal beetles, mites and moths. The species of sloths
recorded to host arthropods include the pale-throated three-toed sloth, the brown-throated
three-toed sloth, and Linnaeus's two-toed sloth. Sloths benefit from their relationship with
moths because the moths are responsible for fertilizing algae on the sloth, which provides
them with nutrients.

Activity

Their limbs are adapted for hanging and grasping, not for supporting their weight.
Muscles make up only 25 to 30 percent of their total body weight. Most other mammals
have a muscle mass that makes up 40 to 45 percent of their total body weight. Their
specialised hands and feet have long, curved claws to allow them to hang upside down
from branches without effort, and are used to drag themselves along the ground, since
they cannot walk. On three-toed sloths, the arms are 50 percent longer than the legs.

Sloths move only when necessary and even then very slowly. They usually move
at an average speed of 4 metres (13 ft) per minute, but can move at a marginally higher
speed of 4.5 metres (15 ft) per minute if they are in immediate danger from a predator.
While they sometimes sit on top of branches, they usually eat, sleep, and even give birth
hanging from branches. They sometimes remain hanging from branches even after death.
On the ground, the maximum speed of sloths is 3 metres (9.8 ft) per minute. Two-toed
sloths are generally better able than three-toed sloths to disperse between clumps of trees
on the ground.

Sloths are surprisingly strong swimmers and can reach speeds of 13.5 meters (44
ft) per minute. They use their long arms to paddle through the water and can cross rivers
and swim between islands. Sloths can reduce their already slow metabolism even further
and slow their heart rate to less than a third of normal, allowing them to hold their breath
underwater for up to 40 minutes.

Wild brown-throated three-toed sloths sleep on average 9.6 hours a day.[37] Two-
toed sloths are nocturnal.[38] Three-toed sloths are mostly nocturnal, but can be active in
the day. They spend 90 per cent of their time motionless.
Behavior

Sloths are solitary animals that rarely interact with one another except during
breeding season, though female sloths do sometimes congregate, more so than do males.

Diet

Hoffman's two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) feeding in Manuel Antonio

National Park in Costa Rica. Baby sloths learn what to eat by licking the lips of their
mother. All sloths eat the leaves of the cecropia.

Two-toed sloths are omnivorous, with a diverse diet of insects, carrion, fruits,
leaves and small lizards, ranging over up to 140 hectares (350 acres). Three-toed sloths,
on the other hand, are almost entirely herbivorous (plant eaters), with a limited diet of
leaves from only a few trees, and no other mammal digests its food as slowly.

They have made adaptations to arboreal browsing. Leaves, their main food
source, provide very little energy or nutrients, and do not digest easily, so sloths have
large, slow-acting, multi-chambered stomachs in which symbiotic bacteria break down
the tough leaves. As much as two-thirds of a well-fed sloth's body weight consists of the
contents of its stomach, and the digestive process can take a month or more to complete.

Three-toed sloths go to the ground to urinate and defecate about once a week,
digging a hole and covering it afterwards. They go to the same spot each time and are
vulnerable to predation while doing so. Considering the large energy expenditure and
dangers involved in the journey to the ground, this behaviour has been described as a
mystery. Recent research shows that moths, which live in the sloth's fur, lay eggs in the
sloth's feces. When they hatch, the larvae feed on the feces, and when mature fly up onto
the sloth above. These moths may have a symbiotic relationship with sloths, as they live
in the fur and promote growth of algae, which the sloths eat. Individual sloths tend to
spend the bulk of their time feeding on a single "modal" tree; by burying their excreta
near the trunk of that tree, they may also help nourish it.
Reproduction

The pale- and brown-throated three-toed sloths mate seasonally, while the maned
three-toed sloth breeds at any time of the year. The reproduction of pygmy three-toed
sloths is unknown. Litters are of one newborn only, after six months' gestation for three-
toed, and 12 months' for two-toed. Newborns stay with their mother for about five
months. In some cases, young sloths die from a fall indirectly because the mothers prove
unwilling to leave the safety of the trees to retrieve the young. Females normally bear
one baby every year, but sometimes sloths' low level of movement actually keeps females
from finding males for longer than one year. Sloths are not particularly sexually
dimorphic and several zoos have received sloths of the wrong sex

The average lifespan of two-toed sloths in the wild is currently unknown due to a
lack of full-lifespan studies in a natural environment. Median life expectancy in human
care is about 16 years, with one individual at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo
reaching an age of 49 years before her death.

Distribution

Depiction of a pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus) (Thomas Landseer,

1825). Although habitat is limited to the tropical rainforests of Central and South
America, in that environment sloths are successful. On Barro Colorado Island in Panama,
sloths have been estimated to comprise 70% of the biomass of arboreal mammals. Four
of the six living species are presently rated "least concern"; the maned three-toed sloth
(Bradypus torquatus), which inhabits Brazil's dwindling Atlantic Forest, is classified as
"vulnerable", while the island-dwelling pygmy three-toed sloth (B. pygmaeus) is
critically endangered. Sloths' lower metabolism confines them to the tropics and they
adopt thermoregulation behaviors of cold-blooded animals such as sunning themselves.

Human relations

The majority of recorded sloth deaths in Costa Rica are due to contact with
electrical lines and poachers. Their claws also provide another, unexpected deterrent to
human hunters; when hanging upside-down in a tree, they are held in place by the claws
themselves and often do not fall down even if shot from below.

Sloths are victims of animal trafficking where they are sold as pets. However,
they make very poor pets, as they have such a specialized ecology.

The founder and director of the Green Heritage Fund Suriname, Monique Pool,
has helped rescue and release more than 600 sloths, anteaters, armadillos, and porcupines.

The Sloth Institute Costa Rica is known for caring, rehabilitating and releasing
sloths back into the wild. Also in Costa Rica, the Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary cares for
sloths. It has rehabilitated and released about 130 individuals back into the wild.
However, a report in May 2016 featured two former veterinarians from the facility who
were intensely critical of the sanctuary's efforts, accusing it of mistreating the animals.